Grass-free diet

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devon1

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Hello all,

I'm looking for some advice. My pony has had chronic laminitis on and off for the last couple of years. The vet has now recommended keeping her on as little grass as possible. She was previously out 24/7, and as she is still a bit lame I can't exercise her much yet. So at the moment she's been in at night, with hay, and then out on a small field in the day.

She's losing weight now, but I was wondering whether anyone has any advice on how best to keep her off grass as much as possible, without her getting bored and unhappy etc.

Thanks!
 
My lami prone has a small area fenced off with electric fencing, hardly any grass & a haynet twice a day. He loves it :)

Ideally i would fence a small area off (the size of 2 stables to begin with) that has been well grazed - ideally a gateway as they tend to be mostly dirt and hardly any grass and pop her in there with a hay & straw net.
She can live out 24/7 like this.

I'm afraid you have to be cruel to be kind with Lami - no grass/sugary treats/apples/carrots etc
You may feel bad at first for not letting her have a lot of grass but it's in her best interests.
 
Agree with brucea. Also have a look into a 'Paddock Paradise' grazing system. Just Google it & loads should come up. It depends if u are on livery or ur own land? If livery, how flexible is your YO with how u manage your paddocks?
At the very least, i would tape off a track around the field (or at least part of it) as oppose to just giving him a square. The track encourages movement, which will burn off calories :)
 
An area with no grass is preferable as even bare paddocks do have growing grass. If she is lame I would feed 12 hour soaked, rinsed hay and give this emergency diet http://www.ecirhorse.com/images/stories/Emergency_Diet.pdf
This is to help stabilize her lameness and you will need to look to longer term supplementation of minerals. Do give salt, magnesium and vitamin E.
Some sort of track is ideal as it increases exercize as well.
 
I'm sorry, but I honestly can't believe that you have a pony with laminitis who is not sound who you are allowing out on grazing of any kind at all during the day. Please, please get her off it, or you're likely to end up having to put her down. Just keep her in a stable if you have to, you need to understand that grass to her is poison.
 
My section D mare is not a chronic laminitic but reacts to even poor grass by coming down with a rapid onset acute attack which was at its worst happening anything up to five times a year). She actually now lives out 24/7 on a bark chipping paddock coming in overnight only during the depths of winter or during really horrid weather. She is (and has been now for over 2 years on this management method) fit, well, sound and competing at all sorts of things as well as being a very good driving horse. I am very, very fortunate that I have found a livery yard where this sort of management is possible and my mares paddock is a very decent size so by spreading her (12hour soaked) hay out across the field she can behave in a more normal grazing type manner. Her diet consists of half a bale a day of the minimum 12 hour soaked hay and the appropriate level of top spec lite. She looks amazing on this and is out winning showing championships. Whenever she has been lame in the past she has been on total box rest and only went out when she'd been 100% sound for 1 month without painkillers.
 
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