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New Member:
crissy

Posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - 6:20 pm:

A friend and I rescued a horse from her neighbor back in February. He weighed 960# and is 16.2 hh. He was very emaciated and dehydrated. We could count his ribs just by looking at him. Now he weighs 1067 and looks so much better. Over the course of the past few months he has been treated for colic, and is still being treated for laminitis-level 1. My vet suggested a low protein diet to help with the laminitis. So I took him off of the alfalfa and put him on Bermuda grass per my Vet. My horse then decided to go on a hunger strike and didn't want to eat the grass hay. That is about when I had to have the vet back out for colic. My Vet also drew blood and checked his levels, all were good and his protein is really low but said it was still within normal range. Now, my horse is being fed 10# of Bermuda blend pellet along with 2 cups of renew gold twice a day to help aid him in gaining weight while keeping his protein down for the laminitis. He has a mineral lick and he uses it, along with some electrolytes in his water once a day to keep him drinking. he drinks 20 - 30 gallons of water a day. He has been doing really well and I have not had to have the vet back out for the past 3 weeks. Now, he has started to eat his own feces. What would cause this, and how can I correct it?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2014 - 10:45 am:

Welcome Cristin,
By reading the article associated with this discussion area, with particular focus of the section on coprophagy, you can answer most your questions. However there are some things in your post that I would like to address directly.

First there is no direct relation between protein and founder. It is important that your horse get adequate levels of protein for good health. You should evaluate his diet to be sure the protein level is at least 10% and 12 would be better for gaining weight.

Second, is your horse on pasture or getting any source of fiber other than the pellets? Processed pellets, even if they made from grass, will not contain adequate fiber.
DrO
New Member:
crissy

Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2014 - 2:53 pm:

The pellets he is on is 12% protein. After all of the reading that I have done on this subject, there are so many variables that could have caused it. First being partial boredom since I am not there 10-12 hours a day with him like I had been while he was sick pampering him and giving him love. With that said, that is also a change for him to adjust to of me not being there with him as much as he has gotten used to. The other would be that when we rescued him he was in a 12'x12' dog kennel sized chain-link pen and was not being fed, so I would imagine he was eating his own feces then and may have become a habit up until I got him and started giving him food. Also, with not being fed for the 8 months the other people had him I'm quite sure his stomach shrunk and when I started feeding him it grew. I had cut back on some of his feed about a week ago as I learned I was feeding him 10# more than he probably should have been getting, so he might have also been feeling hungry still due to the cut back.
After writing this post I have switched up his diet a little, and will be a little more to adjust to his needs. I have put him on 5# of Bermuda blend cubes and 6# of the pellets along with the 2 cups of Renew Gold I had him on (per feeding, twice a day). I will also be adding 6oz. a day of flaxseed back into his diet to help aid with the laminitis and any inflammation so he can still recover from that, and I will also be adding Bermuda grass hay flakes for him to graze on. Since then he has not been cleaning out his own pen for me which is a nice big 32'x32'in size.
Thank you for replying to my post/question. This is my first horse and I am doing more reading than I thought I would be doing. I don't want to make a grave mistake with such a sweet boy. He is only 4 1/2 years old according to my Vet, and has had a rough start with life. I want his life to be a happy and healthy one. With all of the reading I have been doing, it is sometimes hard to distinguish what something might be and/ or how it should be handled with so many varying opinions on the internet. While a lot of horse people are doing the writing I prefer to hear from a professional in regards to some of these matters and knowing that all Vets don't see things the same way all of the time.
I have also started to work/walk him in the round pen to get some exercise, but don't want to over do it and have the laminitis get worse or stay the same. I had to have his front hooves shod. His hooves were over grown and curling when I got him. They are looking much better now, back hooves are looking normal and I'm still patiently waiting for his front to grow back into shape with the help of my farrier. He has gone down in shoe size from a 3 to a 2 in the last 2 months so it is positive progress. Now that we are in the triple digits for our temperatures here in Arizona I can't do to much that it would over exhaust him, but still try to do something each day.
Again, thank you so much for your advice!
Cristin
Member:
npo33901

Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2014 - 4:48 pm:

Cristin, you say it i your first horse , you do a lot of reading to educate yourself . Have a look at keeping your horse SHOE LESS.
It is a way of Natural horse men ship . Horses in the wild don't have
any shoes . Look up Pete Ramey , Dr. Bouwkers, Swedish hoof school . On Google you'll find a lot of information . On this site as well .
There are farriers who don't believe in shoeless .
If ou put a shoe on a hoof , the hoof looses expansion and contraction , it stope the blood float . It is like walking in tight shoes .
If you want the best for your horse, look into this .
AM.
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