Annnnnd sometimes I'm late because of a different kind of traffic....
Hope your horses are enjoying this beautiful weather as much as mine are 🥰
Let's talk minis! Mine happens to be part unicorn, but let's talk minis in general!
While they're a pint sized horse package and the basics of their care is the same, there are some specific issues that are unique to minis.
Dwarfism: these guys aren't just super small minis, they come with a range of conformational defects to the limbs, spine, and jaw. Some of these can be quite mild, while others have life altering issues.
Obesity: If there is anything Minis are best at ... it's eating! These guys love food but their calorie requirements are very small! Minis should eat about 1.5 % of their body weight a day. Weighing your hay and utilizing small hole hay nets is a must with them! Weight tapes are not always accurate with them so there is an additional formula to use: Estimated Body Weight (lbs) = (9.36 x girth inches) + (5 x body length in inches) – 348.5. So far we've had good luck with the weight tape we use to monitor trends, however not all weight tapes are the same!
Dental issues: in clinical practice I've found that too often the minis (and donkeys) aren't getting their teeth done on a regular basis. Minis often have more dental issues than their larger counterparts so I would argue these guys need to be done on a yearly basis, if not every 6 months to keep up with dental malformations and optimize their occlusion. They often have a lot of crowding of their teeth since we've shrunken their size with selective breeding.
Colic: due to their fantastic appetites, scavenging like behaviors, and at times, decreased chewing capacity, these guys are primed for colic events. Minis are prone to 3 types of colic that we see slightly less commonly in our bigger horses; fecaliths, enteroliths, and sand colic.
Hyperlipidemia: One other difference with minis is that they are prone to hyperlipidemia during times of stress, illness, pregnancy/lactation, and essentially any stressor in their life that causes a decreased/absent appetite for more than 24 ho
