Weight And Wormong Question

[Magnolia_dream]

My 4 year old mare has never ever been fat she is usually on the verge of being skinny because she eats slow and my shetland that she lives with eats fast. This year she is still skinny and i don't get it because i wormed her and she is eating like a cow. Her coat is extremly shiny and otherwise she is very healthy. I gave her a 250 pound dose of combocare gel but i usually give her a 300 pound dose but it was the last of my wormer and i didn't want to waste it. Could she have worms?? Even though her coat is shiny??? She has been eating grain and hay but very little grass. She is in a dry lot. Her ribs are just barely showing buts its bothering me... what do you think?

 

[chandab]

How big is she? I know you said you just give for 300#, but do you know her weight? [in the best of forum, there is a thread with a formula for figuring weight, it's pretty good.] How tall? How much are you actually feeding her? [Prefer weight of feed, but number of cups or flakes would work.] What type of grain are you feeding her? What type of hay? You say the Shetland gets some of her feed, perhaps they need to be separated for at least the grain portion of their meal (all of mine are separate for their hard feed, but share hay).

Early this spring, I had one that was rather skinny, at least compared to the rest. She just couldn't seem to eat enough hay. But, now that they are getting some grass every day, she has picked up nicely.

 

[Russ]

Hard to tell without seeing her, knowing her exact feed /protein/type hay/ amount fed etc......could be many things. Could be her buddy eats some of her food....could be she needs more calories....because she works it off. How's her teeth? Maybe eating/chewing bothers her......all things to consider besides a good worming program. You need to start with correctly dosing wormer for her actual weight and then go down the line on other things if her weight is still low. Every horse is different and these are just things to ponder(I don't know your situation, just giving you things to consider).....only you know your horse the best but your vet can help if you ask.

As for worms....vet could help you by doing a fecal worm count. But it is to your benefit to get a weight on your horses so you can worm properly.

For instance, I have a yearling filly that had been sick....she is going on gastrogard. I needed a accurate weight to dose her correctly. Ok, my vet was guessing her at 350+......I said no way....she is not that big.

I decided to load her up.....take her to the town grain elevator and get a scaled weight on her. I haltered her and walked her across the big truck scale. It was she and I on the scale only. Afterwards...I was weighed seperate and I took my weight off the total of the earlier amount of both of us weighed. AT LAST a accurate weight on her.

Just a huge relief as I finally know I was dosing wormer correctly(she weighed 240....I had guessed this spring and wormed her at 250)....and can now dose any meds correct if ever needed in a emergency. Of course with her still growing she will be reweighed later this year but it doesn't cost anything....the coop workers loved watching and said it was the best scale weigh in they did.

I took her buddy along and she got weighed also....it works quick and is easy.

If this isn't a option there are weight tapes...maybe someone who uses those can advise you how they work.

 

[Magnolia_dream]

They are seperated when eating their grain. She isn't doing any work right now cause my cart has a flat tire but she usually pulls it. She is getting a 12percent allstock grain probably about 2 or 3 cups a day. I give them a flake of hay or 2 in the morning and 2 or 3 at night and grain at ight also. I'm trying to upload a current picture so please standby photobucket is being extremly slow.I think to the withers she is 36 inches but i don't know for sure. My farrier thought 300 pounds would be a big enough dose for her.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Try ad lib hay- you are not giving nearly enough IMO- and up her grain to twice the amount twice a day, slowly!!

If you have a problem with the Shetland getting too fat you may need to separate them.

Turning her out on some good grazing, if you can, would be the best answer.

Of course you need to get the worming situation checked as well- a blood test for Tapeworms and a Faecal for all the others.

 

[stormy]

Have you had her teeth checked? Those teeth are easy to overlook when dealing with weight issues but even in young horses are often the problem.

 

[Jill]

The only way you will know if she has worms or not is to have a fecal check.

When you say "combo gel" do you mean one of the ivermectin gold products?

I know from asking my vet that the ivermectin gold products, and of course plain ivermectin, have very high thresholds when it comes to potentially over dosing. These are the only products I use to deworm our horses, and I always aim to dose them at about 100# more than I think they need. This is because too much of the stuff I use will not hurt, and too little does no good.

 

[MInx]

My 4 year old mare has never ever been fat she is usually on the verge of being skinny because she eats slow and my shetland that she lives with eats fast. This year she is still skinny and i don't get it because i wormed her and she is eating like a cow. Her coat is extremly shiny and otherwise she is very healthy. I gave her a 250 pound dose of combocare gel but i usually give her a 300 pound dose but it was the last of my wormer and i didn't want to waste it. Could she have worms?? Even though her coat is shiny??? She has been eating grain and hay but very little grass. She is in a dry lot. Her ribs are just barely showing buts its bothering me... what do you think?

mmmNot sure, call me crazy, but I do know I won't use Combocare Or Quest or anything else with Moxidectin

in it. I've heard it's just too harsh on minis? Best of luck for the girl.

Maxine

 

[Miniv]

If it were me, I'd be giving twice the amount of grain you're giving (increasing gradually). Allowing her to graze on grass would be good too.......... And I'd also check her teeth.

MA