Belly on a weanling

As some of you may recall I lost a mare this spring shortly after she delivered a little bay filly. Now the filly did great, was bottle/pan fed until 4.5 months and then weaned. She is being fed free choice alfafa/grass mix hay (about 30% alfalfa) as well as free choice minerals and a salt block (she does use both) When she was still on grass she developed a tummy and I never worried about it assuming she would loose it once she went onto the higher protein hay. However, that has not happened, in fact she looks like she swallowed a basket ball. She is not wormy (I worm her monthly) and the hay she is eating is not coarse. I am planning to add some grains to her diet but wanted to get some input from everyone here on what would be most likely to fill the obvious gap in her diet. Any suggestions?

In our experience, once a weanling gets a belly like your describing, it tends to stick around till the following Spring when they are a yearling providing they are kept on good feed and de-worming program. We have noticed that foals that are weaned too early develop the bellies, but I wouldn't worry too much as it sounds like she is getting what she needs, aside a little grain. Some just go through this stage too but either way...Good Luck and keep up the good work!!

The belly is comming from lack of nutrition! Giving her no grain is not helping her during her developing stage.

I would get her on a grain with a good amount of fat, and atleast 14% + protien. Growing horses need all the nutrition the can get, it really helps them. A really good weanling/yearling feed is Purina Equine Jr.

Good Luck!

Edit" How old is she?

Alex, she is 6.5months now. I don't think she is lacking nutrition, the hay tested at 16% (which of course varies somewhat on any given day since it is a mix) She has a good mineral mix and I have talked to my vet on her nutrition and she felt it was more than adequate. I however felt that there must be a hole in the program since she has the belly. Vet was concerned that adding too much grain at this point would be detrimental to her health rather than benefiting her. However since this is not a vet well versed in miniatures I thought I would check in with the real experts, the people who have there own minis.

I should I guess clarify that the belly started about 2 months ago and she has been on dry feed now for about a month (maybe 3 weeks) so she was fine when we weaned her. Hmmmm.... maybe it is a lack of fats, she started to develop the belly about the same time i stopped giving her the milk replacer.

I agree with Bluestar... weanlings and sometimes yearlings.. just have pot bellies. My '08 foals prior to weaning were little tubettes anyway and I thought the moms are feeding them too good and as soon as I wean them they'll lose some weight... Nope... the little piggies... they now get proportionate 'Development' type grain, quality orchard grass with a tiny bit of alfalfa and get to graze and chase each other around for about 5 hours a day. They too have been wormed etc. and were not weaned too early.. unless 5 - 6 months is too early. : )

We're working on amounts and in this case not too concerned about the bellies until spring. But its also true that pot bellies can be from malnutrition. This also typically comes along with dull coat, drawn from the back bone and sometimes protruding hip bones.

What is the rest of her like? Can you feel her ribs easily? At all? Is her back rounded, or can you feel backbone? If you can feel the backbone is it prominent, or just "obvious"?

Personally I would be giving her grain. I usually buy 16% foal ration (I feed Frontrunner, so it's the Phase One) but this year my weanlings are on the Phase Two which is 14%--I happened to have a bag of that on hand when the colts came home so that's what I started using. They love it, so I haven't tried to switch them over to the Phase One. They are doing wonderful on the 14% ration--I feed it half & half with oats. They were a little thin (newly weaned so had lost weight) and pot bellied (had been out on pasture up until then) when they arrived but I checked them out just yesterday and they are in perfect condition now--backs are just that little bit rounded and tummies have been reduced in size. So yes, I would say that your little girl needs some grain. My 2 boys (30" and 32") each get a 500ml container of pellets and a 500ml container of oats twice a day. They also have a mineral block and free choice hay--mostly grass since that's their favorite, and a little bit of alfalfa every 3rd feed or so--normally they'd get alfalfa every feed but these two boys just don't care for the alfalfa hay we've got here.

Mine has a pot belly. He was weaned at 4 months old. Not early or anything. On beet pulp, grow colt, all around grain, nice grass/alfalfa hay mix, pasture, and a good deworming program. He just looks like he's preggers!!! I wouldn't worry about it. I think they'll lose it once they start hitting some nice growth sprurts to even them out.

gvpaliminominis, thanks for the input. Yes I absolutely agree that a 'starvation' diet (which may mean lots of food but the wrong stuff) will give a foal a belly (or an older horse for that matter). She isn't thin, has bright eyes and a shiny coat but I have never seen a baby with a round tummy like hers before. My other weanling has no belly to speak of at all. Of course he is built differently than her and he has been weaned for considerably less time. The fact that my vet tells me she is healthy and her diet is sound leaves me scratching my head. I think I'll just put her on a foal grain and see if that helps.

Thanks every one for your thoughts. I worry more about this particular filly since she is my bottle baby. There is something about midnight feedings that creates a strong attachment The vet didn't think that grains were really needed with the high protein content in the hay but I guess the proof is in the pudding. I will begin offering her the phase one and see if there is an improvement. I hope I don't have to wait until spring to see the belly go tho, I keep comparing her to the other horses, adults, a yearling and another weanling and they don't have the same belly so I'm just dissatisfied with her look. Someone told me it was a 'bottle belly' but it wasn't there while she was on the milk replacer. Anyway thanks for all your ideas, I appreciate them.

Since she was a bottle baby and didn't have her dam around, how about a round of probiotics to make sure her gut flora is in working order to digest the hay well. Foals usually eat their dams manure to help populate their gut with necessary "bugs" to help digest fiber (hay/pasture). Just a thought.

Chanda, thats brilliant! great idea, can't do any harm thats for sure. Thank you I will definitely add that to her diet asap.

Do you stall her? I had a weanling filly here this year that when stalled and confined about 80-90% of the time and she got a belly, and i feel my weanlings/yearling VERY good. Then, about a month ago i just turned her out for the winter and i noticed that her being outside and moving around has really evened out that belly. My one weanling filly right now is on orchard grass/alfalfa mix (about 25% alfalfa,,,,75% orchard grass) and then a 14% Omlene and Buckeye Gro N Win (32% ration ballancer) mixed with that.

What about a ration ballancer? Most are 32% protein and higher fat, an you only have to feed 1/2-2 cups of it (for a weanling) so i think that helps keep the belly down.

Something though, i really think you just have to let them "ride it out"...if your feeding her right, giving her turn out, wormed on schedule ext...its probably just a weanling thing and with time will even out.

Also, i worm my babies up to 12 months EVERY month.

Keri said:

Mine has a pot belly. He was weaned at 4 months old. Not early or anything. On beet pulp, grow colt, all around grain, nice grass/alfalfa hay mix, pasture, and a good deworming program. He just looks like he's preggers!!!

I wouldn't worry about it. I think they'll lose it once they start hitting some nice growth sprurts to even them out.

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Yeah, a pot-belly on any horse doesn't automatically mean he/she is lacking in nutrition or is wormy etc. IMHO.

I have some pretty significant bellies on my babies this year too. Has bothered me, but I haven't been able to get rid of them. They have been dewormed regularly and are on a good quality 15% feed plus hay and a little alfalfa, and like yours they are not thin or dull, just potsy.

Jan

Bellies on the youngsters can be SO frustrating! Here's my opinion developed from talking with various equine nutritionists......If these foals were in the wild they would still be getting the main part of their nutrition in a very digestible and high protein liquid diet. Bottom line...their gut just isn't ready to digest all that long fiber very well.

It seems to help here if I keep the weanlings on a milk based foal starter and creep feed untill they are near a year old. Then gradually replace that with a diet balancer type of extruded pellet. Free choice very fine hay also.

The foal starter is formulated to be digested by that immature gut so they get more nutrition from it and perhaps need to eat less of the long fiber hay.

Charlotte

When my babies were here they got almost free choice hay AND foal grain.

I dont care, babies need grain, they need more nutrition then just hay can give.

That said, yes the milk will give a belly. My aunt raises alot of "equine" type animals on the bottle/pale. They do tend to get a belly easier. HOwever she also feed hers free choice hay and free choice grain until they are eatting well. THen they get about 4 cups grain a feeding(this is around the 6 month or so age.

Charlotte said:

If these foals were in the wild they would still be getting the main part of their nutrition in a very digestible and high protein liquid diet. Bottom line...their gut just isn't ready to digest all that long fiber very well.

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I agree! Weanlings seem to do ok on good pasture, but once they are eating hay, they tend to get bellies from not being able to digest it so well, IME. I feed Purina Equine Junior to my weanlings; it's said to be a complete feed but I give them each four cups a day, plus free-choice hay. They are also out on pasture, though there isn't much left to speak of this time of year, they are getting plenty of exercise, and they all look pretty good.

I have been working on solving this "post weanling belly", for years. There is definitely something really good in a mother's milk, and obviously the milk replacer has it too. But I have found if you wean the foal later (5 - 6 mos) and give them a good foal feed it really helps. And you need to have them eating this foal feed long before you completely wean them. I like Purina Juvenile topped with Purina Equalizer. I feed two smaller feedings, one in morning and one at night. I just weaned a six month old colt two weeks ago, and so far, his belly looks good......keeping my fingers crossed.!!

A wise old horseman once told me years ago, if you want to show a weanling foal, don't wean it.......cause once weaned they get this belly. So this is not something new. I have also noticed, once you wean them, they lose their foal spunk and friskiness and just look very unhappy. But believe that good foal feed is the answer.

Thanks so much for all the ideas/thoughts on this. I've never had a problem with much (I expect a little roundness in foals)of a belly before her so it is either her individual build or her diet/ orphan status. I had been feeding her a foal feed, phase one, but the vet felt that with the hay we feed it wasn't required (I should have gone with my gut ) Anyway my plan from reading all of this is to give her some probiotics in case her gut flora need a boost and start her on a milk based foal feed and see if we get an improvement. I should have clued in to the difficulty digesting the fiber in hay and that not having mom meant her environment lacked some of the bacterias normally present in the dam's droppings.