Wednesday, July 29, 2009

How should I manage weight on my hypp horse with navicular?

My Impressive quarter horse is heterozygous for hypp. His vet said to keep him grazing or on hay as much as possible. All was well while I was working him and weight was not a problem.
Now he has navicular and I can no longer ride him. I have had him to New Bolton a number of times for shoes and testing and the conclusion is that the best we can do is make him pasture comfortable.
This guy is my best buddy and we are both content to just groom him and spend time with him, but he is getting heavy from lack of exercise.
What can I do to keep him in shape without cutting back on pasture?
Answers:
Hi, this is not a fun combination! Lets start with the HYPP, with HYPP as I'm sure you know, the key issue is in maintaining levels of the potassium down in order to stray from attacks . Homozygous horses are greater affected than heterozygous horses. The best thing is usually to allow these horses to remain on grass pasture since the potassium levels are lower in pastures. It is best to feed HYPP horses grass or oats when in pasture, and since you are trying to avoid weight gain, and because alfalfa is higher in potassium and fat, it is best to stay away from it all together or if you must use it to blend it with a grass hay. Make sure that you are also allowing for plenty of salt intake to ensure generous water consumption.
With the Navicular, we need to avoid any excesses of Vitamin D and other unnecessary minerals since Navicular is usually caused by an imbalance or lack of minerals among other factors, but since we are discussing feed, this is probably the key concept we need to stick to.
Are you feeding plain grains or a commercial feed? The reason I ask is that there are vitamins and minerals added to commercial feeds and if you are feed vitamins from several different sources you start to minimize and even loose control over the overall balance.
Has your vet put your horse on any Niacin for circulation or any bone density growth supplements to try to rid of the Navicular?
Also, is your animal on any medication for the HYPP? Is he on Diamox or any type of acetazolamide?
Depending on the severity of his attacks, you probably already know to use a large amount of caution in how you excersise the horse. Daily walking would more than likely work best depending on the severity of both the Navicular and the tying up.
Sometimes some of the medication (if any are being given) can cause weight gain, so since your vet is the only one who knows what your horse is on, which is usually acetazolamide for horses with HYPP, then he is going to be the only one who can safely direct you on the matter of what to do so that you do not disrupt the already hard to maintain balance of this horse or allow any chances for adverse reactions.
There is a product out there manufactured by TLC Animal Nutrition called DBG Mineral. If you can find it, (I think they sell it online), it may help aid you in your efforts to rid of the Navicular, but you also need to supplement with Niacin and a blend of other proteins and electrolytes. I will try to find a link and post it later if I have any success, but you should definitely look into the products and see if it interests you depending on what you have already tried with your horse. To avoid any tying up, it is best that to make sure that any changes whatsoever that you implement be done with extreme caution. Again, I think your vet should be the one to help you with this since he/she is the only one who holds the horse's chart.
I hope that answers your question and good luck with your baby! He sounds like he has some really great owners!
Well, this may not be the exact answer you're hoping for. I'm assuming you don't want to cut back on his pasture time, but don't care if he grazes less?
You can buy a grazing muzzle for him and put it on for a few hours a day to prevent him from grazing. He'll still be able to drink.
Has the vet mentioned the option of clipping the nerve? It won't make him fully ridable again because he can still get hurt and just not feel it, but that may allow you to lunge him or do a little light riding.
At the very least, maybe you could ask your vet about giving him a dose of Bute a couple times a week so you can exercise him.
Good luck!
Here is some info I found on diet and prevention of episodes...I will include a link to the site as well.
"Dietary management is extremely important in the management of affected horses. Dietary adjustments include (1) avoiding high potassium feeds such as alfalfa hay, brome hay, canola oil, soybean meal or oil, and sugar molasses and beet molasses, and replacing them with timothy or Bermuda grass hay, grains such as oats, corn, wheat and barley, and beet pulp; (2) feeding several times a day; and (3) exercising regularly and/or being allowed frequent access to a large paddock or yard. Due to the high water content of pasture grass, a horse is unlikely to consume large amounts of potassium in a short period of time if kept on pasture. If the horse is experiencing problems on its present diet, it is recommended to feed a diet containing between 0.6% and 1.5% total potassium concentrations.
Several drugs have been used for prevention of clinical episodes of paralysis. Horses have been treated with either acetazolamide (2-4 mg/kg orally, every 8 to 12 hours) or hydrochlorthiazide (0.5-1 mg/kg orally, every 12 hours) with apparent success. These agents exert their effects through different mechanisms; however, both cause increased renal potassium ATPase activity. Acetazolamide has been shown to stabilize blood glucose and potassium by stimulating insulin secretion. Breed registries have restrictions on the use of these drugs during competitions (some require a veterinary certificate).
Inform your veterinarian of the HYPP condition prior to any general anesthesia, as this may precipitate an episode of paralysis. If your horse is receiving medication, maintain him or her on therapy before and after surgery or anesthesia. Use common sense while hauling and be sure to stop and water horses frequently (every two hours).
During a severe attack of HYPP, emergency treatment from a veterinarian is necessary. For long term therapy, many horses can be managed by exercise and diet control alone. Regular exercise and access to a large paddock or pasture is preferred over stall confinement. Maintain a regular feeding schedule, preferably equally spaced, two to three times per day. Avoid rapid changes in feed, such as bringing a horse off pasture grass and immediately switching to alfalfa hay. Most horses improve when the potassium content in the diet is decreased."
I'm afraid you know the answer to your question, just hoping for a miracle, huh? I can't blame you, we all do that. Well, unfortunately if you can't exercise him then the only way to control his weight is by controlling his intake- no matter how you look at it. I'm sorry about your buddy, at least you still have him though. Best Wishes!
Well since he cant be ridden I suggest you free lunge him-- all you have to do is take him in an enclosed area or a PASTURE with higher fences so he doesn't jump out and wave a lunge whip around. This way he's not doing tight circles which are bad for the joints but he's still getting excersize-- just do this about 30 mins a day (but don't always make him canter) and then work up to an hour. Just make sure it's OK with his condition and maybe ask the vet if he/she reccomends bute at all for the days he gets excersized. If it's NOT ok for him to be free lunged then put a grazing muzzle on him-- it doesnt let the horses eat as fast so they intake less over all =) Just make sure that he still drinks and eats with it on, my horses didn't like his so he wouldn't drink his water with it on!
i have a horse with laminitis so he wont ever be able to go back on the kind of pasture hes eating, but if what you mean but not wanting to cut back on pasture is that you dont want to have to keep him a dirt pen or stall for half the day, then maybe you could use pannels or fencing to reduce the size of his pasture, then hes outside all day and still eating, but the grass intake will be way less. also to stop new horses from foundering when they first arrive the barn our barn managers cut the grass really short, maybe you could do this is his pasture, it really does make a difference
Natural trim. My horse was diagonesed with nivicular, and now he is galloping around with the rest of the herd! You can ride him whatever. He is an AQH too, loves to sprint, shows off to our TB/Perhron we have=) But please take it in consideration! You said you went to NEw Boltn right? Shoes, and everything else, did it work? I read about one case she went to a very high up there vet clinc, put shoes on, still would come up lame this and that after 5 months of her horse on bute and pain, she said take the shoes off! SHe kept her horse out 24/7, and found the barefoot trim online, she got a natrual trimmer down right away and in about half a year he was show jumping again! Yes it takes time, what is more important, a horses life, or a few minutes of riding while the horse is on bute? Please take this in consideration.
Walk him around! Not a hard workout but a nice refreshment. Lounge him or Take a walk, my horse has navicular, too. It doesn't take much to keep your horse in shape.

No comments:

Post a Comment