Overweight Shetland, health fears - advice please

annsGG

annsGG

Member
Joined
6 January 2007
Messages
29
Location
Cornwall
Visit site
We have a little shetland (Bertie) who is turning into a little barrel, he and our 10h yearling have currently been restricted to a small fenced off area of field (about 25x5 yards), they have eaten it down to next to nothing but bertie keeps escaping through the electric fence out into the main field, he has done it twice now and seems to be getting very fat, we only give them what little they get out of the paddock, a handfull of hifi light and carrots morning and evening and a little haynet which they dont really touch.
Bert seemed to be getting thinner until he escaped but I cant believe how large he is getting and assume this is some kind of bloating.
Can anyone recommend anything, it seems such a shame to shut them in (Penny wont be anywhere without him and she seems ok), should I just concentrate on doing away with the electric fence and get something more substancial.
 
Not sure on fencing as Shetlands can seem to get through most, ours is a master of escaping! Not sure about feeding them though, again we dont feed at all in the summer and in the winter they only get food when they are being wormed (they are out 24/7).
Does your shetland get exercised a lot?
We take ours out when we go hacking (once/twice a week) I take him along when I ride my pony, we usually go out for 2/3 hours and seems to help as our Shetland (Brandy!) is usually quite tired by the end as he has to trot most of the way round and we canter/gallop him too!
 
Get better fencing? I mean put lots of strands in low down and make sure the fence has a decent enough zap? Ours used to get out to begin with but only when we left too big a gaps in between the strands.

We ended up getting a proper fence put up, splitting the field up into smaller paddocks. Solved all problems! If its your own field and you dont mind doing this then it is a good long term thing to do. In the winter, I simply open up all my gates and tie them back so they have the whole field again.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Have you tried letting him on a larger area with a grazing muzzle on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just what I was going to say. That way he will be able to move round, will have to work harder to get his grass and will still be able to socialise with his fieldmate. At night you could take the grazing muzzle off and leave him/them in a sparser area with soaked hay. (Soak the hay for at least an hour but preferably longer. That leaches out all the sugars so they get plenty of fibre but without the calories).
 
You could always put up some of that mesh fencing - its like wind break stuff (usually green?) so really tight weave so horses certainly shouldnt get caught in it as there arent really any holes. Dont know how pricey it would be though?
 
Thanks for all the tips, we got a bigger zapper and that seems to have done the trick (almost sat hubby on his butt testing it though!) will certainly bear all the others in mind too.
 
Thanks for that, we had thought about dividing up the fields but now that you said that it works its a done deal, sending hubby out to the timber yard this weekend, thanks again
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top