my loan pony is looking sooooo cresty..... help

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alicep

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ok guys, tips and opinions needed. so i have a gorgeous 21 year old 14.1 pony on loan -hes fab. he is on grass livery as per owners request and no stable avaliable at yard. and is strip grazed. so i brought pony onto yard last night and he had a huge solid crest. of course i panicked. so i took him for a nice long hack and have put him on a very small bare looking patch with electric fencing. and wont be moving the tapes till it has gone down. This pony has never had laminitis in all 21 years of his life so im a bit worried.

is there anything else i need to do to help this go away?? he will be on the bare patch with hay prob at least till thurs or whenever the crestyness has gone. hes a little on the porky side too so a little diet wont hurt lol.
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Diet the pony, but all means, but do not stave as this will cause even more problems.

Keep him on the bare patch for as long as it takes, give him soaked hay (12 hours of soaking) to reduce the cals. Maybe give him a low cal feed balancer to ensure he is getting all his vits/mins such as lami-lite. Gently exercise him, brisk walking will burn the most cals. Give him free access to water - if he hasnt already.

Its encouraging that he has not had L before, but still do not take any chances.

You have caught this in time - well done and I hope fatty looses his creset soon.
x
 
soak the hay for 24 hours to remove any nutritional value from it and then feed it to him in small holed haynets to make it last as long as possible. muzzle him when his is on grass to reduce the amount he can eat and ensure he walks around as much as possible to get that grass. And as much exercise as you can get into him.
 
yup he is only on a 2 smal handfuls a day of hi-fi lite just to make him think hes having a breakfast and dinner! lol. is it wise to only do gentle exercise or can i continue with faster work twice a week? generally schooling or trotting along the headland.
 
You should be able to do faster work as long as he is not "footy" and you're not working him faster than a walk on hard ground. And soaking his hay for an hour will draw out most of the sugars and nutrients
 
Sorry, slight hijack here. I thought hay lost most nutrition after 20 mins?

Can someone confirm how long it needs to soak as I think I have given out duff information!

Jo x
 
normally i would only soak for few hours at most as after a while i find it gets really smelly and unappetizing.
 
a cresty neck is not a good sign.i would recommend 12 hour soak, maybe bring him in for a few days. Muzzle him is another option. Good luck
 
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