Preparing for Spring.. Laminitis Prevention Tips

0dd

0dd

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We're hoping for a laminitis free year this year. We've got a chunk of our paddock all mashed up ready to become a dirt paddock for the spring and my bins are ready for hay-soakings...

Any pearls of wisdom for helping laminitics through spring, please say!
 
Sounds like you are off to a good start already! :) My only advice further to that would be to monitor condition closely from now on, with the cold snap it is easy for ponies to pile on the pounds munching on the additional hay we tend to give and little exercise and now is the perfect time to think about getting any excess weight off before Spring hits.:)
 
touchstone said:
Sounds like you are off to a good start already! :) My only advice further to that would be to monitor condition closely from now on, with the cold snap it is easy for ponies to pile on the pounds munching on the additional hay we tend to give and little exercise and now is the perfect time to think about getting any excess weight off before Spring hits.:)
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Yes that! don't make the mistake over over feeding/over rugging at this time of year, take advantage of the cold :)
 
I would be interested to hear any tips aswell please!
Also, can I ask original poster, how long do you soak your hay for?
I recently found some great tips about creating a track system on the 'natural horse supplies' website which are well worth a read.
Good luck
 
I went to a talk on laminitis and they said that the key is daily exercise, even if its just 20 mins on the lunge. Seems to keep the metabolic stuff in order!
 
rose bud said:
I would be interested to hear any tips aswell please!
Also, can I ask original poster, how long do you soak your hay for?
I recently found some great tips about creating a track system on the 'natural horse supplies' website which are well worth a read.
Good luck
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I have been doing it for 12 hours approx. but I have heard that after 1 hour all the sugars are drained and after that you're just soaking all the goodness out of it.. What does everyone else do?

Oh I buy my supplements from there too :) I'll have a look-see later.
 
0dd said:
I have been doing it for 12 hours approx. but I have heard that after 1 hour all the sugars are drained and after that you're just soaking all the goodness out of it.. What does everyone else do?

Oh I buy my supplements from there too :) I'll have a look-see later.
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Track system

http://paddockparadise.com/

You might find this interesting, bit fluffy at times but genuine interest for prevention/recovery of laminitis

http://www.facebook.com/groups/49923958207/
 
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Soak hay for as long as possible and make sure you drain it well (remember that any water left in is full of the sugars that you have soaked away)

Exercise every day. It does reduce the appetite

If you strip graze then you try and put the electric fencing around the perimeter of the field in order to make the horse walk all around it and maximise the amount of walking done

Note that it is not compulsory for feed companies to list the sugar and starch content of feed on the packaging
 
WelshRuby said:
How are you all soaking hay in this weather? Because I haven't been able to my pony has gone down with lammie. Thinking about soaking it in the bath at home, lol!
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Try and get hold of an old bath, and keep it at your yard.
Fill it up with water (hose needs to be able to reach it), and put haynets in it.
A couple of bricks on the nets helps keep them immersed under water.

Then just pull the plug out. Knock a couple of nails in the wall above the bath so you can hang them up and drain as much water out of the nets as possible, as hanging up dripping wet nets in winter is not pleasant!

Make sure that the draining water does not end up turning the area into a slippery slope though.

ETA: sorry just re-read your post,you have no running water at the moment, your yard water is frozen?
 
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MissMistletoe said:
Try and get hold of an old bath, and keep it at your yard.
Fill it up with water (hose needs to be able to reach it), and put haynets in it.
A couple of bricks on the nets helps keep them immersed under water.

Then just pull the plug out. Knock a couple of nails in the wall above the bath so you can hang them up and drain as much water out of the nets as possible, as hanging up dripping wet nets in winter is not pleasant!

Make sure that the draining water does not end up turning the area into a slippery slope though.

ETA: sorry just re-read your post,you have no running water at the moment, your yard water is frozen?
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Thanks for replying. I just have a field with a trough. Fill dustbins with bucket for soaking and have one full of solid ice with hay in it!!
All the above posts are full of ideas which I also have been doing so OP, way to go!!
 
For times when you cant soak the hay, if your pony is a good doer and good digestion you could consider a mix of old hay (unsoaked) and oat straw. It works very well for me, sometimes we have 4' of snow and -20 not unusual so soaking is sometimes impossible.

Never feed more than a half and half mix tho due to the straws low protein and mineral content and also so that there is less risk of impaction. Feed a general supplement to redress any imbalance.

It is nice by doing this that the pony has a much longer steady chew from their haynet by bulking out with the straw. I found mine from a small ad in the local paper and it was beautful stuff, even my non lami big chap has been stealing it through the bars of his stable!
 
This is a really helpful thread, I also only have a field and a water trough op and have to soak hay in dustbins so also end up with a block of ice with hay in it!
Just wondering when you would start sectioning the field / setting up a track system to reduce grazing?
 
rose bud said:
This is a really helpful thread, I also only have a field and a water trough op and have to soak hay in dustbins so also end up with a block of ice with hay in it!
Just wondering when you would start sectioning the field / setting up a track system to reduce grazing?
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I tend to wait until the grass starts coming through, otherwise it ends up too poached to do anything with, it is easy enough to make the area smaller/bigger depending on how the ground is coping and the grass growing.

I don't feed soaked hay anymore after struggling to get decent hay and after it all freezing last winter, so I feed blue high fibre Horsehage instead. A bit more expensive, but loads easier!
 
HI JUST IN RESPONSE TO FEEDING HORSE HAGE HIGH FIBRE DO YOU JUST REPLACE IT FROM SOAKING HAY I ALSO HAVE A CHRONIC STABLE LAMANITIC HAVE ALSO SOAKED HAY FROZEN TUBBS ECT JUST WONDERING WHAT THE HORSE HAGE IS LIKE IM USING ABOUT ATHIRD A BALE OF HAY THEN SOAKED AND FED OVER 24HRS ALSO ON ANTI LAM TOP SPEC AND DENGIE HI FI LITE CHAFF ANY MORE ADVICE APPRECIATED THANKS
 
I know the lo cal blue horsehage says ok for laminitics but I dont quite trust it, partly cos it smells so sweet and also its hopeless with my girl as she is so greedy it only lasts about a minute and then she has no food. which then leads to the issue of what they eat for the rest of the day!

So instead when it is freezing I feed a little unsoaked old hay but mix it with oat straw which is way lower in calories and energy (see post above for more info)

Allegedly you have to feed more haylage weight for weight than hay cos of the moisture content weight, but most good doers would be the size of a house if you did.
 
All of our horses are good doers. This winter they have been fed a mixture of hay and oat straw only and look great on it. I do weighband them every fortnight too.

The paddock paradise method really helps as it keeps them on the move.
 
When my horse had mild lami few years back, my vet recommneded dengie hi fi lite and feed a big bucket of it, if you ring Laminitis trust they will tell you how much you can give, you wouldn't have to worry about soaking hay, luckily our hay hasn't been that sweet meadowy stuff but is stalkier so I can get away with feeding it dry for a couple of days, but he has a dust allergy so I 'd rather not do it for too long, what can you do if you don't have water though, that's why in an emergency I will feed hi fi lite
 
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lachlanandmarcus said:
I know the lo cal blue horsehage says ok for laminitics but I dont quite trust it, partly cos it smells so sweet and also its hopeless with my girl as she is so greedy it only lasts about a minute and then she has no food. which then leads to the issue of what they eat for the rest of the day!

So instead when it is freezing I feed a little unsoaked old hay but mix it with oat straw which is way lower in calories and energy (see post above for more info)

Allegedly you have to feed more haylage weight for weight than hay cos of the moisture content weight, but most good doers would be the size of a house if you did.
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Me neither, I'm so scared of him getting it again, we were short of hay in the summer and I thought to try it, my horse didn't really like it and I was really scared and ended up giving it away
 
I have heard of a few horses/ponies near me coming down with lami in the past two weeks. People putting them out and forgetting about the damage the frost can do.

My advice - laminitis is a year round issue.
 
lami cases now are either being fed too much, are already too fat, or have metabolic issues.
soaking hay when gettin minus temps is hard. try to get 2 yr old hay. i would recomend less rugging, more exercise, no bucket food, minimal hay several times a day. make them work for their grub! look at NF or Dartmoor ponies they get fat in summer and scrat around in winter losing weight. losing weight in winter is a natural part of the survival. and dont forget the old adage of calories in vesus calories out! but reducing food intake does make a human feel like a bad mummy. sometimes you do need to be cruel to be kind. good luck fatties for the human are harder to care for than the ones that dont hold weight. humans like to feed!!! as they see this as looking after. in some cases its the feeding that kills them.
 
COBSFOREVER said:
HI JUST IN RESPONSE TO FEEDING HORSE HAGE HIGH FIBRE DO YOU JUST REPLACE IT FROM SOAKING HAY I ALSO HAVE A CHRONIC STABLE LAMANITIC HAVE ALSO SOAKED HAY FROZEN TUBBS ECT JUST WONDERING WHAT THE HORSE HAGE IS LIKE IM USING ABOUT ATHIRD A BALE OF HAY THEN SOAKED AND FED OVER 24HRS ALSO ON ANTI LAM TOP SPEC AND DENGIE HI FI LITE CHAFF ANY MORE ADVICE APPRECIATED THANKS
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Mine actually does better on high fibre horsehage than on soaked hay, all horses are different though. You need to make any changeover gradually, the same as any other feed changes, so I started by mixing horsehage and soaked hay until the net was just all horsehage. I'd also monitor pulses carefully just to be safe. It does smell sweet, but is actually low sugar as the sugars are used up during the fermentation process.
I find that using tiny holed haynets doubled up if necessary slows mine down enough (and she is greedy!) I've used horsehage for over a year now and pleased with the results, my horses weight has also remained stable.
 
Thanks for all the lovely replies ^^

I was wondering what you lot think about field grass though...
For example I know it can be dangerous to have them on a short grass paddock because of the sugary stubs coming through, but surely it's dangerous to have them on a long paddock too?

I have a small area that's pure mud at the moment and hoping it will become a nice dirt paddock in the summer, but I will worry about extending it as the grass that comes in will be short stuff.

I would love to do the Paddock Paradise thing and have a route around the edge of the field, however areas of my field won't be eaten down enough and I really worry about how susceptible he will be to the grass.

Suggestions?
 
0dd said:
Thanks for all the lovely replies ^^

I was wondering what you lot think about field grass though...
For example I know it can be dangerous to have them on a short grass paddock because of the sugary stubs coming through, but surely it's dangerous to have them on a long paddock too?

I have a small area that's pure mud at the moment and hoping it will become a nice dirt paddock in the summer, but I will worry about extending it as the grass that comes in will be short stuff.

I would love to do the Paddock Paradise thing and have a route around the edge of the field, however areas of my field won't be eaten down enough and I really worry about how susceptible he will be to the grass.

Suggestions?
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maybe you could extend grazng area but use grazing muzzle, so that he'll only be able to nibble the new grass as it gets longer and older? would keep him occupied too for longer.
 
Sorry to hijack your post op but I was just wanting to ask a question relating to preparing for spring.....
My field is approx 1.5 / 2 acres big and I have a 14.2hh cob and 2 mini shetlands in it. I was hoping to set up the paddock paradise track system to limit their grazing as soon as the spring grass starts coming through. There is very little grass in there at the moment and I am feeding 2 nets of soaked hay per day, so far they are maintaining their weight.
Is my field too small for the track system and is it needed in a field this size?
Any advice appriciated!
 
rose bud said:
Sorry to hijack your post op but I was just wanting to ask a question relating to preparing for spring.....
My field is approx 1.5 / 2 acres big and I have a 14.2hh cob and 2 mini shetlands in it. I was hoping to set up the paddock paradise track system to limit their grazing as soon as the spring grass starts coming through. There is very little grass in there at the moment and I am feeding 2 nets of soaked hay per day, so far they are maintaining their weight.
Is my field too small for the track system and is it needed in a field this size?
Any advice appriciated!
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I use a track system on a paddock about an acre in size. I find it works well because it keeps them moving instead of just standing about, so food, water and shelter are all in different areas. I would say that there is a fair chance a cob and two minis will need their grazing restricted and the beauty of a track system if you make it temporary, is that you can vary the width/length where needed to get the grass consumption spot on. For example I had two 14hh natives on the small paddock with it stripped three sides of the perimeter, the fourth side just seemed too much for them until the grass slowed down a bit. I do provide supplementary haylage year round though.
 
Thanks for the advice touchstone, I am terrified of them getting laminities as it will be my first spring of owning them! The cob and one of the shetlands are a good weight (not too fat) but the other shetland could do with losing a bit! (She is on loan and came to me a bit fat) when would you set up the track system? I was thinking anytime now or would that be too early? We don't have any mud at the moment the ground is quite good but don't want it getting too churned up.
 
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