Feeding to keep laminitis at bay!

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Gwen

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Hi there,
I am just going into my first horse owner winter. I have a 14hh 17 year old Welsh Sec D mare who has cushings and has had equine metabolic syndrome and severe laminitis in the past. She is currently not on any medication and as long as you keep her on the low side of the healthy weight scale she does really well. She is living out all year and I am feeding her haylage and the TopSpec Anti-Lam balancer. She is in light to no work at present due to the horrific weather we have been having.
I want to start weighing her haylage to make sure I know exactly what she is getting but I am unsure how much to be giving her a day? She gets 400g of balancer with 200g Hi-Fi light split over 2 feeds. As I said, I like to keep her on the low side of healthy weight but since I have started feeding her this autumn her weight has been creeping on, although still not over weight - I just don't want her to get any bigger.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
I would give her soaked hay rather than haylage. That way you don;t have to worry so much about how much. Soak it for a minimum of 6 hours.
Change the chaff to Honey Chop oat straw.It has no sugar at all, only oat straw, again she can have as much as you like to give her. Mine has D & H high fibre cubes and a bit of molasses free speedibeet. This keeps him at a good weight, but also keeps him feeling full.
 
I feed a high fibre haylage safely to a laminitic, you can also feed timothy haylage. The sugar content is about 5%, so should be fine. You should be feeding around 1.5 - 2% of bodyweight in total.

Feed wise, I'd stick to a low sugar/starch chaff (the balancer would be fine on its own) if you want to continue feeding it, but check the starch content if feeding just oat straw as I believe it can be quite high - any feed should have a combined starch and sugar content of ten percent or lower, as long as you follow that you should be fine. :)
 
I personally would not feed haylage, we feed ours quality hay and Dengie healthy hooves which is laminitic approved.

I would remove the chaff as it has a lot of molasses in it.
 
Swap haylage to hay and take out the topspec anti lam - awful stuff, take a look at the ingredients list! Is there any reason you need to feed a bucket feed?
 
Soaked hay for at least 12 hours If using cold water. Weightape & use 2% of ideal body weight for total intake daily. Your mare lives out - grass hasn't much nutrition this time of year but you must include what she is grazing in the 2%. E.g ideal weight is 350kg. 2% of 350 is 7. 7kg is the total daily intake of all feed (grazing, hay, balancer etc). I recommend Simple Systems Metaslim is very good for those with metabolic issues & or on a restricted diet.
 
Agree with the 2% rule. Personally, I wouldn't feed hayledge to a laminitis prone pony. As it has a higher moisture content, you need to feed more in order to meet the fibre requirements.

Chaff wise, beware of the commercial ones aimed at laminitis prone. Most, even hi-fi lite, Happy a Hoof and Healthy a Hooves have molasses in them. (Although at only 200g a day, I don't think you need to worry too much about that).

Our pony with Cushings gets Vitex 4 Equids supplement, Global Herbs Laminitis Prone, half a scoop of Greengold chaff (just to carry his supplements) and Simple System Total Eclipse standard mineral supplement. He gets hay at 2% of his bodyweight in the summer when he lives on a bareish paddock but this is harder to judge in winter when he lives out with the big horses.

Remember, you need to count the grass your pony is getting in the 2%. Does she live out alone or with others? If she's getting more than her 'share' of hayledge, this could be where the extra weight is coming from.
 
Soaked hay, dengie hi-fi molasses free, Baileys Lo- cal. He is out daytime in overnight & wears a muzzle as soon as the grass starts to grow. Currently light hacking. No Cushings or EMS atm.
 
Princess Rosie said:
I personally would not feed haylage, we feed ours quality hay and Dengie healthy hooves which is laminitic approved.

I would remove the chaff as it has a lot of molasses in it.
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mmm .........I think it may be approved due to the funding from Dengie to the laminitis trust, but then I am a cynic. Always always check any feed for a way to cut sugars. Something plain like Fast Fibre is lo on sugars too.
Hay is better than haylage as suggested above. Though even soaking haylage for an hour will make a difference.
I would tape measure every week to check weight, it is difficult to judge otherwise.
 
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Try St.hippolyt equigard. It was originally designed for crushing and ems horses and certainly my two have done brilliantly since they've been on it. It's expensive per bag but you only have to feed about 200g per 100kg body weight. I was very unsure before I tried but it's brilliant stuff.
 
Gwen said:
Hi there,
I am just going into my first horse owner winter. I have a 14hh 17 year old Welsh Sec D mare who has cushings and has had equine metabolic syndrome and severe laminitis in the past. She is currently not on any medication and as long as you keep her on the low side of the healthy weight scale she does really well. She is living out all year and I am feeding her haylage and the TopSpec Anti-Lam balancer. She is in light to no work at present due to the horrific weather we have been having.
I want to start weighing her haylage to make sure I know exactly what she is getting but I am unsure how much to be giving her a day? She gets 400g of balancer with 200g Hi-Fi light split over 2 feeds. As I said, I like to keep her on the low side of healthy weight but since I have started feeding her this autumn her weight has been creeping on, although still not over weight - I just don't want her to get any bigger.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Extra advice saved from previous posters here also recommended feeds
http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/l.html

I would not feed haylage to Lami risk equine.

I would on my mare use something like fibergy and other low risk lami safe feed a good supplement including lami prone or laminator.

I lost my mare to laminits
 
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