Haven't posted on here in a while... my baby boy, Locket who was born with various other problems a long with an undershot jaw is now 2yrs old and was discussing him with vet today when getting his teeth checked.
He still has a few niggly problems and dispite vet/edt trying a new thing to see if it would correct his jaw alignment he still has his bottom jaw about 2" longer than his top. Me and vet were discussing his best management today and could do with some advice.
So he can graze.. not great on short grass but fine on long, but i still have to watch for laminitis (founders) in him on long grass. So thinking of a routine that allows him some time on the long grass, some time in the paddock with short grass so he can still play with his friend and sometime in another paddock with hay.
I've also been advised that the way he is angling his middle front teeth on the bottom he is likely to loose them... (at the moment they is still his baby ones but he is likely to loose the adult ones as well eventually)
Weight wise he doesn't do great. He is still on hard feed now when everyone else isn't really on any as all looking fat and happy, he is still ribby. He also struggles to keep himself warm, vet said its quite likely due to the fact it could be linked to his eating problems, as not getting enough energy from his feed to keep himself warm and hence loosing more weight keeping himself warm... so i do rug him as well.
Whilst i've had locket since he was born this is still a very new thing for me to deal with, even vets don't have much experiance with it as its not so common (and whilst it has been mention on here by people that he could be a minimal dwarf.. even less is know about that over here in the UK... my vet has no experiance with that!)
I'm hoping we've cracked his digestive problems, last summer i discovered he couldn't have hay and certain hard feeds as would give him cronic diaorhea and make him really bloated. He was given haylage over winter, fed well and given supplements to help the digestive system and (fingers crossed/touchwood) we seem to be settling that side down.. he has since manage to cope with hay this spring so hopefully we are getting somewhere.
Any advice on how best to care for my little man? I want to do the best by him.. but don't want to have to seperate him from the large group of minis he calls his friends/family as i don't think he'd be very happy at all!
Rarely able to feed him anymore than twice a day and they don't need hay.
He still has a few niggly problems and dispite vet/edt trying a new thing to see if it would correct his jaw alignment he still has his bottom jaw about 2" longer than his top. Me and vet were discussing his best management today and could do with some advice.
So he can graze.. not great on short grass but fine on long, but i still have to watch for laminitis (founders) in him on long grass. So thinking of a routine that allows him some time on the long grass, some time in the paddock with short grass so he can still play with his friend and sometime in another paddock with hay.
I've also been advised that the way he is angling his middle front teeth on the bottom he is likely to loose them... (at the moment they is still his baby ones but he is likely to loose the adult ones as well eventually)
Weight wise he doesn't do great. He is still on hard feed now when everyone else isn't really on any as all looking fat and happy, he is still ribby. He also struggles to keep himself warm, vet said its quite likely due to the fact it could be linked to his eating problems, as not getting enough energy from his feed to keep himself warm and hence loosing more weight keeping himself warm... so i do rug him as well.
Whilst i've had locket since he was born this is still a very new thing for me to deal with, even vets don't have much experiance with it as its not so common (and whilst it has been mention on here by people that he could be a minimal dwarf.. even less is know about that over here in the UK... my vet has no experiance with that!)
I'm hoping we've cracked his digestive problems, last summer i discovered he couldn't have hay and certain hard feeds as would give him cronic diaorhea and make him really bloated. He was given haylage over winter, fed well and given supplements to help the digestive system and (fingers crossed/touchwood) we seem to be settling that side down.. he has since manage to cope with hay this spring so hopefully we are getting somewhere.
Any advice on how best to care for my little man? I want to do the best by him.. but don't want to have to seperate him from the large group of minis he calls his friends/family as i don't think he'd be very happy at all!
Rarely able to feed him anymore than twice a day and they don't need hay.