EMS and a track system- anyone have any experience of it?

[pearlieking1977]

Hi Guys,

Friend has a lovely 4 year old Appy x Cob who is typical EMS sufferer. Puffy eyes, fat pads, cresty and just had a bout of laminitis out of seemingly nowhere.

She's a lovely caring lady, and he horses are very well cared for. She's doing all the right things, soaked hay restricted turn out on a soft surface. He's losing weight and looking much better each day. Has a track system worked for any body?

Any hints or tips, he is not fed hard feed and is in work, she is very diligent, everything is low sugar/starch etc.

Any information gratefully received or your own experiences?

[snigsby]

I can't comment on the EMS but I can sing the praises of a track system,having briefly had my boys on one a year or so ago.

The owner had bought an old 9 hole golf course which was perfect for establishing a tracksystem with little grass fields here and there. There was hard standing with hay at 3 places and a natural pond to drink from. My boys settled in within a day or so and absolutely loved the way the herd moved from place to place over the course of the day and night. It certainly encouraged movement and natural herd behaviour.

When I win the Lottery..........

[quest]

Nancy went down with laminitis and EMS last year. She had box rest, ad lib soaked hay, Metacam (being a princess she's convinced bute is poison) and Metaformin (18 tablets twice daily!!!). Also she was very impressed with her new silver heart shaped shoes. All of that was done under the vet. Since then I've put her on a course of rus Tox and insulin Homeopathic tablets and made a track system In a figure if 8 leaving 2 smaller fields in the middle. She and SFH love the tracks and prefer them over the fields. I was also told she should have an hour a day walking and the track system delivers this nicely, it's also useful for hacking round it's surprising how many games you can play. I really think the tracks work well and am going to divide the 2 small fields again. Make more tracks. I've made them with electric fencing and each track has a gate at each end so I can close and filter them as I think necessary. This is on about 3.5 acres. I'm also planting trees for interest, leaving the land un trimmed and encouraging other plants and herbs to grow. As I understand it, with EMS it's keeping the sugar content in balance with the work. Nancy is now 25 so her idea of work is a leisurely hack. Also it's important to keep food (soaked hay) ad lib as if they think they are going to be short of food they will pig out and bingo poorly horse. I'm feeding her on a laminitis approved chaff and balancer, and so far she's doing well. I'll know more after the spring growth.

As an aside on feeding ad lib, there is a suggestion that horses will self regulate if allowed to and have the correct feed balance. I'm trying this with SFH (Short Fat & Hairy) and yes she did pig out for the first couple of weeks but now she leaves some hay and her weight is stable. Might be worth considering.

[snigsby]

I am very fortunate to rent,for a minimal charge of £200 plus a bottle of whiskey, 7 acres that I can use all year round and I'd love to put up a track system. However, its quite wet in places (by wet, I mean deep mud and rushes). It suits my boys fine as they are all good doers and seem to manage to avoid the wet bits,mostly. It would be too hard to manage electric fencing as the grass is too overgrown and it would short it out also,the owner sometimes puts a few sheep or cattle on it for a week or so (he has a lot of farms and land in the area) and they wreck electric fencing

But I agree with you,quest, horses love a good track system. I sometimes think,if I took an aerial photo of my field that it would show that the boys have set up their own set of paths in a kind of DIY track system!

Also, re the adlib forage - as I have got older and less able, I look for ways of cutting down on the work and a couple of years ago, spent a fortune on a big plastic shell to put over a big round bale,HayBell,its called. Khan, who is now rising 22 and who has had 4 teeth out,loves it and I believe he has come through the last couple of years so well because he has the leisure to chomp away for as long as he wants to. The vet diagnosed him with Cushings 4 years ago (long story) but he is currently looking fab - you'd never know!

The other thing I have done is to rug much less than I used to. Rafferty (aka BB) had laminitis in December and the vet said firmly that he had to lose weight or die. He was fully clipped (except for legs and head) and left naked except on cold nights and he is looking slimmer and his crest is now wobbly and less obvious. He wears a muzzle at all times in the field and I was worried about him having continuing access to the haylage (he can't have hay because of his breathing difficulties) but so far,so good.

Khan hasn't had a single skin irritation this winter despite only beig rugged in heavy rain or below zero!!!! Not even mud fever!!!