I Bought a morbidly obese late term older mare

[remington]

Okay...please no flames for me....I bought her because it was sort of a rescue/sympathy thing....except that instead of malnourished she is obese. Let me tell you about her:

Age: 17

Weight: 410#!!!!!!!

Height: 33.5"

She is due to foal in 4-6 weeks but has 1/2 bag and stage 2 fluid. I figure her to be 150# or so overweight. She barely squeezes through the service door on our barn. No kidding.

I know you're not supposed to put a pg mare on a diet, but I am not sure what to feed her. She acts very hungry in the mornings and cleans up every last scrap of hay. During the day its pretty much free choice grass hay. I am also giving her 1/2 cup grain 2x a day, with Mare Plus in the mornings. She has totally attacked the mineral/salt block since I brought her home.

I have had her 4 days....she settled in nicely and baby is active and strong.

Does anyone have any advice about feeding this mare through the last of her pregnancy?

I am concerned about how she is going to handle the last few weeks of stress on her body in this condition and also how she will do in labor.

After she foals I will probably have the vet out to test thyroid function. If it is thyroid would it make any sense to have her be starting meds this late in the pregnancy? Should I have the vet test before foaling?

Have you had an experience such as this you could relate to me? How your foalings go with very obese older mares?

Thanks for any advice....Just want to do what I can to help this mare and hopefully foal safely. It will definately be tough.

 

[ThreeCFarm]

She could also be Insulin Resistant, so be sure to check for that. We originally thought my gelding had a low thyroid, but it turned out to be IR.

What were the previous owners feeding her? An IR horse can get HUGE on nothing.

 

[remington]

They said 1/2 cup grain a day and hay.

She has been obese ranging from 350# to 435# for the last 3-4 years.

What is the treatment for IR?

 

[rabbitsfizz]

What does she look like??

I ask because I have a 32" mare who weighs this much and is due in May- she is not morbidly obese, she is FAT!!!

This is just the way Blue is, she is a fat girl.

It does not worry me too much.

I have had a number of my mares go to this weight- more so last year than this as I have been a bit stricter with the feed, although not the hay.

I would not advise dieting her at this stage, just feeding sensibly- I would also consult your Vet for a health run down/vitals check so s/he can advise you what to do ,a nd how to do it- probably not til after the baby is born and you can judge how much is foal and how much is fat.

Remember- so long as there is no health problem this is really not that huge for this late in the pregnancy

 

[frekles93]

[SIZE=14pt] I dont believe I would let her have free choice hay. I restrict my one prego mare to 2 flakes of orchard a day and YES she thinks she is starved. If I let her have free choice she would blow up. She is mantained on that. What I have learned about the Mare and Maintance by Purina, it would be the best feed for her. IMHO[/SIZE]

April

 

[Loren&Rocky]

[SIZE=14pt]You might try taking her for walks every day. Get her moving a little. If not to loose weight, to help her at foaling time. She won't be fit, but she might have an easier time if she has some exercise[/SIZE]

 

[ThreeCFarm]

The "treatment" for IR is diet change. They are kind of like diabetics, so you have to watch the sugar in EVERYTHING they eat (grass, hay, grain, supplements). You can do a search for horses and insulin resistance or something similar, and check out Equine Cushings group, which includes information on insulin resistance.

Do you have any pictures of this mare that you could post? Does she have fat deposits anywhere? Or is she just very round? :bgrin How is her neck? Can you feel her ribs at all? How are you coming up with her weight?

Chances are, if she is only getting a 1/2 cup of grain, she isn't getting all that she needs out of it, nutritionally, anyway.

If you do a search on insulin resistance, you'll find listings of the different symptoms, and you can see how many fit your mare. You can do the same for low thyroid, etc.

My IR horse no longer has access to ANY grass, and is not on any grain. He is fed rinsed beet pulp (to rinse off as much molasses as possible), Progressive Nutrition's Grass Diet Balancer, and grass hay. He is doing fine at this time, but there may come a point in the future where he can't have the grass hay, either. He has access to a plain white salt block, but no other kind of block. Previously, he was FAT FAT FAT on nothing but minimal grass, the Diet Balancer (which isn't a grain) and hay. Even when he was being worked regularly, he didn't need any other feed.

Please check out the Cushings site I posted above. They can give you very good advice about which tests to have done, and when. Some tests are affected by seasonal changes. And please ask for your vet's opinion on whether or not to test your mare while pregnant or after she foals.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Dieting a mare at this stage in her pregnancy can be very dangerous.

I would really not do this without consulting your Vet.

You need blood tests done before you do anything that might cause harm.

I am not happy if my mares are without food.

I do not consider this weight, as a single symptom, to be "morbidly overweight"

I really think we need to take a long hard look at ourselves in the mirror before we start obsessing about our horses weights.

:

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

Personally I wouldn't change anything until you have the vet verify is it just fat or if there a medical condition. To curtail or change her feeding at this time (if there isn't a medical condition) could bring on hyperlipemia if she gets stressed. I would proceed with a vets advice.

If you can I would try to get her out to exercise - walks would be great. Being out of condition will harm her more than the excess weight at foaling time. (my opinion)

With our larger mares, I don't generally adjust their food down to much, but do wean their foal later. It is a natural way for them to lose weight without stress to their body/system. It really pulls excess weight off. I've had mares that needed to lose 50-75 lbs at the vets recommendation (my first minis - when I thought they were all starving!).

This is my mare (from the back) that just delivered on Thursday and her 5 yr old maiden daughter. (Jiji is missing an eye - we're lucky she isn't blind as she still pokes her head through fences, gates,etc.)

Both mares are 33"+ and easily in the 350+ range.

 

[Ashley]

Most of our mares here look like Michelles and some are not even due until May.

:

That said I to would not be adjusting her diet right now. Also being a older mare I would rather see her a bit heavier as they seem to loose weight faster. We do have a few older ones here and the one who is 17 per the vets orders has to stay in foal as that is the only way to keep the excess weight off of her.

The one I just bought is a 16 year old who I am working to gain weight on as she wasnt fed enough in my opinon.

 

[Marion]

Michelle, most of my horses are with yours, but they do loss the weight when they foal. Most of mine are free range grass with less feed in the summer.

 

[Miniv]

Personally I wouldn't change anything until you have the vet verify is it just fat or if there a medical condition. To curtail or change her feeding at this time (if there isn't a medical condition) could bring on hyperlipemia if she gets stressed. I would proceed with a vets advice.

If you can I would try to get her out to exercise - walks would be great. Being out of condition will harm her more than the excess weight at foaling time. (my opinion)

I ditto Michelle's post......

MA

 

[rabbitsfizz]

This is Blue- who checks in at 500lbs as of last month- I was checking her today, and she is a little too fat, it's true, but, well, she's just fat!!!

That's just the way she is.

She is also as fit as a fiddle.

She stands 32", and is ten years old. She is due in May.

 

[Sue_C.]

This is Blue- who checks in at 500lbs as of last month- I was checking her today, and she is a little too fat, it's true, but, well, she's just fat!!!

Was she weighed, or taped?? I cannot even imagine a mare that height, weighing that much; and being healthy. :new_shocked: :new_shocked: I have had healthy ponys over 13 hh, which didn't weigh that much, and morgans barely over 14hh, that only weighed 700-800 pounds, that I even considered fat.

 

[Sun Runner Stables]

Sue C. I was just thinking the Exact same thing, as by looking at her I also have a hard time seeing 500lbs, however I have been wrong before Many times, and most likely will be again... You just can never tell with these little guys..

I have no advice, but what has been given seems pretty good common sense to me.

I am one that likes my mares on the fit, if slightly chubby side. I would rather have to feed the heck out of them with foal on side, then wrestle a baby out of a bigger girl. But do agree that some mare seem to be 'heavier' built then others.

I have two half sisters here, that you would really never know were in foal until about a week before they go. Seasoned broodmares, just sevelt built mares really. They are also the type that could go right back into the ring after about 3 weeks of foaling... I like mares like this better, as it's more big horse like, and not so pony... But each to his own, and many different things work for many different farms.

It does not stop me from owning buying mares that look like the should have a skateboard attatched to their bellies to keep it from dragging it on the ground if I like them, either though. Just my prefrence.

 

[Leeana]

I agree, Blue doesnt look anywhere near 500pounds to me. Angel is 32.5 and if Blue is 500 pounds ..angel must be pushing 600 apparently. That horse looks more about 350-400 maybe.

Maybe just do some light exersizing and cut back on the hay a bit. Even if its just a couple laps around the barn, thats a good amount of exersize for a horse that isnt use to exersize.

Just what i would do

:

Leeana

 

[Sue_C.]

mares that look like the should have a skateboard attatched to their bellies to keep it from dragging it on the ground

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Dream]

I have to echo the opinion's of others. There is no way Blue weighs 500 lbs. Our 36 inch mare weighs less than 300 pounds just before she foals (that is a hair on the plump side of ideal). If you use a tape on BLue with a belly like that you may get 500lbs but that is unreliable.

 

[hhpminis]

Back to the original subject.

My vet wants me to keep a horse at the condition she was in when she got pregnant and not try to change them while pregnant.

I ditto the other responses that she should be looked at by a vet before any diet changes. She may have a tough time foaling so again it would be wise to have the vet check her so the vet is aware you have this issue to deal with.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Sorry you must allow me to know my own animals- I had to convert from Kilogrammes but I used a calculator, so I know it to be correct.

She is also, remember, slightly smaller by your calculations.

I am always amazed at how thin the American horses are, and always amazed at the small amounts of feed given, I am happy with |Blue at this weight as she al sways is this weight at this time of year, I cannot say I would be overly happy if any of the others were as heavy, as no-one else is the same build as Blue- she is the original "outhouse" under the fat and fur

You do have to take a lot of things into account before you call something fat.

I never weighed any of the Arabs- that was not the thinking of the day, but I do know my 12.2hh Sec B Welsh mare, who was very fine and Araby, weighed in at 340 kgs which is 740 lbs.

Perhaps we just have our horses in different condition, and are therefore used to different weights, BUT these horses, at these weights, are healthy, active animals, not "morbidly obese"

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