Is it really that unusual?

hairycob

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Retired pony had bad colic Monday (happily completely recovered but no clue what brought it on) & it's been bugging me that the Vet seemed surprised that we watch his weight carefully even though he's never had laminitis. He looked really surprised when I got out my little notebook where I record wormings & weight checks. Surely it's not that unusual? I know lot's of people who do - do I just live in some sort of neurotic clique or do Vet's see so many numpties that they get jaded?
Please tell me I'm not getting too anal!
 
Probably amazed to meet someone so organised! I scribble on the calendar when things are done but I don't have a notebook!
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I keep a mental note of weight checks and write worming schedule on the calendar at home, perhaps he was suprised you were organised enough to have a specific notebook? I'm impressed though and may well steal the idea
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Our horses are weighed periodically just to check how they're doing really. But I do keep a very close eye on my mare - she can get a bit lean when doing lots of shows, but equally this year she got injured and was on good grass and a full showing diet, so I started to panic about laminitis!
I couldn't live with myself if I gave a horse laminitis just to keep her in 'show condition' and TBH she's never been on such good grazing before. She's now on much sparser grazing and looks just right - we can tweak her hard feed slightly according to her workload.
Sounds like you've got an old fashioned vet - there's much more awareness about the risks of obesity among owners now and it's time he got up to date!
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in my view i think as ponies get older they become more susceptable to colic. our little welshie( now gone on to the lush pastures above!) had many bouts of colicky symptoms, too many for a vet's visit each time, the vet said eventually to see how she pulls herself through it which she did each time thank god- she eventually succombed to the dreaded lami. even though she lived on virtual fresh air at the grand old age of 35. my point is, no matter how thorough the wormings are i just think it's an age thing in these ponies as much as anything else.
 
Each horse has a seperate part of the tack room, each with a white board, charting work load, feeding, turn out, worming, shoeing and vets details. Weight is monitored in a database, as are competition results.

I am a bit anal thugh, so you can't judge on me!
 
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He looked really surprised when I got out my little notebook where I record wormings & weight checks. Surely it's not that unusual? I know lot's of people who do - do I just live in some sort of neurotic clique or do Vet's see so many numpties that they get jaded?


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your unusual im afraid
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iv yet to meet someone who actually wrote down the weights etc unless it was wormings recored on the yard calender ...met plenty who knew that pony had got thinner or fatter but couldnt say when weight started to drop etc...and their the ones that had noticed the horses change in condition....
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