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

[scbatz33]

My darling teenage children took the order -
"go feed the chickens" to mean feed the horses!!!! My DH had already fed them their evening meal. They were fed AGAIN an hour later!!!

Need some advice, they are all 3 acting sluggish as I would expect. They are sweating very very mildly - but that could be the warmth of the day as much as anything. They are more thirsty than usual.

My question is, we have turned them out to the small dry lot area in front of the barn. The stalls are too warm and this way we can watch them. Should we allow them to go out to the paddocks to move around and get the digestion going or would that actually be the opposite of what is good for them?

Ideas? I've searched on line but I guess I'm not putting the right words together. I'm getting a bunch of irrelevant articles.

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

They will be alright just let them have some space to move around and in a few hours they will be back to thei normal selves.

 

[scbatz33]

I told my hubby we should let them move about, but for some reason it felt counter-intuitive.... Thanks

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

You know the symptoms of colic, right? Silent gut, sweating hard, looking/kicking at their bellies? Check with your vet about a preemptive dose of Banamine if they show any of the above. But you are still not out of the woods. Sometimes founder does not show up right away. Be on the lookout for hot feet, usually the front ones, and signs of tenderness when walking and keep the vet's number on speed dial.

If you generally feed lightly you probably won't have a problem at all. If you've got one on high protein or lots of additives because of showing, etc. you may not get off so lucky. Good luck with this.


Rusty

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

that everything is fine!

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
I've seen colic, I worked in a lrg animal clinic years ago. That's my worry. I have never had this happen!!

The TB mare gets 3 lb of 14% SF and roughly a pound of Beet pulp. The two morgans get 2 lb of same feed and the same amount of beet pulp. They don't get any supplements in the pm. Only the Tb is on some Biotin in the am.

Right now they are just standing around, too full to move. They sweating stopped so I think it was due to being in the stall more than the over-feeding.

It's also starting to cool down outside...I guess we are just watching and waiting.

Stupid teenagers!!!!!

 

[SpringChickens]

I would think they should be fine. Just monitor them for signs of colic and founder, but they don't get enough grain to worry too much.

 

[BroncoHollow]

They should be OK... let them move about - maybe feed light tomorrow morning. Check feet for heat if your worried about founder or have a horse that would more likely to founder. Colic as mentioned, they will also throw themselves on the ground or want to roll a lot... I always look to see if they shake - if they shake after a roll they are fine - just doing the dirt bath thing.

Two of my horses managed to grab two hay bales and pull them out of the horse barn... eating their way through the night. Their reward for that feat was a missed breakfast and receiving a light portion of grass for feeding for the next couple of days.

My girlfriends horse broke into her barn and ate several pounds of grain that she had set out for feeding the next day. It was not a huge amount, just for three horses with supplements - but he was overweight and insulation resistant - unfortunately he did founder.

 

[kryptoniteqhs]

I had something similar happen this morning and I called my vet (what you should do). I had three horses get out into the feeding area (no idea how) and one horse ate more than a 5 gallon bucket of DRY beat pulp!!! I only feed 2 SCOOPS AFTER its soaked. I figured he was as good as dead. Another one ate a quarter of my cows grain (50 lb bag). The other was working on a bale of hay. They all were acting fine, but I still called the vet. She told me to give him (beet pulp boy) some banamine. I watched them and didnt end up even giving the banamine and they are fine. I found them at 8:30 this morning and just checked on them and theyre fine.
I would say, call your vet, dont feed them anything till tomorrow late morning-early afternoon and when you do, grass hay and water only. Probably for 1-3 days depending on how they do. But if theyre already acting funny definitely call a vet. Hope this helps!

ETA: Would hurt them to walk them around for about 15 min each every hour or so.

 

[Akane]

Beet pulp will not cause problems. You can feed a rather high percentage of the diet in beet pulp and quick feed changes of beet pulp are unlikely to cause more than mild upset equivalent in severity to diarhea. Sweet feed could be a problem. Personally if I go over 2lbs of anything besides forage like hay, grass, or beet pulp I assume I'm not feeding an efficient enough feed for the horse. Horses do badly on grain and especially large amounts of it. I've switched my barrel horses to black oil sunflower seeds because of that. Much easier on digestion, a lot more nutrition (cups worth can replace scoops worth and still hold on weight), and much less risk of colic or founder even if a horse should get into the bag. My horses are completely grain free now even when running frequently and under heavy performance.

I would turn them out to pasture. The more roughage in their stomachs the better unless they aren't used to eating lots of hay and grass. All horses should be used to unlimited or nearly unlimited roughage. Leaving all that grain to sit will be worse than mixing it with hay or grass.