IR horses

[sanchob]

Hi, I have welsh part bred horse who went down with laminitis this Feb. He was slightly unlevel in front at times and he had a steroid injection in his stifle and he sadly came down with it luckily he had no rotation at all. He has been back in work for about 3 months now and went out to his first dressage comp last week and won both his classes. He was glucose tested for IR and it came back border line, but he didn't eat hardly any of the glucose. We decided to put him on the metoformin which helped him so much. He went on it june the 19th and is now on 3 tablets twice a day I have been told by my vet to reduce it by 2 tablets a day so hopefully by the end of jan he will be off of it. I just wondered what people do with there IR horses if they have to have a week of for some reason and don't get any exercise at all. Should they be fine if you keep them on the same restricted diet? Thanks

 

[sanchob]

bump

 

[EllenJay]

Hi -just seen this post. My boy was diagonsed as IR, but my vet would only allow him to be on Metformin for 3 months. Once this kicked started his metabolic system again he is absolutely fine. I need to keep an eye on his sugar intake, but other than that he can have time as any other horse.

You have to manage it week by week, but try to get him off the metformin sooner rather than later. Relax over winter and keep an eagle eye from March onwards

 

[sanchob]

Thanks for your advice