Feeding fresh hedgerow plants

[Rhee]

Need help & advice which I'm sure will be useful for many.

Laminitis sufferers must come off grass or be restricted- this is a readily accepted fact of life due to the frutan levels.

However, having scoured the internet over the last few days, there are many herbs which are considered beneficial and can be purchased dried from suppliers, but, what about being fed fresh from the hedgerows?

I have an abundant supply of nettles, clivers, dandelion, willow etc all of which are deemed good for the hind gut , detoxifying, liver support etc etc.

But what about the frutan level, are they considered safe in these growing plants?

I would be delighted if anyone can answer or refer to a relevant source of information.

Thank-you in anticipation

.....Couldn't decide between feed or vet section but as this query relates to active laminitis rather than preventative, I opted for vet!

 

[be positive]

I often feed nettles, clivers, dandelions, hawthorn to mine, my laminitic will eat loads of pulled nettles, as far as I know they are safe and can be fed fairly freely and do a good job as a detox, if they eat nettles it is usually because they know they need them, most horses will not eat them.
I think if you get them off grass giving some fresh green food can only be beneficial and do more good than harm.

 

[Rhee]

Thanks for the reply.
Realised that I mean FRUCTANS

Rhee isn't choosing to eat hay, so am looking for confirmation that it is OK to give wheelbarrow sized portions of a mix of all this greenstuff in addition to speedibeet.
I have tried Dengie Healthy Hooves no molasses and she wont touch more than a couple of mouthfuls

As far as nettles, she prefers them fresh out of the ground rather than wilted- no idea how she does it, I have to pull them with rubber gloves on, and the tough tall ones rather than the short new growth. Hence the concern over sugar content etc.

So, as far as self medicating goes, it seems like she knows she needs the fibrous stems.

She is also devouring gorse, and watching her eat that is an artform in itself!!! Not just nibbles, whole mouth sized pompoms at a time.

Thanks to everyone taking the time to read, any comments are more than welcome.

 

[Justturnedfifty]

Hi there, I too have a pony suffering with laminitis. Was very lame although standing comfortably. Vet advised bute x 2 weeks, and to change bedding from straw to sand ideally or shavings; he compromised when I suggested hemp. Farrier came out prior to vet visit and fitted 'instep' plastic front shoe (horribly expensive) advised he may appear more sore but totally the opposite, seemed visibly more comfortable within hours. I have to say we are now approaching week 2 of vets/farriers visit and he is 99% sound at walk.

Have been hand picking nettles and leaving them to dry out. By day 3 he was walking out to a mown garden verge and eating Beech hedging, trimming the willow tree, trimming the Hawthorne bushes and eating cow parsley x twice daily for about 15 minutes per visit.

I have also started using Freestep Superfix (www.freestepsuperfix.co.uk) for the last 5 days (dropped Bute after 7 days) and so far, so very good. Pony walking out in hand round ménage, bucking and rearing, obviously telling me he is feeling so much better.

I feel very cruel restricting him to two slices of soaked hay divided over 4 hay nets, a handful of Dengie Happy Tummy with a little bran to bulk out and add supplements (magnesium and Freestep) to morning & night sprinkled with mint. He has a treat ball with a small cup of Top Spec Antilam cubes late evening. We also cut a swede in half so he has something to chew on if bored. He is visiby licking at his salt lick and supplement lick at the moment.

He has lost weight, is not impressed with soaked hay but does finish up eventually and now eats his feed with gusto, probably because he is really, really hungry. I think you need to persevere with your pony because if they get really hungry they will eventually eat. The mint seemed to do it for our pony. I am a week a head of where I thought we would be in to his rehabilitation, and I am planning on taking him to vets this week for X-ray to see if any damage to pedal bone, and if all being well, increase hand walking to long reining in straight lines and possibly ménage turnout.

Hugely worrying, but I feel 100% more confident than I did two weeks ago. Good luck, I totally sympathise!

 

[Rose Folly]

I fed my laminitic (only one occasion she had it) on very little soaked hay, but with copious amounts of young cow parsley (it was spring) which the vet OKd. When she and a companion are shut in the yard for 5-6 hours a day for the good of their figures I feed them a little cow parsley, willow twigs (and they eat the bark off willow logs drying out in our log shed), cress and peppermint cress from the bed of our stream, and wilted nettles.

Be VERY careful about nettles. They are very rich in iodine, and can make a horse very poorly if they overdose. A Welsh pony we had here was offered some 'mowing' activity by our neighbours who wanted a paddock eaten down. Thinking they were being helpful, they strimmed some big nettle patches in advance of her arrival. She stuffed herself on them, and was a very poorly pony for a bit as a result

Horses will also happily eat most leaves of the species ribes (.e. currant). So far as I am aware none of the plants mentioned above invite laminitis, if taken in reasonable quantities. And they provide a more natural diet than slabs of hay.

 

[Aarrghimpossiblepony]

Just looked up Clivers/Cleavers, it's "goose grass".

Just thought I'd post that, as have never heard it called anything else than goose grass and it's been mentioned in a few threads.