soft feet and feed problems

[Rayna5 <Rayna5@aol.com>]

Tina, I wrote about bruises and abcesses about ridecamp 143 or so.  That
should help a lot. As for Tony, I have had the same problem with Rayna and
will tell you what worked for her.  
She was in perfect weight when I got her but not used to doing a lick of work.
She started out on these mountian trails like she'd died and gone to heaven.
She LOVES it. And while I knew she would be tough to keep weight on for awhile
( until her metabolism figured out this was going to be a continuing thing)  I
kept having problems. I though "great, a hard keeper" But just couldnt resolve
it it my mind when she is such a mellow horse, all the time.
She had chronic diareeha in spite of the probiotics. And gas all the time.
She was out on good pasture, eating grass hay too, and getting 3lb of cracked
corn and 8lbs of oats, (sound familiar?) She was also getting two cups of oil,
biotin, vitamins and flax seed. She looked terrible all the time. Not
starving, but very angular as you put it. This went on for several months.
Regular worming of course. Routine floating too. Then I tried her on Strongid
C. Which helped some, but not alot.  I discovered that psyillium husk at two
tablespoons every day got rid of the gas and diareeha. But she really wasnt
putting on weight, just holding.  By late fall I was at wits end. I didnt want
her going into winter like that.  Then I read a little article in Equus
magazine about tapeworms. All the same symptoms and the treatment is a triple
dose of Stongid Paste. So I decided it was worth a try, and did all of the
horses.  Within three weeks I noticed a difference.  Since then I have done
the recommended triple dose once a year, even though when I asked my vet how
come he never recommended worming for tapeworms he told me we dont have then
in this area. ( Rayna has never been out of the nw)
But he also said that if the Strongid Paste did the trick, then it must have
been an infestation of some other worm or stage of worm that the other wormers
just didnt kill. I was rotating with Zimectrin, Safegaurd and Strongid-p.
Heidi????
Since then, Rayna has been holding her weight at a higher level with way less
grain. I now feed her about 6-7 lbs of oats with corn oil, mollasses, biotin,
Selenium/E supp, flax seed and probiotics. And psyillium. She also gets about
four flakes of grass hay. And her weight has stayed good even with starting
training Jan 1 and not blanketing her since then as her shoulders were bald in
spite of the sleazy. So I told you what worked for me. Hope you and Tony get
it figured out and have a good season!
Julie