occasional treat for laminitic pony

My ex-lami very rarely gets treats (as in twice a year) but he either gets a small apple or a carrot and this has never upset him. I would never give any manufactured treats or anything with molasses and to be honest some horses only need to look at an apple and get footy again, so I think it does depend on your horse and his propensity for lami.
 
I use Hilton Herballs to treat mine, they have no added nastys so not too bad, they love them on the rare occasion they are allowed. A swede hung up is not too bad as it uses some energy to get eaten.
 
Lots of things that are suitable and good for him. I have 2 laminitics so these are some of the things I use

Nuts - Brasil are really good, but almonds too.

Dried fruit of any kind - the chewy banana slices for example are a hight treat value because of the flavour - but 6 slices are realy a small piece of banana so it's Ok.

Peelings from the kitchen (the skins of veg and fruit tend to be lower in sugar) - include things like ginger peelings.

Mint pellets (Gold do them, and simple systems)

The other thing you can do is to cut down and wilt nettles as a treat - just cut them down and leave them on the concrete to wilt for an hour or two and then feed them as you would hay. My laminitics get a barrow load of nettles at a time - they do very well on them indeed.

But I find my very sensitive laminitic actually does OK with fruit and veg on the whole - he had an orange today and he absolutely loves them. He gets a piece of veg or fruit every day.

But then he does get a very good forage based and mineral balanced diet so he copes very well.
 
I give mine swede peelings. (I'm absolutely hopeless at peeling swedes so they usually end up as strips of skin with quite a bit of swede left on- the actual swede I'm left with to cook is usually half the size of what I started with!) He just gets a couple of bits at a time and actually seems to love them!

Going to try the nettles though!
 
Mine gets most types of fruit (except citrus) and veg but just small amounts at a time. I've never given citrus, must try it with the others.

All my horses love nuts but they're a real treat coz they're so bloomin expensive.

Oh and forgot wilted nettles and clevers.

With carrots, I think it's the quantity and of course in an acute attack I wouldn't feed. I've seen people giving a sack daily out in the field. Not laminitics of course but some feed far too many.
 
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Last winter, my chronic laminitic Bramble broke into the feed room and ignoring everything else, chomped his way through 3/4 of a 20Kg sack of carrots. Nothing but crumbs left, and I'd just bought that sack that day!

We were utterly horrified and expected him to be off his feet next day. Little monster was happy as larry, but had crumbly bright orange poos for 3 days. :eek:

I don't know how he got away with it :confused:
 
brucea said:
Nuts - Brasil are really good, but almonds too.
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On Brucea's recommendation I tried Brazil nuts the other day and I was surprised how both horses (who have very different tastes) loved them.

But it turns out yogurt covered banana chips are yucky
yuck.gif
 
brucea said:
We were utterly horrified and expected him to be off his feet next day. Little monster was happy as larry, but had crumbly bright orange poos for 3 days. :eek:

I don't know how he got away with it :confused:
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Hehe. Perhaps they're not as bad as we think? :confused: Or perhaps they just went straight through him after the teeth stage. :D Lucky, lucky fella.

Well the others (except Sophie) like clementines. :D Only one shared between them. ;)
 
a vet told me to give dodson & horrel equibites as a treat
i am now doing physio streches with mine so have a tub with a few high fibre cubes in it its amazing how much he tries to get a single cube!!
 
Nuts sounds a weird one ! if acorns are poisonous you'd think any type of nut wouldn't be good

Mine has carrot, but I cut one carrot length ways into 4 so he thinks he's having more than he is, he has a small one in his muzzle every day to put it on, he doesn't mind having it on then.

I have given him a swede in his bucket to chomp on

I'm really dubious about prepared treats, I always look at the ingredients, sugar usually comes near the top of the list so leave them well alone
 
NOISYGIRL said:
Nuts sounds a weird one ! if acorns are poisonous you'd think any type of nut wouldn't be good
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Yes, acorns are a problem, as are horse chestnuts. You'd never be feeding nuts in the quantity that they would guzzle acorns.

Almonds, walnuts, hazels, brazils are all great for them - almonds have good oils, brazils are a good source of selenium.
 
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