Locket is a yearling who was born not quite right. He was a late foal, mum wasn't ment to be in foal as vet scanned her empty, when he was born he had undershot jaw, enlarged joints and we had two episodes of mystery lameness.
My vet has worked to try and correct the jaw/prevent it becoming too far back, he's left with his bottom teeth and top teeth about 1 inch out. He still doesn't look 'right' to me... and something about the look of his nostrils doesn't look right to be either.. but can pinpoint what really... but in all he's a happy, playful yearling who's just been gelded.
However we seem to have some digestive problems which even baffle my vets... he does seem to suffer with diaorhea and vet said that it sounds like he has irritable bowl syndrome as he gets very bloated, cronic wind and cronic diaorhea and we spent aa few months scratching our heads trying to figure out what caused his upset tummy before finally relising it was hay.
So i'm now left with the question why can he not eat/digest hay? Even my vets are puzzled on this one... he can be on grass and he's fine, confine him and that seems to make it worse, but feed him hay and he has major problems with the diaorhea, i've tried a few different bales of hay as well (but in general just normal hay)
This really does have my puzzle and i'm not sure what i can feed him as a hay replacer.. as he is one of my therapy ponies who goes round visiting kids etc, but where there is no grass for them to munch they get ad-lib hay which he can't handle. Also as he grows up and laminitis(founders) becomes a problem what am i to feed him.... i've never come across a horse who gets diaorhea from eating hay... neither has my vet... anyone here able to shed some light?
My vet has worked to try and correct the jaw/prevent it becoming too far back, he's left with his bottom teeth and top teeth about 1 inch out. He still doesn't look 'right' to me... and something about the look of his nostrils doesn't look right to be either.. but can pinpoint what really... but in all he's a happy, playful yearling who's just been gelded.
However we seem to have some digestive problems which even baffle my vets... he does seem to suffer with diaorhea and vet said that it sounds like he has irritable bowl syndrome as he gets very bloated, cronic wind and cronic diaorhea and we spent aa few months scratching our heads trying to figure out what caused his upset tummy before finally relising it was hay.
So i'm now left with the question why can he not eat/digest hay? Even my vets are puzzled on this one... he can be on grass and he's fine, confine him and that seems to make it worse, but feed him hay and he has major problems with the diaorhea, i've tried a few different bales of hay as well (but in general just normal hay)
This really does have my puzzle and i'm not sure what i can feed him as a hay replacer.. as he is one of my therapy ponies who goes round visiting kids etc, but where there is no grass for them to munch they get ad-lib hay which he can't handle. Also as he grows up and laminitis(founders) becomes a problem what am i to feed him.... i've never come across a horse who gets diaorhea from eating hay... neither has my vet... anyone here able to shed some light?