So, of course I know the BO's know Laz and know when he's fine and when he's not. But you know when you just need to put your eyes on your baby to make yourself feel better?
Yes, of course you all do!
So...after my appointments, I raced to the farm.
Whew
Angel face was face first in his hay with a good, wet mouth
"Mmmmm, nnmoommm, Hey Mom...mmmmmmmMMM'
Can you see the cutest little pink tongue and tooth!?
Ignore the mud
Ignore the mane
Too many years in Hunter/Jumper as a kid....what can I say, it bothers me that Laz looks like a mess, but OH WELL, he's happy! :)
I chose to not ride and just hand walk him. I decided after how I mowed over Thanksgiving, I needed to walk too. Laz had a nice pep in his step and was acting 100% normal, but who doesn't benefit from a nice walk?
Thanks to Karla for this cooking inspiration of a witch brew slurpee!
She makes a custom one for her sweet girl, Honey.
I used what I could, due to Laz being intolerant of sugars.
I first called my vet and talked to Cliff about their thoughts and put this together:
Warm water, a scoop (tablespoon?) of salt, 1/2 cup of his Triple Crown L/S, some hay fines-about a fistfull, and two mouth-chopped up carrots. Stirred and let sit for about 35 minutes to soak and cool down while we took a walk.
When we came back inside-Laz loved it and made a mess!
He slurped, gulped, chewed and then DOVE into the bucket (nostrils under which of course I thought...great, now I'm drowning my baby) and picked out the carrots!
It felt so satisfying to get that water in him!!! Of course it required a good nose cleaning afterwards because he look like a mess. I plan on buying him some 50/50 hay cubes or Orchard grass pellets to soak instead of using his grain. This should be fun! I hope it proves to do him good in hydrating him and not causes any GUT issues. Vet felt it was OK to do daily or every other as I'm there to encourage the liquids primarily.
Vet wants no bran mashes for him because of the fact of any drastic change in feed, could change the micro-organisms in the GUT and may cause an endotoxin release. BAD for laminitic horses...like really bad. He stated too that even though bran mash is mostly fiber, there is also carbs in it, that as we know-turn to sugar. Especially NO Molasses, sugar, apples, bananas, etc for him. Makes sense. I just hope that even though the vet/farrier agreed to do hay cubes, that is Ok for Laz. The Vet was actually OK with the Aloe Vera although he stated to make sure NO sugars in it and start slowly. I may wait on this....
I do LOVE when my notes between the Vet and the trimmer seem to work together, makes it so less stressful for me! Why I didn't stick with my childhood plan of "When I grow up, I want to be a vet for horsies" is beyond me. I could have saved myself major stress and money.
Hay cubes work really well - just make sure they are all broken up after soaking and any tough bits removed. You can even leave all the soaking water - don't drain - the horses like to drink the soaking water.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking. Could you imagine if Denali and Laz could have a foal together?? That thing would be a hot mess before it even hit the ground.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Laz!! Could you add salt to his diet or electrolytes to encourage him to drink more?
BTW, I've driven out to the barn at 11:30 at night because I just had a "bad feeling" and although my trainer said that she was fine, I wanted to see for myself.
ReplyDeleteImagine the gas money we could save if our horses could just stay healthy!!
omg-bite your tongue. That love child would come out sweet and lovable with an appetite for CASH only! :) Thank god Laz is gelded.
ReplyDeleteGas money...yikes. How about wrinkles from stress ;)
Soaked hay cubes/pellets are an awesome idea; and I'm sure Laz will be happy about it, as well! I believe the cubes have more long-stem fiber, so probably the better option -- but, like Kate said, make sure ya soak them really well.
ReplyDeleteAnd, ya know, another funny thing about bran mashes -- people think,"Oh, I am getting all this fiber into my horse," because, for US, bran has a lot of fiber. But when you compare it to a horse's normal diet (lots of roughage -- hay & grass), it actually has LOW fiber.
I read that, a long time ago, mill owners were trying to figure out what to do with wheat bran (I guess it's some kind of a leftover or by-product --?) and they decided to market it to horse owners. Well, if that's true, it definitely worked, because so many horse peeps are bran-mash-crazy!
Laz looks GREAT -- muddy and fuzzy, sure, but happy & HEALTHY! :-D
Miles LOVES soaked anything, but especially his hay cubes:) I agree, it's great to get some water in their system through their feed. I take out gallons of hot water to the barn since they don't have hot water there. By the time I pour it on his beet pulp and hay cubes it's warm and he just slurps it up:)
ReplyDeleteI also laughed at you being bothered by a dirty horse:) I CANNOT work Miles at all unless he's clean, even if it takes an hour...of course, clean is relative, but I can't stand dried mud on my boy:) Stupid hunter background-now I know what to blame!~Laz is adorable as always, mud or no mud.
So glad Laz liked is Slurpee! I hadn't thought about hiw much you would have to change it from what I give Honey, but the idea is the same, a little bit of solids for flavor and a whole lot of water!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh too about the Laz and Denali love child, lol.
So glad to hear somebody else who thinks bran mashes are the complete devil! I hate them!
ReplyDeleteHave you looked at seabuckhorn? I've seen horses have good results from that. But you know I love my ALOE! (And yup, only the stuff that is 99.8++ aloe juice ONLY with NO starches, sugars, or fillers of any sort!) I still can't say enough good things about it!
And.... that is definitely SNOW on the ground, I see!!
Sounds like you are right on top of this. Good for you and Laz now has a new treat that's safe for him too. Pretty cool all the way around.
ReplyDeleteYou are such a good horse mom!
ReplyDeleteI've often thought the same thing on the vet thing lol. Would have saves a TON of stress and money. :) Well I don't know about money, because I don't know how much the school costs.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad he's doing good and enjoyed his slurpy. I might do that with Chrome too. I was reading an article in a horse magazine about ways to prevent winter related problems and keeping them hydrated was one of them. :)