Managing turnout Post-Laminitis

[Sprogladite01]

My 11 year old connie has recently suffered his first bout of laminitis. Some backstory:

• Purchased pony in November 2020. No previous history of laminitis. Moved from a very large livery yard to my yard where he is (currently) the sole horse (will be looking for a second post-lockdown). We have approx 2 acres of grazing, split equally into a summer and winter field using temporary fencing.
• We discovered our electric fencing wasn't working. Pony discovered this too and it became a game of retrieving and returning him to the winter field every 2 hours or so throughout winter.
• End of March, decided he could go on summer field as it was just getting too much to keep catching him and putting him back!
• About 5 days after moving onto the summer field, pony becomes bilaterally lame in the front - minor pulses in both fronts and hooves warm to touch. We think we caught it fairly quickly. Assume laminitis, put on immediate box rest and start soaking his hay/stop feeding treats etc. This is on a Friday.
• On Sunday looks sound on the flat whilst lunged/trotted up, still slightly lame under saddle. Call vet out on Monday who confirms laminitis, provides 5 days of NSAIDS and instructs to keep doing as we have been (ie no grass and only getting turned out in the lunge pen, provided with soaked hay in a hay ball when he's out).
• After 5 days looks sound under saddle again and gets brought back into light work

In the meantime, the electric has been fixed so we now have fences (thank god) and he is going back out in the early morning from 8am - 11am on the winter field before being brought back in to the lunge pen for the afternoon (bit leery of spring grass being really sugary). He is currently stabled overnight.

My question is, will I always need to limit his turnout? The plan when I bought him was for him to be out 24/7 with free access to come in/out as he pleases but obviously at the moment that won't work for him.

Is it a case of we can wean him up to being on the summer field in the day without adverse effects? Or will it always be a case of he can tolerate so much before he needs to come in so we don't trigger another lami episode? Do I need to be thinking about track or strip grazing? I am just unsure of how to manage his turnout now he has recovered. Any advice/pointers greatly appreciated

 

[windand rain]

Firstly did he have his 30 days complete box rest after being sound off all drugs if so you can turn out for short times on longer grass if possible. You must get his weight down to quite a low level ie able to easily feel his ribs and even see the last one or two when he turns so until you can he cannot graze normally it is the only way to give him a normal in out lifestyle without risking more laminitis. We usually track graze to keep the weight down and the ponies moving. Placing soaked hay at strategic points and a trug of oatstraw chaff at other points as long as they are doing between 4 and 10 poos they are not at risk of stomach problems as they have access to food all the time. EMS can be pretty much eliminate once the weight is low enough. Cushings can be helped with drugs and sugar rush laminitis by eating longer less stressed grass. Living out is easiest as you dont have hay to deal with. If needed they can go out at night and in in the day but you need to be up to get them in before dawn

 

[Sprogladite01]

Firstly did he have his 30 days complete box rest after being sound off all drugs if so you can turn out for short times on longer grass if possible. You must get his weight down to quite a low level ie able to easily feel his ribs and even see the last one or two when he turns so until you can he cannot graze normally it is the only way to give him a normal in out lifestyle without risking more laminitis. We usually track graze to keep the weight down and the ponies moving. Placing soaked hay at strategic points and a trug of oatstraw chaff at other points as long as they are doing between 4 and 10 poos they are not at risk of stomach problems as they have access to food all the time. EMS can be pretty much eliminate once the weight is low enough. Cushings can be helped with drugs and sugar rush laminitis by eating longer less stressed grass. Living out is easiest as you dont have hay to deal with. If needed they can go out at night and in in the day but you need to be up to get them in before dawn

Hi, thank you for your reply! No, he was only kept on box rest for 5 days as per the vet's instructions, she didn't mention anything about needing to be on box rest for 30 days. However, as the electric fencing wasn't up and running, he'd only been turned out into the lunge arena so I'd say it was approx 3 weeks he was off the grass for.

He was quite severely overweight when I bought him, so he's been on a diet pretty much since I bought him - he has been losing the weight at a slow but consistent rate and is now to the point where you can feel his ribs, just has a small fat pad left on his bum we need to shift (he had huge fat pads on his neck and bum before and you couldn't feel his ribs AT ALL).

I've never had to set up track grazing before - any recommendations on how best to go about this?

 

[meleeka]

You will be able to leave him out, but probably not on a field that’s been rested for that long. It’s worth bearing in mind that the grass will be growing while he’s off it. If he were mine I’d set up a basic track, around 3 metres inside your perimeter. If the grass is still plentiful then start with a square of that and strip graze the track until it’s pretty bare. Then you can either move a couple of posts inward each day, or make a D shape into the middle which you can move along to the next bit. It’s hard to explain, but basically you need to limit the area of good grass he can graze without restricting his movement too much through the growing season. Come winter you could take the track down and he could have the whole field until it starts growing again.

I find it easier to just track both my paddocks so that the middle is rested for a few months in the summer. The outside is never rested so that it never has much grass.

 

[Red-1]

I bought mine last year, when he was just finishing up 3 months of box rest for his first lami attack.

Taking 'best' advice from the vet, he had 6 months on dry lot turnout, with soaked hay. Vet did say we could try earlier, if we had nowhere but grass to use, but dry lot would be best for some months while he settled and dieted. He is barefoot and trimmed every week as his feet were stretched. He had blood tests for Cushings and EMS, and was managed for those.

This spring, he now has visible ribs. He has had his blood tests repeated and he can now manage insulin (starvation/ sugar challenge test) so it was a reasonable risk to try grass. He has started with 15 minutes in a paddock, with a muzzle, increasing over a couple of weeks to 1 hour. The increase is because his weight has not changed and his poos are still brown rather than green, so he has not ingested much grass through the muzzle.

This year, we hope to get to 3 or 4 hours a day turnout, with a muzzle, while someone is around for frequent checks. Next year, all being well, if the bloods are still good, we may try longer.

Once his feet were stable, he started work, starting with 10 minutes long line/ lunge on the school or 20 minutes walk out in hand. This has increased over the 6 months, he can now do 20 minutes of work on the school and up to an hour hacking out. He is an older horse though, and never been on the school before, hence taking quite such a long time.

So far so good.