A friend of mine has a mare that keeps foundering within a week or so of being put out to pasture. Once she's in the corral for a bit with her feed intake regulated, she gets better. But they hate keeping her away from the other horses. She gets lonely. Any advice?
Answers:
There's still a lot we don't know about founder, but what we do know suggests strong links between laminitis and the high sugars and fats found in green grasses. Horses prone to founder are those who are introduced abruptly to pastures after having been on hay and grain for months before that. The abrupt switch over to grass can upset the horse's digestive system and start the process of swelling in the lamina which is a key indicator of founder. In order to avoid founder, the following steps should be taken:
If you have a horse that's been off grass for a period of a month or more, you need to take care to wean it back onto grass slowly. Start by hand grazing the horse for ten to fifteen minutes a day for a week. Then increase the time period to twenty or thirty minutes for the following week. During the third week, the horse can be grazed for forty-five minutes. Start grazing it for an hour in the fourth week. After that, you can increase the amount of time the horse spends on grass by an additional hour each week, working gradually up to a full day. This slow introduction allows the horse's body to get used to processing the added sugars and fats found in rich, green grass. It's not a simple or quick process, but it will help prevent founder.
If the mare's foundered several times, though, you should definitely have her evaluated by a vet. She may not be in good enough condition to be grazed at all at this point.
shoot it
If she can halter her in the pasture put a mussel on thee halter that does not allow her to graze pull her out of the pasture 2 times a day to feed her. Make sure she is able to drink with it on
She needs to talk to her veterinarian about what she's doing wrong to cause the founder. If nothing can be found that she's doing wrong, she needs to consult the vet about possible Cushing's disease in her horse. Equine Cushing-like syndrome (not true Cushings, but it matches the parameters closely enough to call it the same thing) is a common instigator in chronic founder.
Please encourage her to get to the bottom of the problem asap, chronic founder is crippling, and eventually fatal.
bring another horse in with her
Some horses founder on the lush fast growing grass of spring pastures. In fact, most horses should have their pasture time limited when conditions are like that. The grazing muzzle will help as mentioned before, as well as using a temporary electric fence to keep her and a buddy in a smaller area within the pasture. Surely at least one of the others gets overweight in the spring and could be kept up in the corral with her at least during the evening and night.
They may hate it if she gets lonely, but founder is nothing to take lightly. Here are some links to share, there are many others.
http://www.ecmagazine.net/fall02htm/lami...
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/health/110-la...
Get her a grazing muzzle (has a little hole in the bottom so she can pick at grass and allows her to drink). If she's wearing it she can go be part of the herd and won't have to be isolated in a dry lot. Just make sure she can't take it off by herself!
Good advice...bring another in, grazing muzzle or simply limit her time in the pasture. Suddenly turning them out come spring and letting them graze to their hearts content isn't good. It has to be done gradually...never had a problem and I've always done it that way.
Can you get another animal, perhaps a goat, that will serve as a companion to this mare? That way, you can keep her off the rich pasture that is triggering her condition, and better regulate her food intake. It might also be worth looking into getting another horse to serve as a companion to this mare as well. Other than that, I don't have a lot of suggestions, except to have your vet evalutate the mare and follow his or her advice regarding feeding. A grazing muzzle may be your only alternative if getting a companion doesn't work. Good luck, I hope this helps.
They should restrict her access to lush pasture. I feed a low-carb grain. Founder is a killer. Once a horse founders, that rotation does not go away even after the hoof heals.
Keep a buddy with her for loneliness.
My best advise for them is to just put someone with her or put her in a small, cut grass pasture with a friend.
Foundering can ruin a horses quality of life, and lonely or not, if she founders in a full/lush pasture I would keep her away from it.
That is what we did with our pony. I mowed out a small pasture that was mostly dirt anyway. Regulated his food intake and he did really really well. His pasture was next to the other horses so that he could see him.
Another thing they could try, that could or could not help is a grazing mussel. That will regulate her intake of pasture.
Good Luck with it and I hope the grazing mussel works because horses are herd animals and it is sad when you have to separate them.
try a muzzle to let her eat grass, but not that much. Limit time in her pasture
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