Those with fatties who muzzle that live with poor (er) doers

NeverSayNever

NeverSayNever

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Im having a bit of a quandry and wondered what others thought. Im currently in the situation both with my own ponies and others that Im looking after.

Through the summer months the fatty, laminitic prone pony is muzzled, virtually 24/7. It does come off for stable time and to have a fibre block and small feed of low cal balancer. That works well all summer. Now we get to this time of year and we are trying to get weight on the poor doers, who are known to really drop off by Dec/Jan and in previous years have looked poor. They are getting appropriate hard feeds but really, I want them on adlib hay and even better, haylage. However, this would mean the fattys would just do themselves a mischief on it and explode! Does anyone in this situation continue to muzzle for at least part of the day through winter to enable you to put out haylage for others in the herd that need it? Certainly with the soft dinky ponies muzzle, my own pony can still eat hay with it on, Ive seen her. I'm just worried this is mean but cant see any other way to separate them as all live out and just come in for a feed.
 
I am in the same situation but mine is due to still having loads of grass. Once that's gone there will be adlib hay in the fields.

The section a will be muzzled according to how she's looking, I'm also thinking of putting hardcore down in a small coral area so she can be kept on that with a small hay net if need be.

How many fatties/ poor doers do you have? Would it be an option to have all fatties in one field and the poor ones in another?
 
My fatties are on a track around the perimeter fed hay, muzzles off, the non fatties are in the middle part stuffing their faces.
Making a track sounds harder than it is! A couple of hours and I did it on my own. Not sure how I survived before I had it. They stay as a herd moving around together even though they are separated by the electric fence.
 
NeverSayNever said:
Im having a bit of a quandry and wondered what others thought. Im currently in the situation both with my own ponies and others that Im looking after.

Through the summer months the fatty, laminitic prone pony is muzzled, virtually 24/7. It does come off for stable time and to have a fibre block and small feed of low cal balancer. That works well all summer. Now we get to this time of year and we are trying to get weight on the poor doers, who are known to really drop off by Dec/Jan and in previous years have looked poor. They are getting appropriate hard feeds but really, I want them on adlib hay and even better, haylage. However, this would mean the fattys would just do themselves a mischief on it and explode! Does anyone in this situation continue to muzzle for at least part of the day through winter to enable you to put out haylage for others in the herd that need it? Certainly with the soft dinky ponies muzzle, my own pony can still eat hay with it on, Ive seen her. I'm just worried this is mean but cant see any other way to separate them as all live out and just come in for a feed.
Click to expand...
I have a 31 yr old Shetland, a 20 yr old sec A, a 18 yr old sec B and a 21 yr old sec B. They have all had laminitis once since I have owned them which ranges from 3-15 years. I used to muzzle them in the early years but hated doing and as the Shetland and the older sec B don't keep weight on in winter very easily, what I tend to do is feed them dry hay once the grass has dropped off and with the other 2 I feed them soaked hay. They all have hay twice a day throughout the winter. They live on the same 2 paddocks which total approx 1 1/4 acres split as this way the grass never gets ahead of them. I have found that if I do this I can keep them laminitis free all year round. The 3 younger 'oldies' all get exercised lightly also as I am convinced this is one of the most important factors in keeping them free of this terrible condition, even if it's just a matter of lungeing 2/3 times per week for 20 mins or leading out from another for a short hack. The only one I ever have problems with is the 21 yr old sec B, she is 13.2 and built more like a TB. If she starts dropping too much weight I give her Baileys cubes, sorry can't remember which ones, but they are specifically for safely putting weight on without it going to their feet! Good luck with managing them, mine are proof it can be done with a bit of juggling!
 
thanks for the replies :) My own situation is a mini shetland x (she has some sec A in her) who has never actually had lami but she blows up on thin air and Ive seen the warning signs. She is companion to my Sec d, who unfortunately isn't a good dooer at all. She really drops weight in the winter and needs adlibhay, ideally I'd like to give her a round bale of haylage this year but if I do that my little one will explode! I don't really have any way to keep them separate (but I can mull that one over further). I actually have a standard shetland filly joining us once she is weaned and over winter ID prob like her to have access to haylage as well.

The horses I look after aren't close enough to help with segregation, they are a a couple of miles away, similar situation to me but more extreme.

eta - winking wilow, my prob is that my fatty does keep weight on rather too well in winter too.
 
minimilton said:
My fatties are on a track around the perimeter fed hay, muzzles off, the non fatties are in the middle part stuffing their faces.
Making a track sounds harder than it is! A couple of hours and I did it on my own. Not sure how I survived before I had it. They stay as a herd moving around together even though they are separated by the electric fence.
Click to expand...

I have done this in the past with good success. Just had to make sure electric fence battery was always charged up!
 
is the poor doer the boss? CS (TB poor doer) used to live with Toby (shetty, good doer) and in summer toby was muzzled and in winter i just put one big pile of haylage out for CS and one tiny handful for Toby..........CS was never nasty, he just guarded HIS big haylage pile and wouldnt let toby eat it. This will only work is the haylage is a supplementary food rather than main fibre. Mine only have haylage to get them through the early morning frosts or for a couple of hours in the snow so tend to stand and munch till its gone, if they had to have ad lib to last all day it would be harder as they mooch around pile to pile a bit more.
 
thanks for all the ideas :)

I think *hope* Ive got a solution as there is a local pallet production place to me and I went over with my trailer today and picked up a 6 x 4 tattie box that is so robust!! Apparently they last 20 years! Not sure why i didnt think of it before but my bigger horse, the pooer dooer can happily reach in for haylage and the mini cant reach. She is lingering hopefully catching the odd bit her friend drops but thats fine, as long as she cant gorge.
 
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