food for laminitus

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wench

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basic story horse been off for a month, and is now starting back in work (tendon strain so taking it slowly).

Now he is a lazy horse at heart, and he is not best pleased about being saddled up again (back etc all ok), and going out for a walk. Have been giving him a little bit of feed when we get back, to give him a treat, but he is rather portly atm, and so with not much exercise, dont want him to get lami.

He is getting a little bit of barley, and little bit of suger beat, but i was wondering if any one could recommend some food for lami sufferes that i could give him instead.

I have seen the top spec comes in tubs, which would be handy as I dont really want to have to buy a huge sack, as he wouldnt be getting that much, or i wondered about some chaff type stuff?
 
Go to your local supplier, High fibre cubes are good, happy hoof, safe and sound, look for feed with the laminitis organisation approval stamp, I would take him off the barley, that really doesn't help lammies!! What is his weight like is he a good doer? Are you only wanting to feed him for energy?
 
I've used Hi-fi for years for my 30 year old retired mare - she's a NF cross so does tend to be a good doer despite her age!! I also use Allen and Page Slim and Healthy mix. She looks well and very shiny without getting over fat on this particular mix of feed. She is out in the field for most the day and then gets plenty of hay at night.

Both Dengie and Allen & Page both do specific feeds for laminitis. I'd recommend having a look at their websites and/or give them a ring and see what is most appropriate.

Hope that this helps.
 
If you are worried about laminitis then the main thing to avoid is soluble carbohydrates - ie starches and sugars. Main source of starches is grains such as barley, oats, maize and wheat (and cubes/mixes made from said ingredients). Sugars occur as the fructans in grass, the molasses in molassed sugarbeet and some other commercial feeds, and even apples and carrots if fed in high amounts. Even hay can be high in sugars if it is made from early cut rye grass.

The best diet for a potential laminitic is high in fibre. If you can get late cut hay with low rye content that is great - if not then you can soak the hay to remove a lot of the soluble carbohydrate.

If you need to feed a bucket feed for some reason then there are various options - Speedibeet (unmolassed sugarbeet), Spillers Happy Hoof, Dengie HiFi Lite, Spillers High Fibre cubes etc. (I think those are approved by the Laminitis Trust). Of those, the High Fibre Cubes and the Happy Hoof are supplemented - so if you feed the recommended amount you don't need to feed a vit/min supplement.

If you feed less than the recommended daily amount or use one of the unsupplemented feeds then you might want to feed a vit/min supplement or a balancer alongside. Best to check with the balancer manufacturer whether they are suitable for potential laminitics.

Hope that helps!
 
I feed my native happy hoof and she loves it, designed for laminitics so I would definitely say it should be better for you in this case rather than the barley and sugar beet which will be fattening
 
I use Happy Hoof, and cannot recommend it enough. I was using Hi Fi Lite but ponio soon got bored of it. Hapy Hoof has garlic and mint in it and ponio loves it.
 
I would take him off the barley and anything too sugary (like usual sugar beet). Anything low calorie or with the Hoof Kind label on it should be fine.

If you want a balancer, you could just feed Baileys Lo-Cal. You'd need to buy a sack but then you dont have much choice with how much you feed as you should feed what is recommended. But then that's everything in it so you wouldnt need to get any other vit / min supplements etc.

Otherwise, I just feed my 2 who have had lami in the past: chaff such as Hi-Fi Lite / Happy Hoof (I have to swop nown and again or they seem to get bored after a while!) along with some High Fibre Cubes and Speedi Beet. They also get a vit & min supplement.

If it really is just for a treat, you could get a bag of Badminton High Fibre Nuggets. They're quite big "cob" type thing rather than cubes. I feed mine as treats by hand (much cheaper than the little bags you get specifically!) but you could chuck a few in a bucket too (obviously, as they are meant as proper feed too).
 
I would continue with the hard feed personally
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Happy hoof is a complete feed for laminitics so there is no need to add cubes etc, and like mentioned before it has mint and garlic in too which the horses seem to love
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I recommend this completely
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I echo TGM. Would just like to add that up until a couple of hundred years ago, laminitis was known only as Barley Desease !
 
hes not getting a full feed... literally just two mouthfuls after he has come back from his walk...

And I am only doing it, as he has been off work for so long, he decided that being in the field is better than any work.

We have had this situtation before with him (over winter), He becomes a nightmare to catch, and the only way to get him is two people go into the field, one with bucket, and other to put rope on his headcollar. However, when he knows he is going to get fed (ie after work), he runs accross the field to you!
 
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