Re: RE: Very underweight horse

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Karla, start by feeding him more of whatever he's been getting.  Improve the
quality of it gradually (don't go from straw to super-rich overnight), make
changes between feed types (ie, grass hay to a legume like alfalfa) very
slowly and gradually and even start out with somewhat restricted amounts for
the first week.  I know it seems the right thing to pile nothing but
straight, rich alfalfa in front of him, and eventually that's fine, but not
right off the bat.  Depending on his condition, the integrity of the GI
tract needs time to learn to digest food again.

Introduce EVERYTHING gradually and slowly and don't try to put the weight
back on overnight.  It'll take time.  Alfalfa is fine if you want, my
preference would be half alfalfa and half grass hay, plus a few pounds of
grain split up into several meals of no more than 3-4 meals (and start with
much less than that and work up).  Try to introduce beet pulp and oil if you
can, they'll help alot.  Include ONE dose of ONE all-purpose vitamin/mineral
mix, don't go trying to add alot of buckets of this and that.  You might add
an additional 1000 iu of vitamin e, 10-25,000 iu of vitamin a and 5 grams of
vitamin c just for the first week or two while all this change is going
on---but don't feed the vitamin c beyond that.  Provide loose white salt,
make sure the water is clean enough for you to drink, look after the teeth
and worming---my preference would be an initial shot of one dose of panacur,
then a five-day purge a week later.  Don't use the kamikaze wormers like
Quest right now.

If you need specifics, the researcher who has done the baseline research on
feeding starved horses is Dr. Carolyn Stull, PhD at UC Davis.  She's
associated with the Cooperative Extension service there and would be a good
source of additional info for you.

Good luck and good for you for giving this one a second chance.  I'm a firm
believer that these guys know it and never forget what you did for them.

Susan G

> I'm looking at this underweight horse.  Young, appears sound, price is
> right.  I feel sorry for him.
>
> If I take on this project, he will go from dry lot and underfed, to
> pasture.  Any recommendations?
>
> Do I put him on coastal or alfalfa?
> Should I add grain or wait until he is on full pasture and adjusted to
> that?
> Will arrange for worming and teeth being checked,  I'm set up for full
> pasture, not dry lot, so should I let him get used to pasture feed
> first, then begin to mess with the other things?
> I don't want to cause him problems.  Thought I'd ease him into better
> feed (pasture) first, then ease in the worming and teeth.  How long
> should I wait from pasture, to do the worming, and then how long should
> I wait before further challenging his underfed frame by adding grain?