Anyone with laminitis experience? Help please

[Ponyta123]

The ponio I'm buying passed 5 stage vetting last Monday which is excellent but the vet did make a comment that he's very overweight/cresty and would therefor be high laminitis risk so need to get him straight into diet and exercise regime before all the spring grass.

Pony has no history of laminitis and I am assuming if vet thought there were actual symptoms he couldn't have passed the 5 stage but I am still panicking a bit now as have 0 experience with laminitis prone ponies so would welcome any advice.

Am thinking of grass muzzling as cant restrict grazing at our yard. He will be out 8 hours a day in at night but the grass isn't the best anyway.

Was then just going to feed maybe 2 slices hay at night in small hole net. The others get an AM feed - should I feed anything at all? Hes been being fed pony nuts but I really do not think those are a good idea. Was thinking maybe happy hoof with some linseed? But keep reading about balancers?

Exercise wise will be riding 4-5 times per week which is all I can do but will aim to do an hour per day on each of those, combining hacking and schooling. Pony has not really been doing much of anything so hopefully this will be enough to have some impact what do you think?

I have a laminitic horse and to be honest it’s quite a bit of extra work. Would the yard allow you to use electric fencing to strip graze? Muzzles are good if you can get them to keep them on (mine won’t despite my best efforts). I wouldn’t feed pony nuts, probably either a balancer or else a small amount of chaff/fast fibre with vits/mins and soaked hay in a small holed hay net. Hopefully with a diet and increase in work the laminitis risk will lower. Good luck with your new pony!

On the facts you have given it wouldn't bother me. He is just pointed it out as a risk. You just need to do as advised and make sure you keep the weight off and in exercise.

I wouldn;t feed anything apart from hay if the pony is already on the chubby side. I am not a huge fan of muzzles as I find they just pig out as soon as the muzzle comes off. I prefer bringing them in during the day to restrict intake. Time wise it is hassle having one that might be prone to laminitis as you spend most of spring to autumn getting them in and out.

Loads of ponies are prone to laminitis...this one hasn’t even had an attack. If you are worried about a possible risk you’ll struggle to buy a pony.

Give ad lib hay, you want to get as much hay into him as possible, no hard feed, regular work and 8 hours of grass is quite restricted anyway. Don’t put him into more of a diet than that, as he’ll risk being very hungry.

We’ve found with our piglet of an ISH that he actually eats less hay when it’s fed from the floor than double-netted in a small holed net. With the hay nets he seemed to be on a mission to eat as much as possible, as fast as possible

He’s not chubby, but would love to be - as well as his soaked hay, he gets a balancer and a handful of chaff. He’s ridden six days a week and competes a couple of times a month plus lessons and PC rallies which all helps keep him trim. One thing to be prepared for if you’re going to do a lot more work with him than he’s used to is a) build it up gradually and b) watch him change shape so that his saddle doesn’t fit any more ... and then give large amounts of money to the saddler to get him something which does fit (for a while!)

Exercise is your friend. As is hay. Happy Hoof I believe has molasses in it, so you want steer clear of any feeds with sugar in them. Linseed is a good conditioner, especially in winter and it has the correct ratios of Omega 3, 6 and 9. You probably won’t need to feed that going into spring.

A broad spectrum balance is an option and you could feed that with a handful of chaff. Thunderbrooks basic chaff has no chemicals in it and is alfalfa free. (Some go bats on alfalfa).

Weight tape every 2 weeks as that’ll give you a guide at least for the first year you own him.

Don’t starve him though - they produce gastric acid even when not eating, (something like 1.5 litres an hour) so this can lead to them getting ulcers if they have to regularly go without eating for a few hours. They’re designed to be trickle eaters.

Thanks all. Re: feeds can I get away with just giving a chaff like HiFi Lite with linseed in winter but nothing else in spring, purely so he feels he's getting something when the others do? Then a mineral lick in his stall?

Thunderbrooks basic chaff has no chemicals in it and is alfalfa free

Well it will at least contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, combined as carbohydrates of some sort.

I agree that you don't need to feed pony nuts, OP. Some form of balancer for fatties would be my option. Could you turn out overnight? That can help overweight horses as it's cooler and the grass contains less sugar.

@Vanhi in spring/summer yes but not until then for overnight turnout

Might be worth it, Ponyta. My retired IDx puts on weight easily but there's little I can do to exercise him. He's out during the day in winter but overnight in summer. It's the spring/ summer grass you'll really want to watch anyway.

This site has a lot of useful info on laminitis
www.laminitisclinic.org/

and there is also a laminitis app. You put in the address where your pony is stabled and it tells you the risk of laminitis from rich grass depending on weather conditions.

My Iberian who puts on weight as soon as she look at grass lives out 24x7 in summer and comes in overnight in winter. She can get a bit footy in summer due to the richness of pasture, though so far I have managed her for the last 12 years without major issues.

She wears a dinky rugs grazing muzzle which is made of fabric. The issue with a grazing mask, other than them stuffing their face when it's taken off, is wear of the teeth and most muzzles are plastic bucket types. Some have very small holes for grazing to allow them to only have little to no grass, others with larger slots such as a greenguard muzzle are thick plastic so the horse can access a larger volume of grass but still will wear their teeth trying to eat through the slots.
I have found the dinky mask wears the fabric of the mask more than the teeth. It isn't infallible and still will cause teeth wear, but it seems to be less than plastic or hard material muzzles that I've tried whilst still allowing reasonable grass access.

As others have said, exercise and diet are the two main factors to control weight gain and a good riding schedule will make a big difference. Mine currently gets ridden four times a week.

For feed, I use a dry large handful of Allen & Paige fast fibre soaked which is enough to mix in hoof and vitamin and mineral supplements. I use Equimins supplements and mix in their Advance concentrate complete powder and their hoof mender powder.
Once those are mixed in to the fast fibre I add in a large handful of Dengie HI Fi molasses free.

I hope that gives you some idea of what an extremely good doer can be fed. Best of luck and most importantly enjoy your horse!

Most native types are at risk of lami.

Spring and autumn grass is a risk but managed sensibly most ponies are fine.

We always soaked hay for ponies unless they were in very hard work (hunting, eventing). Keep them in sensible work and feed a high fibre, low concentrate feed.

www.purefeed.com/product/pure-fibre-balance/ is what my friend feeds to her Dartmoor.

www.dodsonandhorrell.com/product/go-lite-balancer is good too.

Most feed companies have a helpline that you can ring for more advice.

I'd ask my farrier to have a look and see what's going on with his feet currently.

I put hay in a feed bucket for mine so that he gets a ‘feed’ when the others do.

It's really important to exercise them too, even lunging for 20 mins to get heart rate up every day. There has been a lot of research on this lately.
I'd highly recommend soaking hay.

My boy has a handful of Bailey's no 8 every morning when everyone else is fed and is ok with that.