He's here!
The first photo does not do him justice, he has glorious big brown eyes and is extremely handsome as I hope you can see from the second.
But it does show you exactly what his problems are. One, he's a porky boy (known to his friends as "Fat Boy") - I can't even feel his ribs. I have to say that he has an ability to eat food, even from a doubled up small-holed haynet, at a rate that I have never seen in my life before. It's shocking, seriously, how he manages to stuff his face full of food. And it's his downfall, because he has the classic fatty crest of an insulin resistant horse.
Next, look at that toe first footfall. That is a pretty clear example, and a complete explanation of how he got the navicular syndrome. We have to control his diet to reduce the sensitivity of his feet to allow him to have his shoes taken off and strengthen his heel, which will let him put his feet down heel first which will then cure the soft tissue damage he has been causing himself with a toe first landing.
Simples! Well, probably not, but maybe not as difficult as it might have been. He does have a history of being fine when stabled even though on commercial hard food and unsoaked meadow hay. Grass is a complete no-no, he's been on bare paddocks and still been reacting to it. Trickle feeding will also be a must. If I left him enough haylage now to last all night it would be gone in an hour's time, or less. Seriously, I've never seen a horse eat like him - as if he was starving.
On the plus side too, his soles may be thin but they are hard. And as soon as the shoes are taken off he will have his frogs in contact with the floor, they are not contracted up into his feet like a lot of Spanish horses.
He is currently mostly sound on a straight line but clearly off when turned on a circle. My first priority is his diet, then the shoes, and then to do whatever work he is comfortable doing. He may be sound on the arena surface quite soon. I would hope so and then he can do some work to keep him amused.
There's been a bit of squealing going on but no nasty behaviour, though I have no intention of mixing him with Jazz, who we know can be ferocious with a newcomer. I may split them 2 and 2 but I'm not sure yet how things will settle down.
I know Nik will be reading this, and I would like to congratulate her on being strong enough to do the right thing for her horse. She bred him, and it was a very difficult thing for her to do to admit that she can't give him the life he needs and to leave him with me. It's my good fortune to have been entrusted with such a lovely horse.
C
ps you will need to read the comments as well, because there is more information in them.
posted by cptrayes @ 4:33 PM
15 comments
15 Comments:
"as if he was starving"
I suspect it feels like that to him, or he wouldn't do it. So glad the snow did not arrive.
Isn't this wanting to eat a symptom of the condition?
He is a lovely horse. Good luck with him.
He IS starving. I went and watched him eat his beet pulp with 100g brewer's yeast and 15g MgO and 50mg copper in it, then tied him up a tiny-holed haynet. With both things he ate as if he was completely ravenous. It wasn't normal, it really wasn't. It was obsessive, like he is a little bit mad when there is food around.
I have googled it and extreme hunger is a feature of insulin resistance. So he is starving. Well, he's not, but his brain is telling him that he is. The solution is to feed him a constant trickle feed of high fibre, so that his blood glucose levels stabilise and he does not release insulin which crashes them again, causing the hunger. Thank goodness he lives at home!
Tomorrow we are going to go and buy a small hole hayrack and then line that with chicken wire. He'll have trouble getting more than a few strands of haylage out of that, and hopefully we can make him trickle feed himself.
Meanwhile I will be feeding him again at ten and then early tomorrow and every few hours during the day, on my very-low-calorie haylage.
He really is a lovely boy and will be worth the effort, I think. And I am learning a lot here!
C
Bless him, he IS a hungry FatBoy.
Actually when he's in work his weight is much, much easier to manage - when he's not working he's a complete nightmare and all he thinks about is FOOD!!
Trying to put enough hay out in the paddock so that his sisters actually got any was not easy. Be warned that he will happily eat and wood or fencing should it necome necessary! He doesn't like creosote though....
Lovely to meet you both today and the very best of luck with my lovely boy. He's left a very big hole at my little yard tonight and his sisters won't stop screaming!
Allan is about to line the only remaining piece of his stable door frame with aluminium sheet Nikki, thanks for the warning! He is settled nicely tonight and did not seem at all anxious that the others went into the barn. He knows that they are close by and the haylage was far more important. He is a lovely gentle chap, isn't he?
As a matter of interest he's also the first horse that I have ever met who has double ergots on the back fetlocks. I've never come across that before.
I'll be checking him again before I go to bed, and delivering another lot of haylage.
I know that you will worry about him. Please try not to, I will be looking after with even more care than I do the others.
C
He looks great, I've got room in my dry lot for a nice Iberian chap and I don't mind greys :)
Look forward to hearing about his progress.
It took our IR horse a couple of months to loose the excessive eating thing, during that time he was also obsessive about his salt bucket, I think that may have been for the potassium, after that he was much more normal and will now pick at his food and walk away leaving some.
Tracey (Cloud_Cirrus)
Sounds just like hypoglycemia in people, and is to some degree I am sure. He IS handsome! I have always loved greys, in fact learned how to canter on one (45 years ago!). Can he be fed hay or haylage mixed with straw to decrease carbohydrates but keep the volume up?
Good luck with the handsome new boy!
he's lovely! enjoy...
this sort of thing might be the answer, if A can put something together? http://www.doublel.com/haygrazer.html (they're too expensive to import, i've always fancied one)
Watch he doesn't start scraping his teeth down the aluminium, that's a toxin (came back off the scale in our other IR boy).
Tracey
Oh, he is lush :)
Very best of luck with him Caroline, I really hope you can help him out.
It does sink my heart a little to hear some of his physical symptoms. Navicular aside, he sounds just like my Luso :(
He is beautiful. Here are some more high hopes that you can bring him around and get him sound enough to enjoy life again.
It will be very interesting reading the story as it progresses.
Tracey please email me if you are serious. I'll watch for biting the Aluminium, thanks for the warning. Creosote everywhere then!
Same thing ML I think. Also known as the munchies by cannabis users!
Claire he needs holes less than an inch by an inch, he is an absolute expert in getting masses of food out of a very small hole haynet!
He is nice, isn't he Danni? He's very sweet too, Jean, very worthwhile to spend the effort on.
C
Yum he's nice......oooh can't wait to see the progress. re insulin resistance, I believe that cinnamon added to the diet is able to reduce the symptoms. Must be a study on it somewhere..Tracey???
ah well, it was a thought!
There is research in humans on the use of cinnamon to help insulin levels, in the past I have used normal ground cinnamon, 1tsp per day and also cinnamon tincture at 10ml. It's in a lot of the herbal IR/Metabolic feed supplements.
Tracey
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