Putting weight on rescue minis

[Kayleadailey]

I recently got 3 minis from a pretty bad situation. Under all the ridiculously long body hair they're nothing but bags of bones. The bad part is they're from show lines and are young horses. The lady paid quite a bit of money for them then starved them.

We got them Saturday and wormed them with Zimectrin on Sunday and yesterday morning I found 2 rather large, fat red worms in one of the manure piles. Any suggestions on if I should worm again? With what and when?

What's the best way to put weight on them? Right now they're getting 1/4 scoop of Tribute calm n easy and pretty much free choice hay.

 

[NewToMini's]

When I got my minis last year, my mare was underweight, and I was given the advice (from some people here) to start her on senior feed. Along with the senior feed (safechoice brand), she got free choice grass hay, and I gradually increased her turnout time. In a couple of months, she looked dramatically better.

I would also get their teeth checked asap.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

Start on an extruded feed. Do you have Blue seal near you? If so I really really really love everything about the 'sentinel safe start' in the pink bag. I also feed their 'sunshine plus' and it does magical things for hard keepers/skinny ones. Those feeds put muscle and fat on, not just fat.

I would suggest getting a fecal done if he worm load is that heavy.

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

Poor things. Why do people bother?! Hope they get better under your care. Would love to see some photos.

 

[Miniv]

Ditto to gradually switching to a senior grain....( swear I'm a nag about that for underweight horses)......We've fed up to 6 cups twice a day for

very underweight ones, but do it gradually over a couple of weeks. Lots of quality hay is good - which you're already doing.

More dittos to having a fecal test done so you know what kind of worms you're dealing with.....and also having their teeth checked so you know

that they are processing their feed properly. A wormy horse with points in their teeth (and even young horses get points) can eat and eat and

it doesn't do them any good.

Once their teeth are checked, another good addition to their diet is alfalfa pellets mixed in with the senior feed. (Senior feed is soft, so even

ones with bad teeth can eat it.)

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I also agree with having their teeth checked. If they haven't been fed anything of good quality lately , then please introduce it to them slowly and build up their rations slowly. Plenty of good quality grass hay and even a blend of grass/alfalfa will be good a good start for them in their new life.

And good on you for taking them on board, hope they are very happy in your care

 

[Kayleadailey]

I'm not sure how to post pics so if someone could point me in the direction of some instructions then I'll post some.

Thank you for advice so far!

 

[NewToMini's]

Are you on a phone or a computer?

 

[Kayleadailey]

Phone

 

[NewToMini's]

Ok, go to the bottom and click full version, then go to more reply options. You can load pictures from there.

 

[Kayleadailey]

They're too big to upload. I'll try making them smaller

 

[NewToMini's]

If you have a photobucket account, you can upload them there, and then copy and paste the link to here, but I'm not entirely sure how

 

[Kayleadailey]

Ginger, 3-4 yo AMHA mare. She's in the best shape of the 3

Monkey, 6 yo AMHA stallion.

 

[Kayleadailey]

Titus, 2-3 yo AMHA stallion. He's by far the worst and hasn't had a very good week. But he's a fighter and I believe he's going to come through just fine.

Titus

 

[Kayleadailey]

We're supposed to be picking up another mare this weekend

 

[NewToMini's]

Aw, sad to see them so thin

You can take their girth measurements once a week or so, to keep track of their weight and make sure they're gaining. I'll upload a chart that tells you how much a Mini weighs according to it's girth measurement.

 

[NewToMini's]

Here's the chart.

 

[chandab]

How ever you go about helping them put weight back on, go slowly, it takes a long time to bring them back properly. Talk with your vet about it, hopefully he can help, although many vets don't have excessive knowledge in nutrition, as it's only a few weeks out of their schooling.

 

[Jean_B]

Wow! They were lucky you came along when you did!! Some people can be so STUPID. I always tell newbies that all that winter hair is deceptive - to take off their mittens at least once a week and feel those backbones and ribs. Obviously their previous owner didn't do that.

As far as worming - years ago I once got an 8 month old filly out of a bad situation in late October - had never been wormed and was in a 10 x 20 foot paddock with no winter hair....just "pig hair" because she was too wormy. Her halter was growing into her head. I wormed her with 1/2 dose of ivermectin and she passed nothing but bots, so I'm glad I didn't give her a full dose. I gave her another half dose once a week for an addition 3 weeks. I body clipped her with a 5 blade with the hair and she actually grew a good winter coat after that.

 

[Kayleadailey]

Ya I don't think poor Titus would have lasted another week or two. He's layed down a couple times just to rest but couldn't get back up. The other two at least still have some energy but not him. But he's not giving up and he's the sweetest thing. He loves to be loved.