Laminitis - a life without grass
Spring is here! With the ground drying up (hopefully!) and the ground warming up the grass is beginning to grow. For many horse owners this leads to the management and worry about laminitis. Laminitis is a debilitating disease that requires lifelong management and often has fatal consequences. Liverpool University suggests that Laminitis has 3 main causes, overload, when one limb is overloaded due to injury of the opposite limb, Inflammatory Laminitis, resulting from severe systemic illness and absorption of toxins into the blood stream and Metabolic Laminitis which include PPID and EMS, obesity predisposes horses with these conditions to laminitis but it is not the only causing factor.
Management of Laminitis is dependent on what is causing the Laminitis. If your horse has PPID then appropriate treatment in the form of Peroglide, known in the UK as Prascend, will dramatically reduce the likelihood of suffering with Laminitis. The horse may even be able to have turnout onto grass as long as the hormones are under control and their weight is managed. It should be remembered that late Summer/early Autumn are high risk times for PPID sufferers and any turnout should be discussed with your vet and strictly monitored.
If your horse has EMS it is very important to get their hormone levels under control, a research project carried out by University of Liverpool in collaboration with University of Edinburgh showed that all EMS sufferers on their project were able to be turned out onto grass when their hormones were carefully monitored and body condition carefully managed. Please note these horses were being very carefully monitored and you should not change your management routines without consultation with your vet. UK grass pasture has very high sugar content and this can be very dangerous for horses to graze. If you have a horse with a metabolic condition it is likely that you will be looking at a period of time, which may be lifelong, of restricted or total removal of grass paddock turnout.
So, how can this be managed whilst also meeting the behavioural needs of your horse? A horse needs to have a good quality of life and the prospect of having a life worth living if they recover from a bout of laminitis. It is an incredibly painful condition and it can have lifelong consequences for the management of the horse. All horses should have access to other horses to meet their social needs, forage for at least 18 hours a day ideally ad lib and finally movement, horses on turnout maintain a level of fitness through their own movement, which will aid with weight loss.
It is incredibly hard for horse owners to be able to keep their laminitis prone horse in a large enough area to meet all of those needs. But prevention is better than cure. There are a variety of new management systems for horses that are becoming available to horse owners. Track systems can work brilliantly for laminitis prone horses, having a narrow track around a field or through woodland, with little to no grass. The tracks have hay feeding points, lounging areas, narrower areas, wider areas and a variety of shelter options around them with water at various points, this encourages the horses to keep moving. On a surfaced track a herd of horses can live out year round, if there is a good amount of shelter the horses should be able to winter out without the issue of poaching the ground, mud related skin conditions and they will not have to be stabled on their own. A track will also open up the rest of the field to be kept for hay production, to help with the cost of feeding all of the horses year round. Where a surfaced track is not viable a temporary track can be made with electric fencing, this could be up for the dry months of the year when grass growth and sugar content is high.
An interesting concept that was developed by Jane and Stuart Myers is The Equicentral system which focuses on providing a natural lifestyle for horses, encouraging group living and natural rhythms of movement and grazing. This system revolves around soil health and incorporates rotational grazing with ad lib hay available as this reduces and even eliminates horse insecurity around food which can lead to gorging behaviour and resource guarding. The land is managed by having a central loafing area with a constant supply of hay, in wet conditions the horses can be restricted into this loafing area to save poaching the other areas. By having several grazing areas the sward height is maintained at a longer length which increases its fibre content and reduces the sugar levels. This system can be adapted to suit small as well as larger properties.
If neither of these systems are possible in your situation then as you plan your horses’ day you should be considering how you can meet their behavioural needs to the best of your ability. Can you reduce the quality of the forage and increase the amount? Are you able to provide hay in a variety of different ways to allow choice, some loose on the floor, some high in a net to replicate browsing and some in small holed nets. By soaking a proportion of their daily hay allowance in different flavoured herbal teas you are adding an element of scent and taste enrichment to further increase choice in their day. Horse toys can add novelty to the day, but monitor their use so they don’t create high levels of frustration. Horses bedded on straw are shown to be less likely to develop stereotypical behaviours. Tree branches, which are safe to be eaten can be added to their area occasionally, bark and twigs are a natural part of their diet. There are many other types of enrichment you can utilise which can include training, social time or stable arrangement.
The key to enrichment is to increase choice, promote natural behaviours and ensure you change it regularly to retain novelty.
If your horse has succumbed to laminitis already it is important to follow your vets advice regarding the best treatment and recovery programme for your horse. Laminitic horses in recovery often spend time on box rest, which can lead to a variety of stereotypy developing or even aggression through frustration. Some horses can become very anxious if separated from their companions or when stabled, box walking or other behavioural problems might slow their physical recovery. If this occurs a behaviourist can assist you in making changes to your horses’ environment and daily management to work out the best way to meet your horses’ specific needs. A behaviourist would work with your vet where necessary to ensure your horse gets their behavioural needs met in the best way which will complement their physical recovery.