What Has Been Your Biggest Mistake w/ Minis?

[Jill]

My biggest mistake with minis was in 2000. I was not new to owning horses, but I was new to being the main person taking care of them since I'd always boarded my riding horses.

One day, I fed PLUMS off a tree in our yard to my mini colt and small pony colt. Yes, pits and all. I fed them each probably 5 or 6. This was on a Sunday and I didn't think of it again until I got home from work the next day. My husband was frantic because "Eclipse" (the mini) was down and he didn't know what was wrong with him. I didn't either when I saw him rolling around. I actually thought he had something wrong with his nervous system!!!!

Of course, we called the vet and she came out and as you probably can guess, Eclipse had colic and BAD. When the vet arrived, it was all H and I could do to keep him from rolling. His eyes weren't looking right and his teeth were clenched. He seemed to be oblivious to everything around him.

Thank God, he was treated medically for the colic and has been fine ever since! I still can hardly beleive I was that stupid to feed a fruit with a big pit in it to a horse, let alone so many of them to such a small horse! Thankfully, the pony had no issues from the plums.

[SIZE=12pt]For those of you willing to share, what were some of the mistakes you folks made when you were new to caring for your horses?[/SIZE]

 

[minih]

I am sure there are several but one sticks out in my mind right now the most.

We were lucky enough to never have a horse with founder problems before and did not know the signs of it. We bought an older mare we were wanting to use as a broodmare with one of our stallions. Got her home and after seveal days she started walking stiff legged just a little, got out the banamine gave it for what we thought was "arthritis" and she seemed fine for a while. She did ok during the winter just every once in a while she would act like what we thougth were her legs hurting so we would give a little banamine or some aspirin to help with her "arthritis". But oh my, in the spring when some of the new grass, we don't have much in the first place but enough for her, she really went down fast. Called the vet and he told us she was a chronic founder horse and had foundered quite often in the past. I felt really bad that we kept thinking it was arthritis! I could have had her feeding program different the whole winter if we had known in the first place. We have since changed her food around and she is never allowed where any grass, no matter how small a sprig grows. She is doing wonderful now, with constant farrier care and has done even better since we put her on Thyro L. Our broodmare would not take after breeding for two years until now :aktion033: She is due in January.

 

[Reble]

SEAHORSE My 3 year old Gelding Miniature Horse.

Dewormed December 17, 2005, and Colic within 24 hours,

Called Vet, needled and given peppermint liquid to clean him out.

Temperature 105. Grinding Teeth.

Vet Called Quest, and said this was normal in the horse that has small strongyle,

which imbed into the lining of the intestines, not just stays in the stomach.

Kills all worms not just some.

Two days later called Vet back cannot walk. Really stiff in his hind legs.

But still eating and pooping. More shots and giving electrolytes.

Boxing day an abscess bursts in his chest. Because of hurting himself when colic.

Vet again, not concerned not life threatening. 3 days later

DOWN and before Vet could get to him DIED IN OUR ARMS

Quest paid for postmortem which was done in Guelph University Ontario.

& All my Vet Bills........

RESULTS !!!!! Colic and Trauma contributed to death.

PLEASE DO NOT USE QUEST.........

 

[whitney]

ALWAYS ALWAYS read the label of any prescribed medication.

My Tweet was allergic to Tribrissen if I had listened to my vet she'd be dead today.

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

Biggest mistake was our 2nd foal , no foaling camera, no foaling alert end result dead mare and foal. NEVER AGAIN have i missed a foaling I am so sorry that my mare had to pay for my mistake.

 

[miniapp]

The biggest for me was back in the mid 1908's when Miniatures were just starting to coming into their own. I had always had large horses (my own and training horses) and was new to the miniature breed. When I decided to work with a few miniature horses a friend of mine brought her yearling colt to the barn for manners and to show him a little. I started him on a feeding program which was a scaled down version that I used on my big horses. The culprit in this case was the hay I was feeding. While it was good quality hay, it was to stemmy for the little guys.. the big horses had no problem with it, but the colt was not chewing it properly and this started an impaction colic that ultimately cost his life. From that day forward I looked for an alternative to what I was feeding and found that Purina Horse Chow (soft, extruded pelleted feed) and fine, fine stemmed leafy hay was the best for the little ones and I continue on this program today.

I am happy to say that since I have used this program, I have not had a colic.. (other than a few, small stress colics or post-partum issues) in over 20 years. While I will not say that it will never happen again, I am pleased that I have not had those issues since then.

Suzy Hooper

Show Horses by Suzy

Fresno, CA

 

[Jill]

Suzy --

What you describe about that colt is exactly what I feel happened to Khaki, my mare who had colic surgery due to an impaction when she was 11mos old. The surgeon told me it was as if she had access to very coarse feed and my former trainer's hay was (is) so coarse! I talked to her about it, but fell on deaf ears. On the bright side, she's no longer feeding any of MY minis.

My feeding program mirrors what you are doing today -- Purina Equine Adult or Junior and soft, orchard grass hay. No problems here with colic since I fed Eclipse plums in 2000.

Jill

 

[southernmother]

after reading about the plums ... I have to ask, can a mini eat carrots or pieces of apple, and are there any other treats they can or can not eat? I am new to raising a mini and don't want to make a possibly fatal mistake. thanks )

 

[Jill]

after reading about the plums ... I have to ask, can a mini eat carrots or pieces of apple, and are there any other treats they can or can not eat? I am new to raising a mini and don't want to make a possibly fatal mistake. thanks )

Carrots and apples are fine

: Mine love those. The thing that made the plums bad news were the pits. You shouldn't feed "stone fruits" with the pits to horses. This would be things like plums, peaches, appricots, etc. Basically, the pits fermented (sp?) inside Eclipse and caused a bad gas colic.

Additionally, when I was new to horses, I was told not to ever feed pears to my big horse. I have no idea why or if that is even accurate advice, but I have not ever fed pears to my biggies or my minis because I was told not to.

 

[Miniv]

For me, it was not "LISTENING" to my mare, Bridget last year when she ended up with a twisted gut.

She hid it from us for who knows how long because she was nursing her 2 week old colt, Jeffie.

Instead of listening to her, I (we) were selfish and went the extra mile to keep her alive an extra day before realizing we were just prolonging her suffering. That is something Larry and I still have tears over.

MA

 

[irishmini]

this is a good thread..and i really hope people will share thier mistakes.......for one .. we are all human and all make mistakes.... and if one person can learn from it.. one horsey life may be saved..... but i fear people are too guarded to show that they made mistakes.......

one i made.. and i will never forget it was when i was 14.....

we were in cyprus and stayed a few days at a riding centre we were each allocated a pony of our own for the few days.... anyway, one evening me and my mum were out for a walk.. and we were watching the horses in a paddock.....

one horse...Romulus was his name. was rolling and rolling and sweating.. i remember saying to my mother.. he doesnt look right.. and joked.. god, imagine if he,s dead tomorrow and we are watching him die......

well, guess what... next day he was lying dead......

he died of colic, from eating the carabs on the tree..........

i have never forgotton this.............

 

[sedeh]

My biggest mistake has been in feeding. Last year I decided I wasn't feeding enough concentrates/supplements so I increased that and then we had a hard winter and I got heavy handed with the hay too. End result was they all came into spring way too fat(I also thought I had more pregnant mares than I did and was feeding for "last trimester" pregnancy). Once the spring grass hit I ended up with 2 mares getting laminitis(vet thinks may have even foundered but we did no x-rays). The one mare that was the worse to begin with has completely recovered but the mare that seemed to have a lighter case still has lameness issues. Anyway, now I weigh my hay and I have cut back on all supplements. I only feed born to win and my old horse gets Equine Sr and the young ones get some Equine Jr too.

 

[Jill]

Sandy,

I made a similar mistake, and also like Terri / Minih, I at first thought my mare was only just sore. Actually, I thought she'd pulled a muscle and was sore in the back when in fact, she was laminitis in the front.

We had been feeding mostly complete pellets and only a small amount of hay. Some of our horses were too fat, including the one who got laminitis (though she was not nearly as fat as A LOT of minis). This was last winter and she has had no issues since and dropped weight when we put all them on a better diet. Now we feed a small amount of complete pellets (Purina Equine Adult and Junior), and mostly orchard grass hay.

For so long after the episode, I just could hardly beleive I nearly foundered a mare who was on a dry lot and only got to eat what I put in front of her. I just didn't realize that for that mare, any too fat is too fat for her. I always thought fat was a fine color for winter.

Over the years, truly, each time I start to feel I really know "a lot" about horses, something like the above happens and puts me in my place (unfortunately).

Jill

 

[Relic]

READ LABELS twice.. a few years back l put garlic drops instead of eye drops in a colts eye and ended up with a even bigger problem so now l make sure to read twice no matter what it is for.

 

[kaykay]

my biggest mistake was underestimating what a horse will do to get into the grain bin. In our old barn there was a 2 foot tiny door going into the barn from where we stored grain. We put a small lock on it thinking that would keep them out. went to work and came home and 4 horses had broken the lock and squeezed themselves thru a 2 foot opening to get to the grain.

My other mistake was not immediately calling the vet when i found them in the grain. they didnt show any colic signs and didnt get that much grain split between that many horses but it was sweet feed. I had no idea at the time how dangerous sweet feed could be.

I lost my beautiful shadow but we were able to save the others.

just wanted to add that you do have to be careful feeding apples. they are very high in sugar.

 

[stormo41]

left my horse alone in the trailer while he was putting up a fit, It was a trailer modified for miniatures and he got so upset thathe fliped over the devider, a large door was open so i saw it happen and i thought he died! Other then a few cuts he was fine but i will never do that again.

 

[LisaB Ozark]

I had a mare that had a bad runny eye but it was still open. She is a very difficult mare to mess with so we decided that it was just a hay seed or something minor and she would be fine the next day. A day later the eye was closed and off to the vet she went. Long story short - $600 later and the mare still lost her eye. Vet said if I would have taken her in right away then it would have been a simple cleaning.

It looked like she did have a hay seed in her eye but instead of it coming out with the tears she scratched at it and ended up ulcerating her eye past fixing. She is a very nervous mare and the vet said it looked like she just nervously scratched all night.

Now I am very nervous about eyes and have saved several from having problems. I also do not have any mares that are difficult for us to handle. That mare went to a home that handles her everyday and now she is a sweetie! Sometimes it is better to relocate/sell/give away a horse if they do not fit in with your herd and your style of horse care.

I love this thread.

LisaB

 

[Getitia]

Bute - never ever overdose a mini with Bute - even one time - vets (and others) can "overestimate" the weight of a mini................We were fortunate and saved our mare - others have not been as fortunate.

Ditto on the Breeder Alert and video monitor being a must have requirement to safely foal out your mares - we too learned the hard way.

 

[chandab]

I made a similar mistake, and also like Terri / Minih, I at first thought my mare was only just sore. Actually, I thought she'd pulled a muscle and was sore in the back when in fact, she was laminitis in the front.

This is exactly what happened last winter with my little mare that foundered. I thought she had pulled something, so didn't act as fast as I should have. She is recovering nicely, but would probably be further along in her recovery, if I hadn't delayed diagnosis.

For so long after the episode, I just could hardly beleive I nearly foundered a mare who was on a dry lot and only got to eat what I put in front of her. I just didn't realize that for that mare, any too fat is too fat for her. I always thought fat was a fine color for winter.

This is where I am with my mare... Any fat is too fat for her.

 

[NyborFarm]

I agree with Getitia, never overdose a mini on bute. And always double check how much the vet prescribes. If you think its wrong, I would call and double check. My mini wound up with a stomach ulcer because of it. We went through two or three months of having a diffrent vet come up and draw blood and everything thing else you could imagian. Poor little guy, no wonder he hates the vet. I honestly thought I was going to have to put him down.