Flaky Skin + Dull Coat?

Apr 19, 2011 20:37

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... )

advice, weight management (horse), grooming

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Comments 10

madeyemads April 20 2011, 03:57:14 UTC
Rice bran is a good feed, nice an natural and excellent for putting weight on them.

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.

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ihorse April 20 2011, 05:07:14 UTC
Well, I guess I should have said in my post that she's only been on this feed for less than a month. Before I moved her to the new place (April 1st) she was only getting hay, no grain. She's already put some weight on around her neck/shoulder areas as well as by her flank/hip, but is still looking a little ribby. She's making progress, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything non-dietary, like maybe some kind of skin disease or something like that, because we're still in the process of getting her diet nailed down.

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gatehorse April 20 2011, 05:33:04 UTC
Have you had her checked out by a vet? Including teeth? If you're worried about skin disease, your best bet is to have your vet out to rule out any medical issues-that's really something that's best determined by the vet. They should be able to tell you if it's bacterial, fungal or viral, or possibly tooth related.

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.

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ihorse April 20 2011, 06:59:01 UTC
The vet was just out about a month ago. Up until the past few days her coat has looked pretty good. It's since she's been shedding the past few weeks that I've just now noticed the flaky skin. It's $60 JUST to have the vet come out, so the point of posting here was to see if I could gain any information on the topic before resulting to having the vet out, just to tell me something I could have read on the internet. Obviously if she doesn't start improving within the next couple weeks, having the vet out is something I'll consider more seriously, but I don't have the kind of money to have her looked at for every little frivolous thing ( ... )

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candysgirl April 20 2011, 12:17:24 UTC
What is the feed though? My Arab will put on weight but has a horrible coat if given sweet feed. It also starts to make him out of his gourd moronic. It totally removes his brain from his skull. He's currently on Tribute's Essential K which is a ration balancer. He did really well on that until we started training for endurance rides. Now I'm going to switch him to another of their products that will provide some more calories for the increased work without making him hot. When I initially put him on the Essential K I saw a change in his coat within about two weeks. It is $20/bag BUT you only feed about a pound a day. It's like five handfuls twice a day. It's really cost effective if you can get it. You can can and talk to their nutritionist there too. He's awesome and extremely knowledgeable and won't steer you wrong. If he thinks all you need is hay he'll tell you that too ( ... )

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k7point5 April 20 2011, 14:41:57 UTC
Next time the vet is out I'd have him or her do a fecal count to make sure that whatever you're worming her with is actually doing the trick.

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.

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wastedmouthfull April 20 2011, 15:39:13 UTC
Ground flax seed in the feed will help alot.

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herecirm April 20 2011, 17:14:28 UTC
My pony mare started developing flaky skin a couple of years ago - it looked like she had a very bad case of dandruff. The stuff was literally dropping off her, mostly on her neck, girth and chest area, but also on her legs and rump. When the vet came out to see her, we discovered it was her immune system attacking her and causing her to over-produce skin cells. Strange but true. She's now on 6 steroids and 30 anti-histamines a day for the rest of her life, which has sorted her out completely.

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!

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