scats
Well-Known Member
I feel like Im in an impossible situation with Diva. She needs to lose weight but any attempt to do so is throwing up other issues.
She is normally out overnight in a well grazed area, with a pony who moves her around. They are given a small strip extra every few days. I did try her in a balder area but unfortunately I had to move her from that pen, as we now think that was what might have caused the colic last weekend. When on a bald area, we realised that Diva either stands for hours and refuses to try and pick at the grass, goes rifling through the hedges, or she actually digs a hole and starts licking the soil. We caught her doing the latter and vet did a sand test of her poo and there was some found. She will not eat hay thats put out when shes in the field. She pees on it. She wont eat buckets of chopped straw either. There was enough grass to nibble on as Polly managed fine, but Diva ended up really unwell. As soon as she was given a little more grass, the colics stopped.
She wont wear a grazing muzzle- weve tried multiple types and she stands on the back of them and removes them in under 10 seconds. I have scores of broken muzzles lying around the farm. Weve tried headcollars over the top, practically tying them on, plaiting her mane into them etc. No chance.
Shes out 7pm- 7am. I tried putting her out during the day for less hours, but the heat of the daytime and sun sets her breathing off. She is much more comfortable out overnight. Also, she cannot be stabled much longer than she is as her breathing does deteriorate more when she is inside. We are in a well ventilated barn that has openings both ends, but we have no outdoor stables. We dont have the option of putting her out in a totally non-grass paddock unfortunately, plus I am aware that her life span will likely be much shorter and I try to give her quality of life over quantity as a result. Her time at grass with her friend is a huge part of her life and I would hate to remove that completely when we are living on such a knife edge anyway.
She comes in to 2kg of hay, its not soaked as she wont touch it soaked. She does not eat the whole lot, usually leaves about a third of itll. She is, despite appearances, very fussy about feed and hay and will often leave them.
Her feed is a token small handful of soaked fibre cubes to get her breathing supplement in her.
Due to her trachea, and now subsequent lung involvement, she is limited in workload. She does 30-45 minutes a day, 6 days per week. Mostly hacking, with a lunge session and a schooling session thrown in there. Its mostly walk, trot when she can manage it and for as long as she can manage it and short bursts of canter on very good days. Vets have said to keep her working as much as she can manage.
I got her weight down a bit over winter, as normal, but as soon as the spring grass comes through, she just balloons. It happens every year. Ive been careful with her, shes constantly in an electrified area so I can keep control of it, but I am just fighting a losing battle.
We ran a whole load of bloods last week as she was as flat as a pancake after her bad weekend. Still waiting on insulin as that went missing and hadnt to be retested, but everything else normal. Cushings test was the very high end of normal, but vet not concerned about that. We assume she has EMS and treat her as such, but we couldnt get metformin into her last year. She holds weight on her shoulders, bum and crest.
She started with pulses again at the weekend, and looking footy on stones. I put her back in a pen, with hay and chopped straw out. Its not totally bald but its more grazed down than the rest of the field. She ignores the hay and chopped straw, has an occasional nibble of grass and then stands like a lemon staring over the fence. She has been known to go through electrified fencing to get out and although shes not done that yet this week, Im fully expecting her to try. Shes been in the bald pen for two nights and although the pulses are starting to subside, she was looking uncomfortable again this morning and I can only assume she is actually not eating enough when shes in the pen. Shes not looking as colicky as last week, but certainly not right. I feel like I cant do right for doing wrong.
Shes 14.1hh, chunky and weighs 530kg. We want her under 500kg. In an ideal world wed have her 450kg, but realistically if we can get her to 490kg, that would be a better situation that what we have currently.
I measure her respiration rate several times a day and she has a ventolin inhaler. She is in no way on her last legs or gasping for breath and most people dont even notice it, but Im aware things are progressing and our time is limited. I dont keep horses alive if I believe their welfare is compromised, as most of you will know given the situation with hooligan last year and Joe the year before, and last week I was very close to saying enough is enough, but she picked up. The vet thinks that wha happened was the colic episodes set her respiration rate higher and then Diva got a bit panicked and it got out of control.
Summer just does not agree with her at all. We had a fantastic winter. She can sustain more work, she doesnt struggle at grass etc.
Steroid inhaler is out of the question as it tipped her into mild laminitis about 2 months ago. I treat her like shes half an hour away from laminitis at any given point now.
Im just feeling completely helpless and that Im letting her down. Her weight certainly wont be helping her situation at all, but I cant seem to do anything about it. When I try to control her grass intake, she has these spasmodic episodes. If I put her on even a small amount of longer grass, I risk laminitis and her weight ballooning further. Locking her in for longer than 12 hours is not an option due to her breathing.
Managing her is hard work and a constant worry and I feel permanently ill at the moment and Im not really eating due to the stress of it all. I have lost a lot of weight (pity Diva hasnt!) and it continues to fall off me as Ive just got no appetite when there is a problem with her.
She is the most incredible pony, has the hugest character and she doesnt owe me a thing, but this situation is really rotten :-(
Vet is ringing today with insulin result and to help come up with a plan.
Photo of said troublesome beast from a couple of weeks back
She is normally out overnight in a well grazed area, with a pony who moves her around. They are given a small strip extra every few days. I did try her in a balder area but unfortunately I had to move her from that pen, as we now think that was what might have caused the colic last weekend. When on a bald area, we realised that Diva either stands for hours and refuses to try and pick at the grass, goes rifling through the hedges, or she actually digs a hole and starts licking the soil. We caught her doing the latter and vet did a sand test of her poo and there was some found. She will not eat hay thats put out when shes in the field. She pees on it. She wont eat buckets of chopped straw either. There was enough grass to nibble on as Polly managed fine, but Diva ended up really unwell. As soon as she was given a little more grass, the colics stopped.
She wont wear a grazing muzzle- weve tried multiple types and she stands on the back of them and removes them in under 10 seconds. I have scores of broken muzzles lying around the farm. Weve tried headcollars over the top, practically tying them on, plaiting her mane into them etc. No chance.
Shes out 7pm- 7am. I tried putting her out during the day for less hours, but the heat of the daytime and sun sets her breathing off. She is much more comfortable out overnight. Also, she cannot be stabled much longer than she is as her breathing does deteriorate more when she is inside. We are in a well ventilated barn that has openings both ends, but we have no outdoor stables. We dont have the option of putting her out in a totally non-grass paddock unfortunately, plus I am aware that her life span will likely be much shorter and I try to give her quality of life over quantity as a result. Her time at grass with her friend is a huge part of her life and I would hate to remove that completely when we are living on such a knife edge anyway.
She comes in to 2kg of hay, its not soaked as she wont touch it soaked. She does not eat the whole lot, usually leaves about a third of itll. She is, despite appearances, very fussy about feed and hay and will often leave them.
Her feed is a token small handful of soaked fibre cubes to get her breathing supplement in her.
Due to her trachea, and now subsequent lung involvement, she is limited in workload. She does 30-45 minutes a day, 6 days per week. Mostly hacking, with a lunge session and a schooling session thrown in there. Its mostly walk, trot when she can manage it and for as long as she can manage it and short bursts of canter on very good days. Vets have said to keep her working as much as she can manage.
I got her weight down a bit over winter, as normal, but as soon as the spring grass comes through, she just balloons. It happens every year. Ive been careful with her, shes constantly in an electrified area so I can keep control of it, but I am just fighting a losing battle.
We ran a whole load of bloods last week as she was as flat as a pancake after her bad weekend. Still waiting on insulin as that went missing and hadnt to be retested, but everything else normal. Cushings test was the very high end of normal, but vet not concerned about that. We assume she has EMS and treat her as such, but we couldnt get metformin into her last year. She holds weight on her shoulders, bum and crest.
She started with pulses again at the weekend, and looking footy on stones. I put her back in a pen, with hay and chopped straw out. Its not totally bald but its more grazed down than the rest of the field. She ignores the hay and chopped straw, has an occasional nibble of grass and then stands like a lemon staring over the fence. She has been known to go through electrified fencing to get out and although shes not done that yet this week, Im fully expecting her to try. Shes been in the bald pen for two nights and although the pulses are starting to subside, she was looking uncomfortable again this morning and I can only assume she is actually not eating enough when shes in the pen. Shes not looking as colicky as last week, but certainly not right. I feel like I cant do right for doing wrong.
Shes 14.1hh, chunky and weighs 530kg. We want her under 500kg. In an ideal world wed have her 450kg, but realistically if we can get her to 490kg, that would be a better situation that what we have currently.
I measure her respiration rate several times a day and she has a ventolin inhaler. She is in no way on her last legs or gasping for breath and most people dont even notice it, but Im aware things are progressing and our time is limited. I dont keep horses alive if I believe their welfare is compromised, as most of you will know given the situation with hooligan last year and Joe the year before, and last week I was very close to saying enough is enough, but she picked up. The vet thinks that wha happened was the colic episodes set her respiration rate higher and then Diva got a bit panicked and it got out of control.
Summer just does not agree with her at all. We had a fantastic winter. She can sustain more work, she doesnt struggle at grass etc.
Steroid inhaler is out of the question as it tipped her into mild laminitis about 2 months ago. I treat her like shes half an hour away from laminitis at any given point now.
Im just feeling completely helpless and that Im letting her down. Her weight certainly wont be helping her situation at all, but I cant seem to do anything about it. When I try to control her grass intake, she has these spasmodic episodes. If I put her on even a small amount of longer grass, I risk laminitis and her weight ballooning further. Locking her in for longer than 12 hours is not an option due to her breathing.
Managing her is hard work and a constant worry and I feel permanently ill at the moment and Im not really eating due to the stress of it all. I have lost a lot of weight (pity Diva hasnt!) and it continues to fall off me as Ive just got no appetite when there is a problem with her.
She is the most incredible pony, has the hugest character and she doesnt owe me a thing, but this situation is really rotten :-(
Vet is ringing today with insulin result and to help come up with a plan.
Photo of said troublesome beast from a couple of weeks back
struggling with multiple issues with my boy too at the moment and it's such a massive worry. 
