Feeding a starving horse

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PaintedPromiseRanch

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this is a monthly post sent out by a rescue in Illinois that has a yahoogroup i am on... i know they are talking about big horses but hopefully it will be helpful.

[SIZE=12pt]We handle severe starvation cases here periodically. we work with a [/SIZE]

degreed nutritionist, a head vet at purina, and our local vet who is

both into traditional med and also holistic. this is what we do..

1) start out VERY slowly with forages, not just feed. don't just throw

him onto pasture or free choice of any sort of hay with any

nutritional value at all, or your risk foundering him. instead, start

him on a low quality grass hay in regulated amounts -- a flake or two

at a time, at least 2 and preferably 3 or 4 times a day.

gradually we move him/her up to free access to grass hay. if we're

going to put him/her onto pasture, we start iwth just 15 minutes twice

per day, and gradually ease him/her up.

if we have access to alfalfa, our vets and nutritionists STRONGLY

encourage us to move them onto more alfalfa rather than more grain.

studies have shown a steadier, safer weight gain with less risk of

colic and the weight staying on better. so we try to do this, IF we've

got it. the last starvation case we worked on was getting 4 flakes of

quality alfalfa a day plus her free access grass hay (round bale) and

her grain.

2) start out EVEN MORE slowly with feeds or, again, you risk founder

or colic. We ALWAYS tart with senior feed -- it is as non-intrusive

and easily digestible as you can get. We start them with just a pound

at a time, twice a day the first day, three times a day for the next 3-

4 days, 4 times a day the last 2 days of that first week.

Then we start adding just a handful of Purina Strategy on top of the

senior. if we cannot easily do 4 feedings a day (time of year affects

this for us), then we will increase the poundage of Senior, so that he

is eating 8 lbs of equine senior a day by the end of the second week.

By the end of the third week, he is eating 8 lbs a day of equine

senior and at least 2 lbs a day of strategy. our goal is to move off

the senior, which you need huge quantities of to safely feed the

needed amount of calories for weight gain, and onto the higher fat

strategy.

The max you can safely feed of strategy is 6 lbs per feeding. more

than that at a time you're really risking health problems. the more

you can split up the feedings throughout the day the safer it is.

3) one other thing -- be careful with supplements, and especially with free

choice of salt or mineral blocks or loose minerals. starved horses are

so deprived of these things they will eat dirt! and will literally eat

themselves ill if you suddenly give them free choice to these

minerals. see our story of Bob on our website for an example of this

type of case.

you want them to have free access to salt and mineral eventually, of

course. you just have to ease them onto it slowly to do it safely.

Before we get too badly flamed here, have folks thrown a starved horse

out onto lush grass and had it survive? you bet! do folks give starved

horses free access to salt and not have them founder? i'm sure there

are some who can tell you how they've been that lucky. does that mean

its the healthiest and safest way to recover one of these horses?

definitely not. What i've written here isn't gospel, and i'm not a

university professor. Just trying to share what we've been taught and

learned, and provide you info on where it's come from.
 
Good post, Susan. Thanks.

I can totally relate to the salt block issues. My rescue horse Rhett (Appendix QH) cannot be given free access to salt blocks, even three years after his rescue. He's 28 and cannot have forage so is on pellet mashes (not enough teeth to grind hay). I can't fully explain why, but if he is given a 50 lb. salt block, he can polish it off in 3 weeks (or less). He eats it like food. And despite excellent nutrition and supplements, he continues to eat his own manure.
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: My vets say that it is a hard behavior to "unlearn" as that's what he did to survive. The best we can do is clean his paddock as often as possible during the day.
 
Wow, I had no idea about the salt. What reactions do they have and why?

Excellent post!!! I know someone who rescued a starving POA mare, who could only give her three bites of hay at a time- like every hour or so because her body was not used to getting any.

I would add also that a regular routing of psyllium is important too, as many starved horses do eat dirt, leaves, rocks, sticks and who knows what all...........
 
Thank you Susan. Please people keep adding to this post. I need all the help I can get!!

Our research showed that starved horses had very different responses to several diets. We found that the best approach for initial refeeding of the starved horse consists of frequent small amounts of high-quality alfalfa. This amount should be increased slowly at each meal and the number of feedings decreased gradually over 10 days. After 10 days to 2 weeks, horses can be fed as much as they will eat. The horse will show signs of increased energy after about two weeks. Ears, eyes and head movement will be the first noticeable movements. Some weight gain can be achieved in one month, but three to five months usually are needed to rehabilitate back to a normal body weight. Veterinary care and nutritional advice should be sought as complications can arise.
This was published by the Animal Welfare Institute. Comments?????
 
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I had a great deal of trouble with one rescue, a thoroughbred, getting him to eat at all. It was like he had forgotten what food was. Had to actually put the first few bites of every meal in his mouth to get him going! Equine senior was the recommendation of my vet at that time, small amounts many times a day. It was weeks before he could eat more than a couple cups at a time (mind you this was a 16 hand horse!)
 
Great post! I do things differently...i'm so scared of colic that with grain I measure in cups instead of pounds at first. I feed twice a day so start with 1/4 cup for 2 days, then 1/2 cup for 2 days or so, then 3/4 cup, so on and so on until up to 3 cups, twice a day. I offer free-choice hay for them as well, and if there is grass after 1 week of working up the grain and free choice hay, i'll start giving them a few minutes on the grass and work up time from there as well. I don't have pastured grass so I have to sit outside with them while they eat, so I can monitor and study them too which is great.

I find this method works awesome, it's been going great with my rescue, Riley! Recently I switched over from flakes of hay, to hay pellets with probably about 50% alfalfa and I feel really good knowing that Riley eats every single pellet...which means it's all going into his body, not wasted on the ground and then I really don't have a clue what he did, or didn't eat.

I have a friend here locally who picked up most of a starving herd, she immediately gave them free-choice hay and gorged them on as much grain as they would eat, and free-choice minerals and salt. She's one of the rare cases in my mind where...she fed them all as much as they would eat from day one, and never once had a problem....!!! I am too scared of problems to do that but it worked great for her! All the horses made it and today they are fat and sassy! They also turned out to be awesome horses such as, a son of L&D Scout, a daughter of Boones Little Prince, and a daughter of LTD Color Broker to name a few. Looked like death when she got them but now they are stunning!
 
Thanks Minihoofbeats that's what I was hoping to get. Would feeding more than 2 times a day be a good thing or bad? If I fed 3 or 4 times a day would I still begin with 1/4 cup at a time??

Once they become used to the feed do you base the amount you give them on their emaciated weight or on the desired weight? Example a horse should weigh 300 lbs, but only weighs 200, do you level off the amount they get at the 200 lb or 300 lb rate?

In addition to a good feed (Purina Strategy maybe?) would a handful of soaked alfalfa cubes be ok along with some grass hay??

Also, what about salt or minerals. If they shouldn't be provided free choice, what do you recommend?

I'm refering to the Kansas horses here. I hope to foster, but I sure would like more info from those of you who have been there, done that.
 
Hi .. I am the friend mini-hoofbeats who took in some starving and neglected horses last year. They are all now at a good weight ( one or two are even a bit chubby) have shiny coats and bright eyes. Most of the mares were bred. I did some research and based on that felt a good alfalfa hay would be the best way to go. I did give them free choice access to the alfalfa hay and I did place the large 40 pound mineral blocks where they would be available free choice also. In addition I bought protien tubs from Tractor and supply and made them available free access. The protien tubs had the consistancy of a slow poke sucker and therefore could not be eaten in ecess by the horses. the other thing I did is made sure that there was always lots and lots of clean fresh water available... In my opinion that was a very key factor .. which helped the kidneys process all that extra protien. I did not give the horses free access to grain. What I did do was use platform mare and foal feed and started out with about 1 cup twice a day and then gradually increased it. None of the horses founderd or had colic. I work out of my home so I was able to keep a very close eye on the horses should there have been any problems. I did try using beet pulp but that didn't work well for me. I would say that within 10 months the majority of them were all in good shape again and the bred mares all foaled this spring and summer with no problems. All the foals were healthy with straight legs and good bites. The only foal that didn't make it was a beautifull white filly who was born healthy but just wasn't acting quite right and I called our vet. He examined her and it turned out that the little filly was lethal white. We had to put her down and did a necropsy ... her intestines were not connected to her rectum and she had several other dead ends in her intestines. She was only about 12 hours old when we put her down and already parts of her intestines were nepcroptic.

I also had to spend alot of time gentling the horses as some of them had never been handled and were pretty wild. For the most part they are all friendly now and I can walk up to them in the pasture. There are a couple that are stand oofish but for the most part are good for the farrier and grooming.

I had never planned to end up with so many horses but I don't have any regrets. It was such a joy to watch these horses blossom. I would encourage anyone who has the time and resourses to rescue a horse in need to do so ... I think both you and the horse will be better for it.
 
Whoops sorry I thought you fed GRAIN =) Glad you got on to explain how you fed, that seems to be what Appylover2 was looking for!

Take note of what angelheart mentions, her feeding program worked GREAT for her horses! Different from what I would do but she's fortunate to be able to stay home and watch her horses for any problems, whereas I am gone at work for 8 hours a day...I typically feed more in the evening when I can keep an eye on them but control their morning feedings since I will be gone all day and wont get to see if anything happens. Always worries me! Luckily I have a nice neighbor who keeps an eye on them for me too from time to time throughout the day =)
 
Starving horse question.....

I own one of the starved horses from the Upton , MA case. She is in good weight, and eating a balanced diet now, of 2 cups Strategy, a hint of Omolene 200, 2 cups soaked beet pulp, and her supplements twice daily. She also gets good quality grass hay with some alfalfa in it ( not much) three times daily and has free access to both white and mineral blocks.

On my vet's recommendation, she also gets Sand Clear two weeks on, two weeks off, as she has a boat load of sand in there, which we can only control, not get rid of entirely (so far) . Also, everyone always has fresh water from automatic waterers.

They are all on a routine, rotating worming schedule as well.

2-3 times a year she gets explosive diarrhea. I mean the stuff you could bottle and use as jet fuel! I watch her like a hawk but cannot associate the trots with ANY dietary change.

Her outside hay is always fed off the ground, and I do not see her eating dirt or sand.

Do any of you out here have any ideas we could try????
 
Just wanted to note for your stool question. I know of someone who could not for the life of her figure out what was causing this in her foal. Continued thru yearling stage, until she figured out it was a certain dewormer she was using. Might want to give it a watch, next time you deworm. Never know- might be your mini's problem too.
 
Would a pelleted senior complete feed be good for rehabbing? The brand I get is primarily alfalfa and beet pulp with some grain, its 12% protein, 3% fat, 20% fiber and 22%NSC; so I was just wondering if this would be a good choice. [i have limited feeds available to me, so don't have too many choices.]
 

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