Avoid grazing lush pastures especially between late morning and late afternoon hours since plant sugars are the highest during these times.
Avoiding laminitis in pasture.
Managing pastures seek veterinarian approval before grazing horses prone to or with previous episodes of laminitis.
In a 2016 study menzies gow et al followed 446 animals on pasture over a period of three years.
There are several steps owners can take to avoid pasture associated laminitis in the spring.
The best way to deal with laminitis is preventing the causes under your control.
Make dietary changes slowly.
Laminitis grazing management can help you to do this.
They found both prior laminitis and development of acute laminitis correlated well with indicators of insulin resistance.
Limit pasture intake particularly when sugar content is expected to be high and prevent manage insulin resistance.
So prevention of laminitis is two fold.
First what it s not there is zero evidence to support the idea that naturally occurring spring pasture laminitis is related to fructan and hind gut.
If you have a sensitive horse you must manage pastures carefully.
The accumulation of certain carbohydrates including fructans starches and sugars non structural carbohydrates nsc in pasture forage during the spring early summer and fall particularly after rainfall precipitate this laminitis.
There was no increase of fructan in the pasture when laminitis cases appeared nor no indication of diarrhea or hindgut upset.
There are several steps owners can take to avoid pasture associated laminitis in the spring.
Theoretically at least every horse is at risk of developing laminitis if he gorges himself on enough young pasture grass in a short enough period of time to result in severe gut upset.
Make all dietary changes slowly.
Therefore we must carefully manage pasture turnout and.
If your horse has been on a specific type of hay or other forage over the past few months do not suddenly turn it out on pasture for the bulk of every day.
Use grazing muzzles or turn out horses on dry lots.
Avoid grazing for all horses at risk of laminitis.
As your horse pastures spring back to life it may be wise to consider limiting your horse s pasture grazing time.
Spring is the peak time for grass associated laminitis in most parts of the world.
You can effectively treat or better yet prevent it but only if you understand the mechanism.
Research has shown that pasture induced laminitis occurs at times of rapid grass growth.
The only way to truly know the sugar content of your pasture is to have it tested.
Avoid grazing pastures with a lot of seed heads.
However sugar glucose and fructan content can fluctuate throughout the day and over several days.
The lower part of a plant may contain the highest amount of sugar.
