Looking for horse nutritionist i need help with my three yr olds!?

Question

I have two three year olds that were bought almost completely healthy. I got hurt and could not tend to them for 3 weeks and they were boarded in a nearby stable "being fed". When I came back I found them extremely underweight and malnourished. I need help to determine exactly what it will take to get them back to full health other than routine shots, deworming, and feeding. They have been stunted and one probably will never reach her full height. I have a paint and a thoroughbred. The paint horse cribs which is also a big problem. The thoroughbred is harder naturally to put wight on. I need a very good nutritionist who knows exactly what they're doing! They have both put on at least 200 lbs in the past two months but I need them to get a boost before I loose both of them. They have a steady supply of clean water and coastal hay. Also, they have a huge pasture with lots of grass, and are fed twice a day. If you know of anyone or if you yourself know the answer please message me. Thanks

Answer 1

Call a vet, not a nutritionist...

Answer 2

Wow, that's aweful.  I know how you feel.  I once, several years ago, boarded my horses temporarily while I traveled to a location where I moved for work.   When my horses were shipped down to me, the first mare came off the van, and I said "that's not my horse" - she was a bay with no markings - she had lost about 80 lbs and looked absolutely horrible.  When I'd last seen her, she was fit and gorgeous.  It was heartbreaking. It took 21/2 months to get them back to looking like healthy horses, and 2 months of slow conditioning work to get them back to a baseline conditioned state.  

We started them on good quality timothy, gradually, as they had been on poor quality hay.  They were given a balanced grain, (pellet - don't remember the brand) with corn oil added, 1/4 cup/day to start, increased to 1 cup.  Everything was done gradually, as it was necessary for them to establish the correct intestinal flora to digest new diet.

Now I'd use rice bran oil instead of corn.  Rice bran and beet pulp is also a good addition.  Any of the new feeds that are well-balanced for vitamins and minerals should be good, and be sure and add salt (2-4 oz/day) to her feed.  I would also add probiotics, and feed Platimum Performance.

The rule of thumb ( you probably already know this) is to make any additions or changes gradually, and don't try to put the weight on too quickly.  If you can feed them 3x/day (break up the current amount into thirds) that is bettter than 2x/day, though I know that's not always an option due to work/school.   Oil is a great source of calories, and is not hot. It sounds like they have a great turonout situation with grass - I hope they're used to grass . . .  A really good idea may be to call a local equine rescue organization and ask them for a list of their protocol for emaciated horses.  They'd be experts at this.

Good luck.  Take photos.

Answer 3

As three year olds if you get them back healthy now they should come out of it and not be stunted. They grow until they are at least 5 so you still have 2 years. (Personally rescued a 3 yo that was 13.1h/ less than 500lbs, extremely malnourished and ill with a respiratory infection, basicly a walking skeleton with fur -- well it was mostly falling out but you get the picture. The vet had poor hopes of her survival. She is now a healthy 6yo and is 15.1h and  1200lb)

The best feed to put a malnourished horse on is an Equine Senior feed, it is specially formulated for ease of digestion and includes yeasts and other amino acids to help the digestive system get and stay on track. It's also high in fat and fiber and low in carbs and has a resonable protien %.

Start out very slowly to avoid Refeeders Syndrome which can be a literal killer and feed as many small meals per day as you can manage.  Also really watch the carbs, they mainly need high fat, high fiber diets, keep the protien kinda low, not over 14%

With the above filly I started her out at 1cup twice per day and two flakes of good quality Orchard Grass hay split into four meals. After three days added in another 1 cup feeding and another flake of hay. After about 7-10 days your main worry of Re-feeders Syndrome is gone and you can start uping the meal amounts and the frequency of the meals as many times as you can manage and add in a good broad spectrum vitamin mineral suppliment and a fat suppliment as well.

After 10 days I'm generally up to about the maximum recomended daily amount of feed for the weight they should be, not what they actually weigh at the time, split into 5-6 meals per day and free choice Orchard Grass hay, as well as Wheat Germ Oil for added fat and the vitamin/mineral suppliment as well, (I've found Maxum Crumbles to work pretty well, need something high in B vitamins, calcium, biotin and A & D while they are rebuilding their body)

From your question it sounds like you've made it past the critical stage. Now your main worry is getting them built back up physically. I'd recomend feeding as many small meals per day as possible. Include a night feeding if you can. Put them on good quality vitamin mineral supplimets. If your vet thinks they are healthy enough go ahead and do a good de-worming on them both. You might want to give half a tube now then another half tube in a week. 2 weeks after that give a whole syringe of wormer. That way you'll gradually kill of some of the internal parasite load and not have so many dieing in the gut at once, that can cause impaction colic.

Also you can put them on a light exercise regime of hand walking. Start out slow, only a couple minutes at a time and gradually build it up. That way they can gradually build muscle mass back as they improve instead of just putting on fat which isn't good for them.

Cribbing is many times the result of starvation. Turning the horse out on a pasture where he can move around and graze with a miracle collar on should help. Sometimes once they get healthy and out of the stressfull situation it stops or greatly decreases but if it doesn't there's not much you can do about it but live with it, keep a miracle collar on and keep them out of a stall as much as possible. It does generally make them harder to gain weight and keep weight though for a two-fold reason, one they are cribbing instead of grazing and also the cribbing fills their stomach with air which makes them feel full so they eat less. Also it is a sign of nervousnes at first (after years though it's just a habit) and being nervous burns calories.

The key to bringing back any malnourished horse is time. It's a very long and slow process. Generally if you can "see" them gaining the weight back it is going on to fast. Putting it back on too fast is very bad for their system. Get a digital camera, take weekly pics from each side, front and rear for comparisons so you can better judge how much they've put on. They'll start feeling better, eyes looking brighter ect long before they get back to a good weight physically.

Also many times, with extremely malnourished horses when they get back on a proper diet they will start losing their hair. This is a response to the drastic changes in their body, as long as they are not rubbing or scratching excessively just keep them well groomed and clean, spray on coat conditioners will help it come back in faster. They will grow in a shinier and healther coat.

If you need any more help please feel free to email me.

EDITED TO ADD>>> How much grain are they on now?

Horses will generally gain more weight if you just split the same amount of grain into multiple feedings. To have gained 200lbs in the past two month you must be feeding them plenty amount-wise. 100lbs per month is actually pretty good.

They seem to be gaining at a good rate, are they actually sick or listless but gaining weight? Better health will just take time and lots of it. As I said before, it's a long slow process. Just be sure to keep up with the vitamins and suppliments until they are back to good health.

If your asking how much feed they should get, keep raising each of the small meals slightly and slowly until they seem to start gaining weight, when they start improving just hold it at that point. More doesn't always mean better in in the case of putting weight on starved horses it can actually cause a lot of harm. Since they are gaining so good now I would not up the amount of grain, just start splitting it in smaller meals. After you do that you might actually find you need to cut it back to keep them from gaining to fast.

Regarding the oil to feed ratio amount, just put the oil in with the regular amount of feed for that feeding, max is about 1 cup per day if your useing corn oil, (any more might lead to diarrea)  you can go with about 1/2 cup per day of Wheat Germ Oil.

So if your feeding four times and useing corn oil as the fat suppliment, give 1/4c oil at each feeding. Don't start at the max amount, they have to adjust to it slowly like everything else, start with maybe a 1/4c first 2/3 days then add in another 1/4c (at a different feeding) for 2/3 days, so on till your at the max, four feeding with 1/4c added to each feeding. If you get loose  stools from the 1/4c drop it to 1/8c till they adjust then try moving up again..

A horses digestive system is designed for large amounts of high fiber food to be constantly moving through, hence it goes through pretty fast, this is the reason multiple small meals of the grain is better for them. Also, be sure to feed hay before your grain mixture, at least 30 minutes to an hour is usually good.  That helps greatly with the proper digestion of the grains.

Most grain is relatively high in starch by it's very nature, (by relatively high I mean high compared to what they are designed to eat). Starch can only be digested properly in the small intestine (this is also the reason extruded pellets are better, the extrusion process expands the starch particles to form an open ‘honeycomb’ like structure. This allows more direct and efficient digestive enzyme "attack" on the starch and proteins as the food passes through the small intestine). The rest passes through to the hindgut which can't deal with it properly.

This left over undigested starch is overloaded into the hindgut and cecum (whose primary purpose is fermentaion of fiber)  It is fermented into lactic acid...to much of which can lead to "hindgut acidosis". This excess lactic acid can cause digestive upset, diarrea and even colic. When absorbed into the blood the excess acid leads to  hyperactive and nervous behaviour and can lead to laminitis or founder as well.

Basicly, it's just a bad idea to feed large amounts of grain at one time. Even if it doesn't cause harm then best case scenario, it just passes through them.

BTW...I am certainly NOT a Equine Nutritionist and make no claims of being one. Simply a horse owner whose spent many, many years learning as much  about horses as possible and how to better care for malnourished horses in particular. Also our vet of 10+ years was an Equine Nutrituionist as well as Equine Specialist and I spent many hours working and consulting with him on current re-hab cases we had in here at the time.