I need help with my horse

[Becky89*]

....... I am going up to see Cash tomorrow. I will take pictures of his leg and post them as soon as I can. I am scared of what is going to happen to him because right now he's being kept in the field until the barn is white washed on Monday

!!! I am going to see if I can switch him to the round pen, so that he can only get hay and no more grass like a few of you said.

 

[littlefarm_bighappy]

I am going to assume your horse has laminitis or grass founder.
That said, DO NOT DO NOT leave him on grass.
I am in the midwest too and have been through this and back with my foundered pony. If he has founder he needs medical attention stat, X-rays and bute at the very least. And hay only!

My vet was here tonight (treating my QH gelding for some ugly sneaky infection) and their practice, which is 50% equine, has been treating horses left and right with grass and metabolic founders this year. It is something with the level of carbohydrates in the pastures, that horses all over that ar not typical founder cases are coming down with it hard. Even horses under 5 years.


You have to take a good look at your horse and see if he has a cresty neck, patches of fat behind hid withers. With metabolic founders the horses can be ribby but be fat elsewhere.


So, my pony foundered because I kept him on grass. We spent $225 on shoes, after a trip to the vet hospital that was $$$$, and x rays and consults.

He is only sound today because he lives on a dirt lot and gets first crop hay only. And even then barely a flake twice a day. NO GRAIN.

My pony did founder a second time because I let him graze for a few hours. THen a third time because he got too much hay.

THese metabolic syndrome horses are hair trigger. I keep the pony though because the kids (and I) love him so.

Good luck!! And also, pics won;t tell much. THe vast majority of a shoe's structure is to treat disease inside the hoof.

 

[hunterjumper999]

while you are preparing to go see him google journeyman farriers .... or shoeless horse shoers.

many are wonderful. Some are nutters. call around and see if anyone can recommend one. you should be paying about 50.00 a trim, which is generally the route they take. If they do shoe, it will obviously be more. They trim to the natural angles of the horses foot and try to stay with 'natural'

don't even think about putting any weight on your horse while he's foundered. thats a given. it hurts!

I personally would ( barring any medical issues and the founder) break him to tack, teach him to long line or round pen ( LIGHTLY and properly) and stay off him till he's 3.


I was paying 50.00 a trim. I'm now paying a 'normal' farrier 280 for 4 shoes. so yes, your special shoes could cost 200. but do you want a sound horse?

 

[BlackBart]

a good place to start to understand the complex world of grain/sugar/laminitus is
www.safergrass.org
a good place to ask your farrier question is
http://www.horseshoes.com/forums/register.php?do=addmember

good luck

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

$200 is a pretty normal price for regular shoes around here. Corrective shoeing can run up to $500 and more! Farrier prices are so darned expensive around here that it's rediculous.

Anyways, I would keep him off of green grass and grain. Also, a vet would be a very useful resource as there are quite a few foot related issues that may present themselves like founder. My one horse was limping around last year and I thought it mihgt be founder. Turned out to be an abscess. A good vet should be able to tell you!

 

[Akane]

A horse on grass in the midwest does not need grain unless working hard or has other specifics like age or genetically being a hard keeper. Overall the grass here is great for sustaining livestock. Of course that also means they should be adjusted to it slowly or you still get founder issues.

He cannot survive for long on just hay though. Hay loses much of it's nutrients very quickly. All the fat soluable ones like vit E and A break down within months. The omega fatty acids are also lacking in hay. There's a simple solution. Feed black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) in place of grain. You can also replace a portion of his daily hay with beet pulp if you can find it. I do not feed any grain even to hard working horses anymore. Horses simply aren't designed to eat grain. It's actually very unhealthy for them but it's a cheap, easy to get energy source. BOSS will provide far more calories and many more vitamins and minerals than grain without much, if any, risk of founder or other health problems grain can cause. I had a horse with a metabolic disorder that would founder at the drop of a hat. We kept him healthy for years with BOSS, grass hay, and beet pulp when we could find it.

As for shoeing I would see if you can find a barefoot trimmer. There are some people trying to mimic the way a wild horse's hooves would wear and taking some unique approaches to hoof issues without using shoes. Even with his coffin bone coming out the bottom of his foot we managed to bring our gelding back to at least appearing sound in the pasture (we never did ride him again) by leaving him barefoot and getting a good farrier experienced with doing those types of trims. Shoes just do more damage to the hoof and in our case the gelding had nothing left to nail to. We tried shoes once with tons of clips and so forth but he would spin on his fronts and tore a shoe right off. I pulled the other one and called another farrier. None of my horses including my barrel racers and cutting horse have worn shoes in years.

 

[xxleandraxx]

Def think it could be a bout of lami....thats the nearest thing i can think of with the grain and turnout?? hope you get it sorted x

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Weird....I feed Max sweet feed and have him on pasture?

Is it a difference in the grass between the south and the midwest?

 

[MaggieRae]

Quote:
Don't think so. My horse went from swampy land with poor nutrition to neon green grass and oats in moderation. His hooves were bad when he got there from being in water constantly, but he foundered quickly after from the grass (They fertilized it to make it pretty.

They haven't done that since.) Some horses are just more susceptible to laminitis and foundering. My other horse could be on anything; he has hooves of steel, it seems like.

 

[Akane]

Grain has been fed to horses for years so it's not going to make all of them instantly lame. You just increase your odds of it and things like colic happening. Plus it's just plain unhealthy for a horse. When I was younger we fed oats and sometimes large amounts of sweet feed to our horses. After taking some very good equine veterinary classes and hanging around a horse forum I will never feed grain again. There are better things which are both healthy, more digestible, and less likely to cause illness like colic and founder.