Shetlands ate 3L of mollases :(

[meleeka]

I stupidly left a 5L tub of molasses out last night and my shetlands have polished off 2/3 of it, between 2 of them . Nobody has colic luckily, but I'm obviously worrying about laminitis as one of them has had it before. I'm guessing there's nothing much I can do at this point?

(I only bought it because the hay I have is apparently inedible and it's all I could get hold of ). I'm feeling really stupid that I forgot to put it away.

 

[Nicnac]

Oh gosh that's worrying. All you can do is starve them as they will have full tums and keep a close eye. They really are sh*tlands where food is concerned aren't they!

 

[Lucky Snowball]

Don’t beat yourself up. We all do our best. Fingers crossed they will be ok.

 

[Tiddlypom]

We’ve all done daft stuff and then our horses have taken full advantage.

Suggest ringing the OOH vet if you haven’t done so yet to see if there’s anything they suggest apart from careful monitoring.

 

[Exasperated]

I stupidly left a 5L tub of molasses out last night and my shetlands have polished off 2/3 of it, between 2 of them . Nobody has colic luckily, but I'm obviously worrying about laminitis as one of them has had it before. I'm guessing there's nothing much I can do at this point?

(I only bought it because the hay I have is apparently inedible and it's all I could get hold of ). I'm feeling really stupid that I forgot to put it away.

That’s a dollop of concentrate sugar for two midgets, worth ringing your equine vet to see if they can advise anything that might ameliorate, rather than bite your nails for two days - hope they get away with it.

 

[poiuytrewq]

It’s so easily done. Only last week I had left mine loose on the yard and totally forgot the huge bag of treats in a lidded plastic tub I’d left outside my stable to do carrot stretches with. The box was destroyed and he ate the whole bag before I noticed

I too might just call the vet and see if maybe something like a sloppy bran feed or something may help everything pass through faster or something.
Or might charcoal absorb some of the sugars literally no real idea sorry but there may be something that might help.

If it’s any comfort I’ve had a few one-off disasters and find it’s never them that cause any major issue other than scare the cr*p out of me for a day or so after.

 

[SEL]

Have you got any activated charcoal.?

 

[rhino]

Fingers crossed all will be well. My last horse (not a Shetland obviously!) got out one night when the yard had forgotten to do the kick bolt. Twenty breakfasts and a sack of carrots later… he was neither up nor down.

 

[Petalpoos]

Someone broke into my yard and let the horses loose one night a few years back. 2 of them scoffed their way through a couple of bags of high energy food that neither of them needed any amount of. Vet suggested best thing to do to avoid laminitis was to let them loose in one of the fields that was almost completely flooded so they were standing in cold water all the time. They were also given some drug - I can’t remember what now, but very expensive! Anyway, it seemed to work as neither of them had any repercussions - so you may want to take advantage of the rubbish weather if you have suitable wet fields, but see what the vet says.

 

[Barklands]

Limit access to any other sugars in diet, therefore ration hay and soaked, give only very tiny token feeds of plain chaff. Let us know how you get on!

 

[Nancykitt]

Fingers crossed all will be well. My last horse (not a Shetland obviously!) got out one night when the yard had forgotten to do the kick bolt. Twenty breakfasts and a sack of carrots later… he was neither up nor down.

Same thing happened to one of ours when we were on a livery yard. He added insult to injury be flinging the haynets across the yard. Had eaten a ridiculous amount of feed. After turnout, he stood on the spot in a bare field for hours and seemed absolutely fine. We didn't ride him for a few days afterwards though!

 

[pistolpete]

My friends 15hh broke out of his stable in a barn of 30 and ate everyone’s breakfast! He survived too amazingly!

 

[Nasicus]

Friends dainty little cob pony once broke out of her stable and scoffed half a brand new bag of dry speedibeet. How she didn't colic is a mystery.

Crossing my fingers for you that the little terrors come away from this none the worse! They must have thought all their Christmases had come at once!

 

[Mrs Jingle]

I think pretty much all of us have done things similar that we worried over. I think my silliest thing was carefully closing one field gate to the smallest two donkeys - left another one around the corner open that gave access onto a small yard with open feed shed door. They knocked a dustbin over that was full to the brim with Dengie Alfa A. They ate the lot and survived but spent two days just standing around in the field looking bloated and exhausted while I watched over them with my heart in my mouth. I felt so guilty.

I would imagine if they are still looking OK by now and they ate it during last night, then they most probably will be grand. Everything crossed for them and try not to blame yourself, these things happen.

 

[Jacksie]

I could be wrong but seem to recall seeing somewhere that it can be dangerous to starve a Shetland as their metabolisms work differently I’d second a catch up with your vet like others have suggested. I hope the cheeky little rascals are ok

 

[rextherobber]

I'd ring the vet and ask if Ertugliflozen would help, you'd ideally check them for liver function first, but possibly getting the sugar levels down is a priority?

 

[poiuytrewq]

I could be wrong but seem to recall seeing somewhere that it can be dangerous to starve a Shetland as their metabolisms work differently I’d second a catch up with your vet like others have suggested. I hope the cheeky little rascals are ok

I agree, I don’t think starving would be the best idea anyway regardless of breed.
I’d want to keep things moving through and fibre to absorb some of the sugars to be poo’d out rather than sit in their tummy.
Do they seem ok now?