Help please feeding a laminitic

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Janah

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I have a pony just diagnosed with laminitis, slight rotation of pedal bone and awaiting blood test results for diabeties.Although she isn't gross she could lose some weight to help her now, and avoid future bouts.

I already feed Hi Fi Lite and Speedy beet with a Lo Cal Balancer. I restrict her grazing with electric fencing.

She usually has soaked hay as she is in at night but recently changed to steaming hay as haynets were freezing.

Obviously she is stabled 24/7 for the meantime.

My query is what amounts of feed should she be having to lose weight. I have looked at various web sites and found equations to work out how much to feed but being a complete dummy with figures I am non the wiser! I don't want to starve her and am aware she needs fibre, but how much?

Pony is a 12hh mare aged 14 years.
Thanks in anticipation.

Jane
 
My mare had a bout of it last year, shes fed Happy Hoof which is specifically for laminitics and has all the vitamins etc that she needs. She just has a couple of handfuls of this twice a day with a couple of carrots and nothing else. If yours is on box at the mo I would knock off the speedi beet (although its good for laminitics) and the balancer. The Laminitis Trust do a website which is helpful to guide you. My vet also endorsed what she was fed. She had small amounts of soaked hay (in small nets) fairly reguarly during the day and a larger one at night. She lost the weight fairly quickly but sensibly. I do have to be very careful as shes on box rest anyway at the moment. Shes a 16.1 Hanov/TB so not your typical case but she is a good doer. On the weigh tape I know she looks good at 496kg and we have maintained this figure during the box rest period.

Good luck with it, its an awful disease. You could give your feed merchants a ring for advice too, mine was very helpful.
 
Tbh I would feed her well soaked hay and something like Fast Fibre. It is a complete feed that needs soaking but only for a minute.
With laminitics(as I'm sure you know), its best to keep it simple, sugar/cereal free and high fibre. Even the HiFi Lite has mollasses extract and even this small amount could be too much for your pony.
Mollichaff do a mollasses free chaff if you really want chaff but the Fast Fibre and soaked hay should provide her with everything she needs.
My laminitic is on this and his weight stays very regular.
I would just stick to a token feed for your girl for now if you want her to lose weight and perhaps supply her with a mineral lick (non mollassed obvioulsy).

Good luck with her laminitis.x
 
I would speak to the laminitis trust they will be able to advise you.

Mine was fed hay soaked for 12 hours and fed in small holed haynets, this was about four or five sections to start with, split into four haynets (pony is 13.2hh and is 325kg).

She was given a handful of Happy Hoof twice a day with a vitamin and mineral supplement.

She's out on rough grazing but also limited by using a muzzle year round, I only feed soaked hay and feeds approved by the laminitis trust (their is a list on their website).

When I needed to feed other products for weight gain, I looked at high oil products with a very low starch content (less than 10%) and spoke to various nutritionists before deciding to feed a small amount of Outshine alongside Lo-cal, Fibrebeet and Happy Hoof this worked a treat.
 
we give ours a small hay net (about the size of a carrier bag) twice day, whilst she was in. she has nothing else.

she is a 12.2hh welsh she was 396kg when we dragged her off the field (she was not ours at this point) in june, she is now 292kg.



she is muzzled all the time when she is out
good luck
 
You need to weigh tape her to get a rough indication of her weight; feed 1.5% of her body weight, split hay into several feeds with obviously the largest at night.

I wouldn't feed carrots, although you would need to feed a sackfull to overload with sugar!!!!

People tend to overcomplicate feeds.

Simple Systems do sugar/starch free feeds which imo all horses and ponies should have. Speedi-beet is great for them, or as _HP_ suggests Fast Fibre.

Best of luck, but don't forget slowly does it
 
[ QUOTE ]
You need to weigh tape her to get a rough indication of her weight; feed 1.5% of her body weight, split hay into several feeds with obviously the largest at night.



[/ QUOTE ]

^^^^ This.

you could also soak the hay for several hours which removes the nutrients leaving just the fibre.

Weigh everything you give her (weigh dry hay obviously) to make sure she has a maximum of 1.5% of her bodyweight per day. You could double net the hay to make it last longer. I wouldn't even bother with a "feed" unless you've got to get meds down her, just give her hay.
 
hiya

mine is 12.1 she has had a bad bout of lami twice in two years she also has cushings and cant use pergolide as she is allergic to have to keep her on very very strict diet.first time she had it in all four feet and rotation in both fronts vet said she probly wasnt going to make it but had to try and she did but took forever!

she has 12 hour soaked hay(i rinse the crappy water off once taken out of soaking bucket aswel as prob full of sugars), she has 1 1/2 -2 secsions in morning and night .non soaked hay gave her lami the second time as taps froze so couldnt soak for 2 days!

she has a handfull of hifi-lit morning and night

she has formula 4 feet all vits and min (its made for laminitics)

magnesium this really helps her( i use equine america magnitude)

also harmonise (this is for cushings though)

also if she is having an attack or looks a bit footy or gets a slight pulse for whatever reason normally weather i give her pernamax for a week helps reduce inflammation and was the only thing that turned her around first time is for joints but helped her lots.

garlic or mint to discise taste as she is very very fussy.

also give a detox every so often with global herbs restore

since being on this diet she has come to a good weight and is doing well (touching wood)

also my girl cant have ANY grass she is on a bark paddock that i have had to make but yours might be able to once all ok, have a look at http://www.safergrass.org/ website its got a lot of info about good and bad times of the grass and sugars in it!

wish you all the best with your pony

is she on any medication now ie bute ,acp?
 
I disgree with the posts about relying on feeds approved by the Laminitis Trust... many of the feeds they recommend contain molasses - including Happy Hoof. I can't get my head round why the Lami Trust recommend feeds containing molasses... the last thing you should be giving a lami horse. Surely they should know better? But then again when you read some of their recommended treatments (they still advocate ressections and tenotomy surgeries, amongst other things that are totally unncessary) it's probably not surprising at all.

I highly recommend reading the book Founder: Prevention and Cure the Natural Way by Jaime Jackson - it's available on Amazon and by far the best book on the subject. It has lots on diet and management (including movement, which is important for healing but always within the horse's own comfort zone). It's helped thousands of horses recover from lami (founder) and prevented it recoccuring.

I agree with the OP who recommended Fast Fibre, however some horses won't eat it on it's own, so finding a molasses free chaff to mix in will make it more palatable. Or even just adding some mint can persuade horses it's tasty. Despite being called 'Lite' Hi-Fi Lite does contain molasses - the only Hi-Fi forage product that doesn't is Alfa-Oil but I wouldn't recommend feeding a lami horse alfalfa.. The Simple Systems Ruff Stuff would be a good alternative, or TopSpec TopChop Lite.

But definitely be aware - just because a feed has suitable for laminitics printed on the bag or has been given the Laminitis Trust seal of approval - doesn't necessarily make it safe.

Really sorry to hear your pony is suffering - hopefully she'll be on the road to recovery very soon.
 
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