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 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
 
| Horses. How did you go about feeding and worming? Possibly bringing one home Sunday and he's been pretty neglected for the past year. Its obvious from pictures he hasn't been feed properly or wormed , trimmed etc etc.... did you just start with throwing hay ? Beet pulp, alfalfa? He will get seen by my vet and farrier asap. Just trying to get my game plan together.
Thank ya'll! |
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  More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
  
Location: Riding Crackhead. | I only had one and its been a few years but I only gave him good quality prairie hay for a while. I then started giving him a couple handfulls of grain every day and worked up to larger amounts of grain. I did worm him right away too. |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | I have a colt that I rescued, he was 3 months old....he wasn't skinny, just needed a few pounds and was extremely wormy.
I wormed him then quarantined him in the round pen, he got a flake morning and night and half a pound of grain and we worked it up from there. He now gets 4 1/2 pounds morning/night and is now 2 years old.
You want to work him into his hay/grain. Don't just feed him a bunch at once, also if he is really wormy I'd either power pac him or rotate wormers the first few weeks
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 Living on the edge of common sense
Posts: 24139
Location: Carpenter, WY | Whatever you feed just try and take it slow and easy. He didn't get in the poor condition overnight and it will take him awhile even with the TLC to get back to where he should be. I can't wait to see before and after pics!
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | Good quality alfalfa or alfalfa pellets are your friend at first. And frequency. Feed at least 3-4 times a day. Increase amounts over a couple weeks. Later on and with the advice of a vet you can switch to a grain. Then frequency and a little bit of oil will help them gain a lot of weight. |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Thank you for the replies. Im excited and nervous. Hes super cute not grossly underweight but he's very fuzzy so I'm sure he's thinner than appears. I plan on going very slow. He will be in his own stall with a big run before I turn him out with my others I wanna get him straightened out health wise. I'll definitely post pics when he's officially mine. Im mostly concerned with the worming part. Dont want overwhelm his body in case he's overloaded. |
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 I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world | I have a senior horse (30s) that was neglected. The horse was skin and bones, had rain rot, his hair would fall out in huge patches leaving big scabs, and the vet wasn't sure he'd live past 2 weeks. I offered to allow the person to place the horse on my property as long as they paid for him. Well, they didn't, so I took over. He gets senior feed 2x a day, rice bran, beet pulp, supplement for arthritis, a butt load of quality hay and alfalfa. I also placed him on a deworming schedule using only strongid the first couple of dewormings because I knew he hadn't been wormed in a long time, and I was concerned that Ivermectrin might be too harsh. I took feeding him slow and gradually uping his feed. He is absolutely beautiful now.
Just take feeding slow and make sure you have good hay. Best of luck to you. It is rewarding to see their eyes light up once they are in good health again.
This is what he looked like when he came in May.
Edited by sophiebelle 2014-02-05 9:21 AM
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 Expert
Posts: 1898
| Read this, it is from UC Davis it is a very good read packed full of information.
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ceh/docs/horsereport/pubs-July2012-bk... |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Thank ya'll very much!
I do have good quality hay. Been hard for me to find decent alfalfa but I do feed my others an alfalfa/timothy cubes that I soak for the mornings. I also feed a 12/12 pellet and Forco. I'll know more what I'm dealing with when I am able to get my eyes on him in person. Hoping & praying he gets to come home sunday.  I was told he's 13 |
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 Veteran
Posts: 222
Location: Texas | With the ones we got that were in bad condition we have a vet evaluate. If they give the go ahead we power pack and get teeth done. Then we start them on Aussie Logic or Total Equine. Get a big bucket that they can't tip over and work them up to a bag (about a week) We dump a bag in and refill when it's low and We slowly introduce hay. And when we do it's an alfalfa or alfalfa mix. We do this bc neglected horses have a tendency to wolf down anything as fast as they can . And don't drink enough water so they impact. (We had this happen and almost lost a gelding. He would spend his entire time eating his hay as fast as he could and not drink. This is what caused us to reevaluate how we refeed one and talked to reps of total equine and our vets ). The total equine or AL is a complete feed so they don't have to have hay and the alfalfa has a thicker stem so they have to slow down to chew it. This is what has been recommend to us and we have used to to great success . Most importantly patience. They don't get in bad shape over night and it will take time to get them back again. Keep in close contact with a vet so they can monitor progress and make sure there is no underlying problems or complications due to the horses neglect. You are an angel for doing this !
ETA the sorrel mare in my avatar was 22 when we rescued her she was so thin I could set a soda can on her ribs next to her spine. We used the above method to bring her back and she now looks fantastic. Our chiro couldn't be live she was 25 this year! :)
Edited by Married2Rodeo 2014-02-05 10:38 AM
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Thank you  |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| cyount2009 - 2014-02-05 9:13 AM
Read this, it is from UC Davis it is a very good read packed full of information.
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ceh/docs/horsereport/pubs-July2012-bk...
This was very helpful. Im pretty sure I'm not dealing with this severe of neglect or starvation on this horse at least I hope not anyway. Unreal the before and after in this article! Wow! |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Well we ended up taking him. And hes way worse than I thought or was told. I couldn't leave him so we decided to take this on. Got him home this evening after a long haul he dud great though. I've got him blanketed in an outside pen its pretty cold tonight so I just put a light one on him. And I'm taking the advice of starting with alfalfa hay very little and i'll feed him every 3-4 hours . Hes very alert and curious (and hungry) . Hes going to the vet this week for an evaluation. Was told he was wormed before we got there so I'm going to wait for vet to tell me what I need to do with that. We are guessing hes at the minimum , 300lbs underweight. Its really a shame because hes such a nice horse very friendly and trusting. Loaded right into our trailer by himself and unloads the same. I am praying he can get through this and rebounds. I'd love to see him happy and healthy! |
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Expert
Posts: 1642
Location: Kansas | I found a daughter of PB in 2008 and she was severally underweight (21 years old). The lady let me take her to the vet for a prepurchase exam so I would know what I was getting into. He said she was severally dehydrated, full of parasites (fecal exam), and needed food, but he said she could be saved. So I bought her and brought her home. He had me give her all the grass hay she wanted right off since horses are grazers and need roughage in the belly and gut to work right. Had me deworm her the first day home, 2 weeks later again, 2 weeks again, then a month later, and then put her on the same schedule as the others. He had me put her on very little grain at first and work it up and supplemented with soaked alfalfa pellets. at 2 weeks of having her, he also floated her teeth. After 30 days she was a new horse. Still had more weight to gain of course, but so much better.
The before pictures do not truely show how underweight she was with her winter hair on. you could of sat a drinking glass on top of her rib cage because there was no muscle from her backbone to her ribs and the skin went straight down then went flat like a table on top of ribs. The after pictures are about 30 days the the last couple of pics are a few months later.
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 Expert
Posts: 1889
Location: Texas | So nice of you to take him on. We have had great results with quick weight gain using Nutrena Safechoice Sr. Purina Equine Sr does not compare to the results of the Nutrena. We also use Pat Coleby's mineral mix as this helps them to boost their overall immune system and prevent large worm loads. We get ours through Jolly German.
Good luck with your new boy! |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| wierqh - 2014-02-10 11:51 AM
I found a daughter of PB in 2008 and she was severally underweight (21 years old). The lady let me take her to the vet for a prepurchase exam so I would know what I was getting into. He said she was severally dehydrated, full of parasites (fecal exam), and needed food, but he said she could be saved. So I bought her and brought her home. He had me give her all the grass hay she wanted right off since horses are grazers and need roughage in the belly and gut to work right. Had me deworm her the first day home, 2 weeks later again, 2 weeks again, then a month later, and then put her on the same schedule as the others. He had me put her on very little grain at first and work it up and supplemented with soaked alfalfa pellets. at 2 weeks of having her, he also floated her teeth. After 30 days she was a new horse. Still had more weight to gain of course, but so much better.
The before pictures do not truely show how underweight she was with her winter hair on. you could of sat a drinking glass on top of her rib cage because there was no muscle from her backbone to her ribs and the skin went straight down then went flat like a table on top of ribs. The after pictures are about 30 days the the last couple of pics are a few months later.
This is about how he looks, maybe a little worse. Nice work on your horse though! Wow! Im hoping we can bring him back like that. Watching him eat hay this morning he needs teeth done bad. I made him a little alfalfa/timothy cube mash this morning he sucked that down easily and wanted more. Hes eating grass hay along with maybe a lb of alfalfa hay every 4 hours. He had awful dark tar like diarrhea when I first picked him up Saturday. Hes cleared up now though thankfully. Hes also got scratches I'm treating. |
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 Nascar Princess
Posts: 6005
Location: Texas!!! | I do alot of rescue. Just take it slow and easy. Worm with a low kill wormer at a low dose. Follow up with another low dose at 2 weeks. At one month do a full dose. We use safeguard for our low kill wormer and then do Ivermec. After a few months we will go with high kill like Quest. Do not use a high kill wormer right off the bat, if they have a huge worm load it can be life threatening. Start food off slow, work your way up. Lots of coastal/grass hay. Beetpulp is excellent gives lots of roughage and when you start out with little portions of feed, adding beetpulp is great. We always soak, put in feeder, sprinkle other feed on top. Usually even picky eaters will clean it up after a week. We feed a bluebonnet feed called complete assurance, its a pellet. Has hay built in, so they get double whammy on roughage. Just take it slow, not alot of high protein, not big portions (exept grass type hay or beetpulp) |
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Addicted to Baseball
Location: Where the stars at night are big and bright, TX | You don't ever immediately hit them hard with dewormer if they are extremely wormy. Don't power pac immediately. You give them something not as strong for a couple of doses to do a less toxic kill off, then when the amounts are down you can do a power pac. If you try to do a massive worm kill immediately you risk foundering the horse from the toxins the kill off sends into their system. |
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Expert
Posts: 1255
| I took on a rescue last year and I gave him flakes of alfalfa three times a day along with grain.as soon as I got him I called vet but informed its not legal to take on a starving horse and suggest I send him back so I never had him checked out because she said I could loose my other horses but he recovered apparently he was a 35 thousand barrel horse a few years back but I can't seem to find any info on him. |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Tilt The Kilt - 2014-02-10 12:55 PM
You don't ever immediately hit them hard with dewormer if they are extremely wormy. Don't power pac immediately. You give them something not as strong for a couple of doses to do a less toxic kill off, then when the amounts are down you can do a power pac. If you try to do a massive worm kill immediately you risk foundering the horse from the toxins the kill off sends into their system.
Im not worming him till he sees the vet. The person I got him from wormed him last week with ivermectin. She also told me she "started" him on sweetfeed. Hes not on any grain right now with me, just grass hay a few soaked alfalfa/timothy cubes and a tiny bit of alfalfa hay ... all little meals spaced out every 4 hours. |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Thanks for all the advice and success stories. Im hoping mine is going to be a good success story too. |
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Addicted to Baseball
Location: Where the stars at night are big and bright, TX | Here is my old guy. He was a national level dressage horse, I leased him to someone I knew and she starved him nearly to death and killed my other gelding. He could no longer stand and was lifted out of the trailer at the vet when found and spent 90 days being fed a cup of feed around the clock and had a little hay introduced after 2 weeks. When he could finally stand long enought to endure a trailer home 90 days later, we started him on a completely soaked senior feed. They will often inhale their feed when it's reintroduced and he initially suffered a low choke near his heart that took 6 hours to clear when I'd first put him on Triple Crown Senior. The pellets were so hard it would take 30 minutes to soak them and they still weren't soft, soft. So after that choke the new vet told us to put him on Purina Equine Sr. soaked and he flouished with that, it completely turns to a slop within minutes. Over time he built up to 15 pounds a day and hay in front of him at all times. It took 11 months to get him from where the pictures start, to his roly poly self in the last picture.
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
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That is amazing! Unbelievable what happened with your horses. |
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 Wide Darn Open
Posts: 2141
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Oh my goodness that brought tears to my eyes. He's beautiful! You'll get an extra crown one day for taking such good care of him!!  |
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I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world |
It sure makes you hate people seeing an animal in this condition. The old man that was left here in May was not quite that skinny but very close. He could barely walk and shook constantly. It took us 8 months to build him up. I have posted his after pics before, but I'll try to add them once I get to work. His skinny pic is on the previous page.
I no longer have contact with his "owner." After she abandoned him and left me stuck with his vet bills, it was time to close that one way friendship door. I'm his owner now and this is his final home.
Karma will take care of people like this. |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Im not sure I am able to post photos with my phone.
Nope won't let me. After seeing a few of these horses I'm thinking mine isn't so bad... still not good by any means but i dont think hes as bad off as others have been. His backbone is visible and he has no hip. I really need better photos of him. Side shots. Do yall think a senior feed is best for these types? Hes a few weeks away still from starting grains but I want to plan. I feed blue bonnet omega force and forco to my others. Its a 12/12 pellet. I can get blue bonnet senior therapy from my feed store too. Any suggestions??
Edited by want2chase3 2014-02-11 8:01 AM
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Addicted to Baseball
Location: Where the stars at night are big and bright, TX | Grains can be hard on their stomachs even with a healthy horse. I'd put him on a senior feed or high quality pelleted feed and let it do it's job. I didn't think my guy was ever going to gain but there was so much that had to rebuild in him. Once he was back to his normal weight, he was on just alfalfa for his meals and grass pasture all day. |
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I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world | Here are a couple after he gained weight photos. I got busy at work and never got around to getting them loaded. He is in such a better place out here and quite the comedian. He keeps us laughing all the time. He reminds me of Oscar off of The Odd Couple for those of you who are old enough to remember that show. There is really no excuse to let an animal get in such bad shape. If a person can't care for an animal, tell someone...anyone...get some help. Don't just keep the poor soul so you can say you own a horse. Just my thoughts.
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Cat Collector
Posts: 1430
| grullagirl - 2014-02-10 7:05 PM
Oh my goodness that brought tears to my eyes. He's beautiful! You'll get an extra crown one day for taking such good care of him!!
Horrible.....
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Karlaw - 2014-02-11 5:00 PM grullagirl - 2014-02-10 7:05 PM Oh my goodness that brought tears to my eyes. He's beautiful! You'll get an extra crown one day for taking such good care of him!! Horrible.....
Makes me want to go find these people and kick their butts up between their ears.  |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| sophiebelle - 2014-02-11 4:56 PM
Here are a couple after he gained weight photos. I got busy at work and never got around to getting them loaded. He is in such a better place out here and quite the comedian. He keeps us laughing all the time. He reminds me of Oscar off of The Odd Couple for those of you who are old enough to remember that show. There is really no excuse to let an animal get in such bad shape. If a person can't care for an animal, tell someone...anyone...get some help. Don't just keep the poor soul so you can say you own a horse. Just my thoughts.
I agree completely with you. I stumbled across my little rescue on Facebook. Course he didnt look as bad in the photos I saw. But I knew the moment I saw him tied up in the front yard I wasn't leaving without him. He was sale bound before I contacted her. |
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I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world | Wishing you all the best. Please keep us updated. This old guy is mid-30s, so I would say that his time left on this earth is limited. He is fat, sassy and healthy now, but I know at any time it could be his time. It is rewarding to see him healthy and happy again. He is grateful too. I can tell by the way he bosses me around at feeding time. haha! He also gives the sweetest muzzle to nose kisses. He has stolen my heart. |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| sophiebelle - 2014-02-11 8:22 PM
Wishing you all the best. Please keep us updated. This old guy is mid-30s, so I would say that his time left on this earth is limited. He is fat, sassy and healthy now, but I know at any time it could be his time. It is rewarding to see him healthy and happy again. He is grateful too. I can tell by the way he bosses me around at feeding time. haha! He also gives the sweetest muzzle to nose kisses. He has stolen my heart.
That's awesome! Glad he found a happy ending and gets to live out his life being happy and healthy. We've got such a long road to recovery. But hes eating well and consistant probably for the first time in a year. Hes frail, hes had a sheet on since I got him home so I kind of forget how thin he really is. I was leading him to the pen so I could clean his stall and I put my hand on his back. Quick reminder how bad his condition is. |
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I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world | want2chase3 - 2014-02-11 8:44 PM sophiebelle - 2014-02-11 8:22 PM Wishing you all the best. Please keep us updated. This old guy is mid-30s, so I would say that his time left on this earth is limited. He is fat, sassy and healthy now, but I know at any time it could be his time. It is rewarding to see him healthy and happy again. He is grateful too. I can tell by the way he bosses me around at feeding time. haha! He also gives the sweetest muzzle to nose kisses. He has stolen my heart. That's awesome! Glad he found a happy ending and gets to live out his life being happy and healthy. We've got such a long road to recovery. But hes eating well and consistant probably for the first time in a year. Hes frail, hes had a sheet on since I got him home so I kind of forget how thin he really is. I was leading him to the pen so I could clean his stall and I put my hand on his back. Quick reminder how bad his condition is.
I know!!! We stuck the old man in a back pasture. We didn't want anyone to see him from the road and think we created that bag of bones. You won't notice much to begin with, but one day it will be a Wow! kind of moment when they begin to look alive again. Sending some fattening prayers for your boy. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 349
| We wormed and then once he started looking a bit healthier we did the powerpac wormer. Really helped everything |
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