I found out that these neighborhood horses are dead now, from fructan. But you can't really blame their deaths directly on the fructan in the grass - it was human error. We had only one hard freeze so far, and they were out on pasture with no supplemental hay. All 5 foundered, and all 5 were sent to slaughter for it.
I only have pics of three of them, a mama and baby Haflinger, and the yearling draft colt.
Did they have to all die? Human error is common, and Baasha was out on grass that same day. The difference must be that he wasn't getting 100% of his intake from fructan-loaded grass that day. (He has hay.)
So sad, that big draft yearling was adorable. Founder should not be a death sentence to an entire group. Someone apparently did not want to deal with it.
I typically think that horses left out in fields are the lucky ones. They get movement, grass, and fresh air. In this case I was wrong.
Babies behind barbed wire.Last winter after a hard freeze, the caretaker turned all the horses out the next day, because they can't damage the ground when it is frozen. I was surprised because I have always introduced grass slowly. It is a common practice here to allow horses out on pasture when the ground is frozen in January. I think now that these 5 horses have died, maybe people will become more aware of the danger.
I recommend safergrass.org...to people who can read English!
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11 comments:
So sorry about the five. :-(
Thanks for the links, though. That's what I will be reading this afternoon--lots of good material there.
It's a good link - that is so sad that people can't take care.
Really sad story I had no idea of the dangers.
Very sad! :( I suspect they foundered and Baasha didn't because of their breeds - ponies and drafts tend to founder easier, IIRC. It's really scary how fragile our animals are.
Maybe you and your man could translate safergrass to German?
Lytha--- I have some doubts about this. (Not that they foundered, but the root cause.) If those pics are accurate, then there isn't enough grass there to founder that herd. I'd lean more towards someone feeding them something inappropriate (ie: loaded them up with excessive carbohydrates, or loaded them up with the carbs and added in some poison.)
One hard freeze is not going to be enough to push enough fructan to cause that much damage. (In our experience that is.)
I've had horses my entire life- some out 24/7 365 in lush grass country, some in hard country with decent grass, and some stabled with limited access to grass year round. Knock wood, even well before a career in hoof care, none of them ever had a founder incident. Even ponies- no problems.
Ponies DO founder quicker than most horses- Funder was correct there. Thanks to having systems built to live on very little, a carb overload can be a disaster to them in a short amount of time. But drafts? No... I have to disagree with Funder there. Dear Husband-- a draft man from way way back-- and I both have not seen a draft founder from *just* pasture alone. Pasture with grain overload? Yes. Pasture with grain overload, heavy concussive work, and really crappy hoof care? Yes. But not from just pasture alone.
I am sorry to hear that the owners did not investigate this and treat the horses. Founder CAN be halted in its tracks. Rotation CAN be reversed. But it takes effort. And from what I see in the photos of the draft yearling, which is a colt who needed worming and worming again, and worming again, along with some proper hay, his owners weren't up to providing that effort for them anyways. The fence bothers me less than the lack of parasite prevention and decent hay....
SADDDD! Crappy sad!
I too am suspect with Mrs. mom. That draft was sooo skinny and winter is not the time for founder. I will have to read the link. I have NOT heard of drafts being typical founder case though. Humm...man this stinks!
KK
I had no idea something like this could happen. I'm so sorry they were lost.
Oh my! What a terrible story! I never imagined anything like that could happen from a freeze.
Well! Now I have to know the real reason. The owner runs the local gas station. If I can figure out a way to approach him on this...
Mrs. Mom you know the worming schedule in Europe, right? Don't get me started!
~lytha
I'd also be cautious about taking the entire fructan message to heart over this episode, sad though it is. One horse I could see (if not understand), but five horses suggests to me that something else was being seriously mismanaged.
Having seen this sort of thing before but not being familiar with this particular situation my very first thought if the horses weren't fully adapted to life on pasture is a) gorging themselves on lush grass with an empty stomach which equals b) a lack of fibre (this IS a real problem late in the fall and more so early in the spring on lush grass) and c) high sugar levels in the grass combined with d) overfeeding a high carbohydrate feed.
Diet changes need to be made slowly, with special caution warranted on early spring grass and grain feeding. Send 'em out full of hay first, cut down on the grain, increase pasture time slowly and you shouldn't have a lot of problem.
I have to join those that question the fructan founder diagnosis. I have had horses out on pasture 24/7 my entire life and never had a founder. If it were one horse I could buy it, but all five all at the exact same time? No way. Something else is going on here. Maybe they all found a poisonous weed or plant of some sort. I was also nodding my head in agreement with the post by MrsMom about the draft yearling looking extrememly wormy - that was exactly what I thought when I saw his picture.
I hate to be so judgemental but just looking at the condition of the draft and the condition of the fence the horses were not getting good care from any aspect that I can see. The fructan founder is a good cover story for plain old bad care, but IMO NOT the reason (or the only reason anyway) for what happened to these poor horses. I am surprised that the locals would except that story at face value to be honest. In the end it is a shame and sad ending for the horses.
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