Good doer on box rest - any tips?

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cheekywelshie

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My boy is going to be out of action for the next few months - well we're looking at next spring by the time he'll be fully fit after box rest, small paddock turn out etc.

I'm just wondering how those with good doers (mine's a Welsh D) manage on box rest - do you soak hay for example, do you spread your nets out over the course of the day? At the moment i'm looking at 3 nets a day 1 am, 1 lunch 1 tea time - plus 2 tiny feeds of balancer/chaff - and being grazed in hand for 10 minutes (if he has the op he will probably not be allowed out for awhile at all even to be grazed)


I just don't want him to balloon into a fattie - or alternately get ulcers or colic !
 
Ad lib soaked hay, a balancer to make up for the fact there is no nutritional value after soaking the hay (or very little). Take things like nettles which have wilted, some hawthorn and stuff like that from time to time to vary his diet and give him things he would find for himself in the field.

Wishing him all the best for a good full recovery.
 
I went through that last year with my Irish hunter. I calculated the amount of total feed and gave him 80% hay - weighed dry, but then soaked it and fed him about like you are proposing, with the largest net for the pm feed. I fed him 20% dry feed, just low energy chaff into which I mixed a vitamin & mineral supplement. I would not myself use any of the feed mixes when on box rest for a good doer as they really need very little energy. This worked very well. I am a big fan of weighing out the feed, at least initially as you can get it wrong if you guess. Once you know how much hay fills your nets, then you do not need to do it again, except maybe to check ocassionally. Likewise with feeds.
 
You could substitute some of the soaked hay for oat straw which is low calorie! How about putting a few pony nuts into a snack ball and hanging up a swede to keep him entertained!
 
Mine has just come off of box rest. After initially being very into his hay he then went off of it and I just fed him ad lib with a scoop of alfa a lite. But if your boy is very into his feed I would double net and also hiding carrots in your haynet means they spend half the time searching for them. Forage weigh is supposed to be 1.5-3% of body weight I think
 
My boy suffered from stress laminitis last winter and although was in great condition he still had to go on a strict diet which was difficult as he wasnt allowed alot of calories but he gets very bored in his stable so a few things we found that helped (and werent full of calories for him!) were:

Double your haynets up so one small holed haynet inside another so makes it extra tricky to get any hay out.

Too keep him occupied add sliced apple and carrots in the haynet so he can try pick them out.

Drill a hole in a turnip and tie a bit of baling twine through it and tie it up somewhere it can dangle (try not to let it be near a wall where he can just pin it against and bite!). my boy used to have hours of fun with this one!

We gave him a jolly ball with some carrots in for him to play with. (found tescos diced carrots fitted in perfectly!

Thats all I can remember at the moment although dont think its quite what you asked in your thread it might make his box rest a little more enjoyable, hope he makes a speedy recovery :)
 
My boy is on box rest and I know exactly where you are coming from.

He's on hay (which I am considering soaking if his weight starts ballooning (I am weigh taping him weekly))

Snack ball with various sized items in although I need to supervise this because he has a knee injury and would happily stand on the ball.

my new thing:

smear a bit of 'tasty bit' on his jolly ball which hangs from his wall - this is keeping him entertained for half an hour and will be next to no calories!

Best of luck - it's not easy!
 
He LOVES his feed! I'm doing the double haynets and that seems to be working. But I LOVE the carrots in the net idea so will give that a go!

(he has to stay on box rest whether or not he has the op - still deciding - (splint bone fracture)
 
double hay net to reduce the size of the holes or hang the hay net from the centre of the ceiling so that it kind of bobs around making it difficult to eat loads all at once because it moves as he pushes, at a safe length of course
 
how many hay nets do you give a day? At the moment i am doing 3 - one big one at night (which i am thinking of splitting into 2 small ones - of about 5kg in total) and then 1 in the morning around 2-3kg and then 2 small ones at lunch which are about 2-3kg. He has 2 small feeds a day of balancer and quarter scoop happy hoof. i hand graze him for ten mins morning and eve. He weighs about 535 on the tape (though these are never entirely accurate!) I am worried about him putting weight on but don't want him to get colic again :(
 
Double net your haynets, it makes the holes tiny so the horse will take his time nibbling away at it (like he would eating grass), so he is eating 24/7 instead of gobbling down his 3 haynets a day in a few hours :) works really well with my horse, as I was finding I would go and check on her an hour later and she had gobbled 2 whole haynets and then had nothing left for the rest on the night.
 
I've just discovered 'dengie lite licks' - fantastic!

My boy demolishes a likit from the ceiling in under half an hour. He had the lite lick in for nearly and hour and despite his best efforts has hardly made a dent in it.
 
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