Stall rest tips for 3yo?

[InstigatorKate]

I have a 3yo warmblood gelding who just had surgery on an overreach that wasn't healing properly. He's in a hoof cast for 3 weeks with maybe some more time after that depending on how the area looks. He's on reserpine to help chill him out. He completely trashed "his" stall the first two days, which cost me about $35 in bedding. I've now started a system where he goes into my other horse's big (14x20) stall during the day with minimal bedding and then into his own 11x12 at night with deep fine shavings and pellets. The trashage is fairly manageable this way. I'm mucking 2x/day and my friends can pick one or two times in-between. He also has all-u-can-eat grass hay from a small mesh hay net. Even with all this, he's driving me NUTS! The success of the surgery hinges on him staying quiet with the cast on. Is there something else I need to be doing?

[lizathenag]

MORE DRUGS

Does he have neighbors or is he alone?

[Equilibrium]

I went through this with my 3yo warmblood filly earlier this year. I never thought she couldn't handle a day on box rest never mind 3 weeks. She was in for stitches across her ankle.

During the day, I kept her best friend in next to her. At night best friend went out and the other horses came in to keep her company. I rigged up many toys (homemade) to keep her amused. She is also a hay pig. I scattered little bits around her stable a few times a day and gave her the majority of her portion at night. All her grain ( and that was very little) was cut out completely and replaced by a tiny bit of beet pulp with a vit and min supplement.

Yes her stable was horrific and I was fet up cleaning up after her 3 times a day, but nothing else could really be done. You just have to get through that. And of course every time you walk into the barn she felt it was her right to beg for food and attention, but in the end, she was so much better than I ever hoped. I was very surprised to say the least.

Good Luck,
Terri

[Fharoah]

No grain just basic supplement or balancer. Is the reserpine helping? Reserpine did not work for my gelding if anything it made him more hyper. You could try acepromazine, I am currently giving my stall bound horse 5.5ml 25mg/ml injectable orally and he is being good I have to up the dose 1/4cc a week so won't be a long term solution but I hope to get him through January. If he is on long term stall rest you could ask about fluphenazine but you may wait to wait until the reserpine has worn off.

Best luck I know how horrible stall rest can be!

[InstigatorKate]

Thanks. He does have at least one other horse in with him. Grain is down to a handful. I filled an old detergent bottle with some rocks and he had fun stomping that to death. My vet asked if I wanted ace but I said no because of the penile paralysis association. Is that risk only with injectable?

[Equilibrium]

No the risk is with all types of ace. Hate to say it, but this is the easy part - fun when they get to go back to exercise/turnout!:)

Terri

[Mallard]

In 2002, I had a 3 yr old Connemara on stall rest from January to August....EIGHT MONTHS. She had a grade 3, displaced fracture of her ulna.

No drugs, but always someone in the stall beside her. I rotated the 'babysitters' every 4 hours.
Lots of hay.
Plastic jugs hung up as playtoys.
And yes...lots of stall cleaning. Kept me fit!

[InstigatorKate]

No the risk is with all types of ace. Hate to say it, but this is the easy part - fun when they get to go back to exercise/turnout!:)

Terri

Yup. That's another topic. How do I keep him from killing himself when he goes back out.......

[Fharoah]

penis paralysis is a very rare effect of ace my surgeon lameness specialist don't even consider it a risk. Reserpine also has a risk of penis paralysis, I have used so much ace on my gelding as reserpine does not work on him5.5ml twice a day has never had a side effect.

Good luck!

[Pascova]

injectable resurpine -- works great to calm them down-- and I think you only have to give once a week

[alteringwego]

oh the saga of the stall resting 3 year old. Been there and done that. Mine got reserpine and when that didn't seem to do much of anything he got 6cc of ace 3 times a day. And I wouldn't worry too much about the risk of penile paralysis. And it's safer than other drugs for stall resting because it doesn't slow the guts down and increase risk of colic.
Cut grain out totally except for herbal calming supplement. I used Shen Calmer which I got from my vet. He had free choice hay in a nibble net. After about 30 days he'll catch on and settle down. First couple of weeks are absolute hell though. And be sure to give him a buddy next door. Mine even had a goat for a while.
If that doesn't seem to take then send him to a rehab facility and let the pros deal with it. They've seen it all!

[Equilibrium]

I aced her for a couple of days and started her back on the walker - you know the kind they are loose in. I kept her wrapped up pretty good so she couldn't rip open another leg too! Then I have woodchip turnout pens, so after the walker she would go out there for the day. She would go looney for the first few mins and then look for food.

I'm ever so lucky because we have the walker. Handwalking her for 30 mins to an hour would have been a nightmare! I think the worst part was that when she was ready to go back out, the spring grass had worked it's magic. One with weight issues does not need spring grass! So it was mostly pen mixed with an hour or so of grass for quite some time. Then of course she doesn't want to leave grass so lots of running around like a looney!

Alteringwego - Thanks for that info on ace. I really thought it was a big no no for geldings. And funny enough it was everyone's reaction that came to our farm that scared me off.

Terri

[redears]

When my guy was 4 he was on stall rest twice, the first time for only 2 weeks, the second time was for 6 weeks (he had a cut, and cut it open a second time, the second time we were lucky to be able to stitch it, but it came into mud season so he couldn't go out).

I was boarding at a very busy 70 horse barn at the time, so we kept him in the main barn so he could see what was going on all the time. I gave him milk jugs filled with bite size treats he could toss around and occasionally get a treat out of. Also, he loves to rummage through bedding to get hay, so the guy who cleaned the main barn would move him stall to stall before cleaning them so he could clean up all the hay that was dropped/walked in the bedding over night, made his job easier too.

He also liked the lickits but would eat too much at once, so he could only have them supervised for a little while.

Lots of sympathy from my way. It sucks, my guy is a little mellow quarter horse so I'm sure it's easier, but still not fun. Oh yeah, and one day we opened the dutch door to outside so he could look out and he tried to jump out, so I guess he's not *that* mellow. Best of luck!

[SpottedTApps]

I was going to suggest the milk jugs with a few treats in them. He'll likely smoosh them flat in a day or two, but they are free (ask friends, neighbors etc. for theirs too) and can just be tossed.

The slow hay net helps.

Can he come out and be tied up to watch you ride other horses? Just visual stimulation will help a lot.