muzzles 24hrs/day?

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laura_1983

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Iv just got a new pony who had laminitis 3 years ago, nothing since then but he's used to being out during the day and in at night, has been since previous lami. I have him out 24/7 and at the moment he isnt wearing a muzzle, im monitoring situation as best i can and as pony is underweight decided against the muzzle for time being, my grass is good but not brilliant and not all that long.

When he does get the muzzle on - i can only get down to him once a day (have 3yr old plus nearly 7 mnths pregnant!) - will it do him any harm wearing it 24/7, with a break when he's being ridden/groomed etc? Would having it on him for a few days then off for 1/2 days work? I havent dealt with ponies wearing muzzles before!

Any help/advice is much appreciated!!
 
you are only supposed to leave them on for a max of 12 hours.

My horse has had his one on (best friend muzzle) for 8 hours a day this weekend and it has already rubbed his jaw raw.
 
Can you electric tape a small paddock for him?, I wouldn't recommend leaving it on for longer than 10 hours tbh, it can get quite hot in there!
Only other thing is to have it on during the day and bring him in at night or vice versa
 
could possible recruit someone to help me with taking muzzle off at night but then im worried about me not being able to get down early enough the next day to put it back on him again, we can fence off a bit of field but have a feeling the youngster he's in with would climb through to get in beside him or he'd climb out as we cant electrify it, no stabling to bring him in as its a rented field on a farm!
 
I would not think you would get away with it for 24/7 use. Last year I made the mistake of leaving my horse's one on for 12 hours and it rubbed him raw. I felt awful and had to stable him and slather him in sudacrem. And that was only 12 hours
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I definitely wouldn't leave a muzzle on 24 hours. My pony has been out today for about 8 hours in hers and was quite sweaty underneath it, and that is a greenguard muzzle which is quite open. In your situation I would go for fencing off a starvation patch - why can't you electrify it?
 
You can use a battery fencer. We use a fencer that runs off a 12v leisure battery (the sort used in caravans). The whole set up cost us about £90 when I bought it a couple of years ago. The battery just needs recharging every month or so overnight. Apart the initial outlay I think you will find it a better option in your situation.
 
ah hadnt thought of doing it with a battery - duh!! so used to all the electric fencing at my work running off the mains lol!

Can anyone recommend the best place to buy them? I have post and tape - presume its easy enough to just attach the tape and battery?
 
Paddock perfection or farmcare on ebay are the cheapest ive found for electric fencing
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The battery just has a clip that clips onto the tape to electrify it. if you have more than one strand of tape though you will need tape connecters like these to pass the electric onto the second row.

Tape connecters

Remember to get an energiser strong enough for the length of tape you need to run ( all strands counted seperatly in overall length ) The energiser can either run off two 6v batteries but ive found running it off a 12v car battery lasts longer
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Can anyone recommend the best place to buy them? I have post and tape - presume its easy enough to just attach the tape and battery?

[/ QUOTE ]

NO! you can't do that!. You must use an energiser. The battery is connected to the energiser & the energiser then has one lead that connects to the electric fence tape/rope & another lead that goes to earth (a metre long metal stake sunk into the ground). The 12 volt battery (a leisure battery ideally) powers the fencer & that sends out a pulse of around 4000 volts along the tape/wire. Your horse when it touches the wire, makes the circuit by earthing himself to the ground & gets zapped.

If you aren't clear about what you need to do there are plenty of pamphlets available in tack/farners shops to help or on the net. But do not wire the tape/rope directly to the battery! OK
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Just a hint - when you put energiser in field, see if you can padlock it to something - my friend and I had both ours nicked last year within a few weeks of each other!
 
As others have said, its not a good idea to muzzle all the time and I would also be careful in not muzzling at all at the moment and just letting him out 24/7 if he is used to restricted grazing and being in.

Just because he is not fat, will NOT protect him from laminitis if he is prone. Even short grass can be deadly to a laminitic.

Definitely pen him off in a small bit as soon as possible, if you can get there twice a day to de-muzzle.

Plus really and truly any horse should be checked more than once a day and in particular a laminitic - so much damage could occur in a 24 hour period.
 
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