rescued horse.. what to feed to help with weight?

[Skyesrocket]

Bless your heart for giving her a good home. It is rewarding to rehab a horse that has been neglected. And your horse will always remember what you did for her.
It sounds like you are feeding her right. Once she gets on pasture and into the sunshine more she should start rebuilding muscle and looking better.
Like some of the other posters, I have used beet pulp and calf manna too. It is just going to take some time.
I'm so glad she found a good home with you!

 

[silkieluvr]

You may want to try rice bran, it gives you all the good vitamins and fat without the extra enery and hotness you get from other grains.

 

[EggCentric]

Nobody should be riding her. You're trying to put weight on her, would you take an anorexic to aerobics? In her condition, any amount of riding is exerting her. Get her weight back up, then work on muscle tone. Stay away from sweet feeds, you want protein, not sugars. Rice bran is a great supplement.

If she is weaving in her stall, turn her out( for a limited time if you have a lot of grass). If you have a dry lot, even better, just give her free fed hay. Weaving means you have a bored/stressed horse and that won't do her any good either.

Good luck with her

 

[patandchickens]

I might give more pure alfalfa -- and *good* stuff, not all stems with the leaves long since fallen off and blown away as dust -- if I thought she needed more protein. All the other advice you've gotten is good, too.

Two other considerations:

First, I would bet you anything she still has a significant worm load, if she's only been wormed 2x since last fall. I would suggest at *least* taking some fresh poo to the vet to have them do a fecal -- and if the first time shows few worm eggs, do it again a couple weeks later. You might discuss worming regime with the vet as well... rescues sometimes benefit from an intensive 4-day series of wormers once their general health has been stabilized. I would also strongly suggest that the next time she is wormed, you use Zimectrin Gold (or equivelent) that gets tapeworms (which will not reliably show up on a fecal exam). Some people would use Quest, to get the population of worms in cyst form that are almost certainly continuing the problem despite your worming her -- but personally I would be real cautious using Quest in a run-down horse, and would at the very least want a vet's advice first. Anyhow, I think concentrating on worm eviction will make a BIG difference to her -- you would be amazed how much condition a heavy worm infestation can take out of a neglected horse (and a horse can remain heavily-infested despite several wormings, for a variety of reasons).

Second, has she been blanketed over the winter. If not, then just trying to keep herself warm (even in the barn) may have taken an awful lot of the calories you were putting into her. I would put a turnout sheet on her, still, anytime the temperature is below 50 degrees or so, until she is in better flesh. (Turnout sheet because they are generally more robustly built than stable sheets, and are more useful as well -- a turnout sheet will help you get her into turnout for a higher % of her time, which will really help her as well. It will help her gain weight -- yes, even though she'll be moving around more -- AND it will help get/keep her feet healthy.

In fact, if she has been almost entirely in a stall all winter, it is possible that some of the failure-to-put-on-muscle-mass that you're seeing is just lack of exercise. Horses that have *had* decent muscles in the past can put them back on to a decent degree just standing in the barn eating good food, but if she's been neglected for a long time or most of her life, that can be a different thing and she may need to be MOVING AROUND, not just for health and happiness but so that her body can construct some new muscle tissue.

(With the sheet, and turnout, and so forth, obviously you want to approach things intellgently so as not to scare her.)

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Chatychick]

Yep children have no fear with animals. Mine didnt and could go right up to a Mustang we adopted. Sounds like it was a adult that did this damage to her and it will take a long time for her to trust again. My mare was beaten by a man and she still to this day dont like them. My DH can pet her and it took a long time for that to happen too. He worked slowly to get to where he is with her and its been 4 1/2 yrs now. She wont let anyone ride her but me. He tried and it was a no go there. He has his own horse so he leaves her alone. Cept to love on her. Good luck with your new girl and hope things will do better now the weather is better too.

 

[greyhorsewoman]

First, thank you for rescuing this pony and giving it a home, even if can't be ridden. Second, slow is better. If the pony is recovering, don't overdo it. Ponies are normally very easy keepers and you might get a tubbo before you know it.

Agree with many of the recommendations above. Beet pulp is an excellent supplement. We use shedded all the time for our stallion. Gives him extra roughage & calories without the 'hot.' You really don't need to soak it overnight. We soak ours about 30 minutes before feeding, throw the sweetfeed in on top and feed. Pellets may take a little longer.

Alfalfa is a very dense hay for horses. I personally feel they are better fed a mixed grass, where they can eat more hay throughout the day. If you have any pasture for grazing, that would be best.

Also, agree with checking the worming. May need a good dose of strongid to remove other worms, but wouldn't do that to a rescue horse without a fecal test from vet.

Weaving is a habit, it may never completely stop. We have a horse that weaves. We found a stall 'with a view' and another horse in the barn anytime he is in really helps. Having full run of a pasture most of time has resulted in his completely coming around (used to be very nervous and difficult to keep weight on). He actually paced the fence in the pasture when we first got him.

Good luck!

 

[Meesh]

UC Davis did a study on feeding starved horses and they recommend free choice alfalfa.

Here's a link about feeding a starved horse.

http://starvinghorses.com/Refeedingsyndrome.html

I agree with Pat that getting the horse fully dewormed is very important - our vet recommended our program. We gave them daily dewormer for a couple of weeks to reduce wormload. Then we wormed our rescues with Safe-guard. Waited a month. Wormed with ivermectin. Waited a month. Wormed with Quest (the type that also gets tape worms).

I don't think light work is bad for the horse at this point. I ground drove my rescues, hand walked them, ponied, free longed them, etc. They got to run around in pasture and be horses. Putting weight back on is a long term process.

Cheers,
Michelle

 

[BlackSilkey]

Hi I am a Horse Freak and full of advice my friends grandparents got an under weight gelding, not so good with the Saddle and Bridle. Once he gained 200 pounds we rode him and now he looks brand new never under weight horse.

 

[Meesh]

ps. I wanted to mention that the horse should have her teeth done by an equine dentist. Especially since you mention her nose was smashed.

One of our rescues had a molar that was fractured below the gumline, and had to be removed. She very likely had a lot of pain every time she ate.

It's really worth having their teeth done to find any major problems that are keeping her from eating as well as she could.

 

[bluerose]

Drop the sweetfeed... horses are not meant to digest sugar like that and you are asking for hoof problems, laminitis, insulin resistance, and Cushing's down the road.

Switch to soaked hay cubes or soaked *un-molassed* beet pulp (or both) and add something like rice bran, Natural Glo, or a weight supplement like Gleam and Gain.

I would probably have her on free choice bermuda/orchard with a few feedings of good alfalfa... and as she gains the weight back, cut back on the alfalfa. Again, with too much alfalfa, you are inviting the problems I listed above, especially in ponies.

Don't ride or force exercise at all until she has gained weight and muscle tone, then start handwalking, then tack-walking. You could do serious damage to her soft tissue and joints (especially her spine) as they have no support from her muscles at this point.

Good luck!