Laminitis and frost

[marie_d_3]

Hi please could someone enighten me on the connection between frost on the grass and increased sugars? Can a laminitis prone horse be turned out as soon as the frost is gone or not until the next day and what about if there is a covering of snow on the grass?

Many thanks

 

[cptrayes]

Grass uses sugar as an anti-freeze to stop its cells bursting. When it gets frozen, it fills its leaves with sugar. Ethylene glycol, which we use in our cars for the same job, is also sweet and was once (back in the 1980s)used illegally by some dodgy German white wine makers to sweeten their wine!

 

[LucyPriory]

Extracted from www.safergrass.org

Temperature

Nighttime temperatures of less than about 40F (5C) will cause sugar and fructan levels to increase significantly. The duration of the lower temperature will have a direct bearing on the amount of sugars leftover from the day before. A week of nights with freezing temperatures and sunny days can double the NSC content of grass.

 

[cptrayes]

NSC non structural carbohydrate - sugars

 

[peanut]

Nighttime temperatures of less than about 40F (5C) will cause sugar and fructan levels to increase significantly.

Just what we have at the moment in the south with the sunny days