Horses fed twice in an hour!!!! *update* Doing fine - photos added

[pips&peeps]

What were they fed that you are so concerned about?

My horses take longer than an hour to eat their hay at every meal.

 

[sbarab]

They will be fine. 2 lbs of feed extra is very minimal.

 

[greathorse]

My drafts would consider 5 lbs. of grain a lite snack even when not on grain. I cant imagine that a couple extra pounds of grain would cause a problem, I would sure not worry too much. Just keep an eye on them.

I remember when I was a kid a couple of horses got in the corn crib and ate their fill. We were sure they would founder and stood them in a mud pack for a couple of days. They were fine as it turned out. I remember my dad being very worried. It is hard to tell how much they ate as they were off doing something else when we got home from chuch. \\\\\\

Good luck I am sure you will be fine.

 

[txredneckmedic]

Your worried about that little amount? my horses get about 4lbs of SF a day and probably 40lbs of alfalfa each....and I got 3 of them lol. Makes for a interesting day when we have the new bale of hay delivered.

 

[astylishgirl]

More than likely, they will be fine. But maybe a light breakfast will be in order. Check on them throughout the night to make sure there is no colic. Your main fear would be founder, but that will be something that comes later.

Also, I would just call the vet in the morning just to be sure.

 

[Marie66]

I used to have a feed sign/board up at the sliding door thingy to my horse's feed bucket. it had a thingy that one turned over, for am and pm. sort of like the magnet that some people have on their dishwasher, that says if the dishes are dirty or clean. anyways, that way, they wouldn't get fed twice by accident.
my friends had about 8 horses, and they would make the morning feed for all of them (all of the dry stuff anyways) the night before and they used different color buckets for am and pm. so, when they fed in the pm, you'd know, because the red am buckets would be filled and ready to go.
my other friend used a brick with am fed and pm fed painted on it.
she'd lay it on top of the feed bag .

good luck with your horses, i hope they'll be alright.
i would keep walking a little bit, keep them out and about, and call my vet, as well, just in case, at least as a head's up. and i'd watch them closely for a few days.

 

[kryptoniteqhs]

nm

 

[patandchickens]

I'm concerned about the advice being given "not to worry, 2 lbs is nothing, my horses get that all the time".

You most certainly CAN colic or founder a horse on just 2 extra lbs of grain, if it's not used to getting much and/or is otherwise susceptible.

I'm not saying any harm necessarily *will* come to the o.p.'s horses, hopefully they will be fine, but they are NOT out of the woods yet, and should be watched very, very closely -- and the vet called if any suspicion of standing funny, walking funny, or hot or cold feet -- for the next 2 days.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[scbatz33]

Thanks for all your posts. Everyone is fine this morning. They were out moving around last night for a bit and seemed to "feel" better after an hour or so. They were up all night because of bad weather but are out and doing well.

Your worried about that little amount? my horses get about 4lbs of SF a day and probably 40lbs of alfalfa each....and I got 3 of them lol. Makes for a interesting day when we have the new bale of hay delivered.

My fear was, one the Morgans are just now up to 2 lbs of grain plus a pound of beet pulp twice a day. When we moved here they were grossly underweight and were only getting 2 lbs of cheap grain once a day. And two, they are not my horses!!!

We have put them on a higher protein, better quality feed. For these two fairly inactive lawn ornaments, that was a lot of feed to eat at once. If you could have seen how swollen all of their guts were, you'd have worried too.

Our TB mare is used to eating more, but even she was bloated and not wanting to move at all. Plus, she is way more flighty and even small changes can effect her drastically.

My drafts would consider 5 lbs. of grain a lite snack even when not on grain.
The Morgans are only roughly 800 lbs, the TB mare is about 1100. I'm sure your drafts are way larger than these guys!

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
Pat,
Thanks..some of the posts were, although well intended, a bit off in telling me not to worry. I have worked with horses long enough to know that any rapid change in feed is not good. If it didn't matter, then the feed companies would not put the "1/2 pound a day increase" warning on their feed bags.

Further, they were so very bloated last night, that my main concern was to let them move or keep them still. My first inclination was to let them out, but then I got to second guessing myself. That's why I posted for advice when I couldn't find any information on the 2 horse forums I am member of. We just moved to the area an I don't have a vet yet that I can just call up for advice.

I guess I was mostly looking for reassurance that letting them move to get the gut moving was the right thing to do. It was - after about an hour, they were looking much better and wandering around the pasture nibbling on grass.

This afternoon, they are back to normal, the TB mare is trying to get the Morgan gelding to breed her, he's trying to eat hay and the Morgan filly is hoarding the hay from him - Quite normal for these three!!!

Thanks again everyone for your input.