Hay for mildly laminitic pony

Michen

Michen

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My horse was diagnosed with mild laminar inflammation and bruising of the medial palmer processes, believed to be a concussive type laminitis from overloading the front feet due to a compromised hind hoof (via MRI).

My vet told me to keep him in the same routine, stabled part of the day and turned out the rest.

He is not overweight but will now be rested as opposed to work, whilst the vets don't feel the inflammation is grass induced as such, I expect this now makes him more sensitive/prone so I have begun soaking his hay for 12 hours overnight. However I'm worried that as he doesn't actually need to loose weight, that he will be without the nutrients he actually needs?

I'm not even sure if I'm doing the right thing by soaking, I have also increased the time he spends stabled from 7 hours to 12, to keep him off the grass longer.

Is there an optimum soaking time to reduce sugars by a certain amount without making it totally lack nutritional value?
 
Michen said:
My horse was diagnosed with mild laminar inflammation and bruising of the medial palmer processes, believed to be a concussive type laminitis from overloading the front feet due to a compromised hind hoof (via MRI).

My vet told me to keep him in the same routine, stabled part of the day and turned out the rest.

He is not overweight but will now be rested as opposed to work, whilst the vets don't feel the inflammation is grass induced as such, I expect this now makes him more sensitive/prone so I have begun soaking his hay for 12 hours overnight. However I'm worried that as he doesn't actually need to loose weight, that he will be without the nutrients he actually needs?

I'm not even sure if I'm doing the right thing by soaking, I have also increased the time he spends stabled from 7 hours to 12, to keep him off the grass longer.

Is there an optimum soaking time to reduce sugars by a certain amount without making it totally lack nutritional value?
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I would always soak hay 24 hrs then rinse it when they are going through a flare up. I would find an area you can restrict to a small enclosure so you limit the grass even more, and while he is going through this keep him on the same area. Also put extra bedding in to make it more comfortable and more support, don't turn him out too early or the sugars will be at the top, ie don't turn him out before 8am.

Personally having lost one to this, I would reduce his turnout till this flare up passes even if the vet does say turn him out all day. Vets are not always right, sometimes you need to use your gut instincts and talk to others who are in this or been in this situation.
 
You can get highfibre haylage where you know the sugar levels which might be worth looking at. But soaked hay is fine, just feed a decent powedered balancer.
 
Leo Walker said:
You can get highfibre haylage where you know the sugar levels which might be worth looking at. But soaked hay is fine, just feed a decent powedered balancer.
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A balancer or supplement will replace the lost nutrients, I would continue to soak overnight if that fits in with your routine reduce the time if you can but as long as he is getting grass and some supplementary feed he should be fine, I would never soak longer than overnight in summer as the hay will be heating up during the daytime and that must be a risk in itself however well it is rinsed, I think after a certain period it cannot lose any more nutrients anyway, from memory it is 10-12 hours for maximum loss.
 
I saw a figure from some research which revealed that most sugars are soaked out in the first 20 minutes. The important thing is to rinse well. And bear in mind most equines can hoover up as much grass in an hour if they have been deprived as many would eat in a day, especially the short sweet newly emerged stuff
 
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