I went to the barn yesterday for the first time in a week or two because I've been so busy. Boyfriend moved 1500 miles across the country and I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, plus I had a lot of other things going on that prevented me from going to the barn much
(
Read more... )
Comments 10
BUT before I made any diet changes I'd be consulting with a nutritionist or using a feed analysis software like Feed XL to balance her diet. Sounds like she could have some diet issues.
My checklist for crappy looking horses is diet, teeth, wormer and failing that run bloods.
Good luck!
ETA: I reread her diet and IMO there are some problems. Premixed feeds where you don't even know what is in them are alarm bells for me. A simple diet of oats, alfalfa chaff and a good supplement (i.e. KER Nutrequin) is a fabulous starter diet for most horses, and additions of things like sunflower seeds or rice bran are also good. And you know exactly what is going into your horse- always a plus! The first thing I'd do would be a diet overhaul, find out what is in the premix, put it all on feed XL and see what problems she might have.
Reply
Reply
Also, have you had fecal egg counts done? That's really the best way to determine the proper wormers and effective schedule for them. The old rotation-worming-every-few-months-all-year-every-year is out of date. Missing months may have affected her, or it may not have. I realize it can be difficult to do fecal egg counts on an entire herd, but if you don't have a lot of horses, it's worth doing.
As for diet, I definitely recommend asking a qualified nutritionist-they may be able to help you nail down the diet more quickly.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Canola oil will help shine her up a little bit, so that was a good thought.
I feed my OTTB rice bran pellets and so far it has worked out well for her. It has really put some weight on her and allowed me to cut back her grain concentrates. It does not make her hot and it tastes yummy so she gobbles it right up.
Reply
Reply
So yeh, obviously the vet will be able to find out for certain, but that's my experiance with sudden, unexplained flakes. Hope your horse's problem isn't quite so random!
Reply
Leave a comment