Footy

Remi has been intermittently footy for last 10 days :-(

Initially I thought it was from boxing out to do a longer hack a few weeks ago.

Had trimmer on Monday, and he was footy on gravel and slow on concrete, and flatter landing in front. And short all four legs in school and tight through shoulders.

Not really sure why he is footy. He was fairly footy to hack Friday and Saturday. He has enough foot not to be expected to be sore due to wear on hard ground, has sufficient sole and hoof wall.

Ground is hard, but not rock hard in field. He hasn’t done that much hacking. No reaction to hoof testers, no pulses. Was short generally on lunge, and looked tight in front, and through shoulder, especially on left rein. Standing a bit funny, neck looks a bit inverted. We think is footsore in all four feet. Possible we have had a few sweeter haylage bales? Smells and tastes very sweet, and they are eating the haylage very quickly in preference to the grass. Unsure. Grass we think is drying up and losing sugar content. Haylage is also going off in heat. Bit of a nightmare.

Remi looks a bit off. Feet are flaking. Eyes slightly runny, slight heat rash. Though looks a good weight, tending to slightly too well covered (not that Remi has ever been actually fat).

Mac on the other hand looks a bit like a bullock (though not in a laminitic way). Coat bright, feet shiny, attitude bouncy, schooling nicely.

They don’t look like are on same minerals and diet and routine.

Not really sure why Remi is footy. Ground is hard. But we are sandy soil, and paddock has some grass cover. It isn’t v v hard. And he isn’t doing a lot of hacking to merit sore feet (far less than has been as is foot sore).

Remi was a bit better this morning. So will see. Lam app is confusing me. It has been green or yellow until Tuesday morning but is now off the scale red yesterday and today. Big swing.

Grass is v dry, and going brown and turning to hay. Think grass may have less sugar in it at the moment, and may be LOWER risk.

My haylage has been sweating in wrap, and seems to be a very sweet wet batch of haylage. Chewing the knots in the stems, and smelling it seems very very sweet.

I have sent some grass and some haylage off for rapid sugar testing. So see will what sugars are like. In short term I have halved their haylage, and am hoping they will eat more grass (is stalky grass in field where I am pushing fence line back, that they have not yet eaten).

If haylage is currently higher sugar than grass, I may halve again the haylage I feed, and speed up the increase their access to long grass by pushing paddock up fence line faster. But the lam app would seem to disagree with this.

I am pondering opening my whole strip up if the grass comes back lower than the haylage. Or looking for lower sugar haylage (next bales might be fine) and keeping them in grazed part if both come back high.

Bit stumped, he had been going so well after last trim, and been enjoying hacking and schooling.