Box rest without the stress

Having a horse on box rest can be an anxious time for everyone involved, but it doesn’t need to be! In this article I’m going to discuss the most common approaches to handling your horse on box rest to ensure they have a safe and stress-free time. A horse may be on box rest for a number of reasons, for example whilst healing from a wound, tendon injury or fracture. There’s a variety of methods you can introduce to help turn this sudden change in routine and exercise into a positive experience.

Enrichment

Offering your horse a variety of smells, textures and tastes will provide

enrichment and allow them to choose what to do with their time:

• Different feeds and forage; such as forage in a small hole haynet, picked fresh grass or grass blocks. It’s important to give high-fibre and low sugar feeds in this time to avoid unnecessary weight gain and fizzy behaviour.

• Using toys and activities; such as creating chopped carrots in frozen fruit juice blocks, hanging fruit, vegetables or a flavoured lick outside the stable, or putting low-sugar treats in a treat ball.

• Safely attaching a brush to the top of the stable door will let you horse scratch that itch!

• If agreed by your vet, then you can walk your horse to grass and hand graze for a short period of time, encouraging natural behaviours.

  
  

Companionship

Companionship is an important part of many horses’ lives. If your horse is used to living in a herd or has a particular companion you could consider these options:

• Try to ensure a horse is stabled next to or near to your horse if possible.

• Bring a close companion to the stable door and allow them to have nose-nose contact and safely interact over the door, this could be whilst you’re mucking out or grooming.

• Hang a plastic mirror in their stable.

• If your horse does not like busy environments or seeing other horses, then consider moving them to a quieter area.

Please note if your horse is being isolated due to an infectious disease such as strangles or equine influenza then they must not come in to contact with or be stabled next to other horses.

Medication

Sometimes management alone isn’t enough so there are some medications that can be used to help keep your horse calm and safe. However, we encourage you to try the management techniques first and to use them in conjunction with medication if needed.

• Potassium bromide is a chemical compound that will alter your horse’s ion concentration to decrease excitability. It comes in a palatable powder form which can be added to feed. Each horse will be affected differently by this, so it’s important to discuss doses with your vet.

• Acepromazine is an anti-anxiety medication which acts by effecting the ‘happy hormone’ (dopamine) in your horse’s nervous system. This comes in a gel form which can be given directly into your horse’s mouth or in their feed.

• CBD (cannabidiol) alters a pain and anxiety pathway within your horse’s nervous system. This means it can be used as a pain relief and to help keep them calm. It comes in a powder or oil form which can be prescribed by your vet. Please note this formulation does not contain THC.

• There are many supplements on the market labelled as calmers. This can often be overwhelming as there are lots of products offering the same thing. When looking to buy a calming supplement it’s important to look for ingredients such as magnesium and L-tryptophan.

If you are considering any of these medications, please give us a call to further

discuss their use.

Case

Laugharne came to the Cotts Hospital in Cowbridge after he had managed to get into an argument with a gate. After being assessed by one of our road vets, Nicola, he was brought in to have a heel laceration cleaned and a cast placed. This would mean at least 3 weeks of box rest whilst new hoof grows and then further rest and recouperation after. This was slightly daunting for his owner as he is an ex-racehorse and was fit for the eventing season!

Laugharne was placed on potassium bromide and had multiple toys in his stable to keep him occupied. He coped extremely well on box rest due to the enrichment and care, because of this we opted to keep his cast on for an extra week to encourage even further healing of his hoof.

Following his injury, Laugharne is rearing to get back to it after a successful recovery so far and a very positive box rest experience.