[horsenhound]

HI there, Im new here and am from Australia.

On sunday i purchased a gorgeous 16'3hh 9 year old Standardbred Gelding.

I had a few reasons for his purchase and one of them was his condition.

He is emaciated with bones sticking out everywhere, his spine protrudes, his ribs stick out, his hips well you could hang a coat on them, he has a boney head. I gave him a nice antibacterial bath yesterday to help with his bad skin. Rain scold and Fly bites.

Now is the long and tedious process of getting him back to "condition" he is the gentless man with a really kind eye. He was originally a trail riding horse and then was purchased by a young girl 6 months ago and unfortunately new to horse ownership he was in a paddock with no grass at all and she couldnt afford the feed.

Well i need some help i suppose.. where do i begin to help my big man get into condition. He has shine to his coat which is a bonus, but he is lathargic and tired. I dont want to do wrong by him by feeding him the wrong things.. I know that "slow" is the key. I havent had an emaciated horse before as all my others have been in condition as they were performance horses.

I will have the dentist out soon aswell as his teeth need doing, he is also very light in the gum pigmentation (light pink) I am also getting his shoes taken off as he doesnt need them at the moment. This young girl did her best but it is hard when you have no grass and cant afford to pay agistment somewhere. I am lucky i have property with plenty of grass.

I will be very appreciative of ANY suggestions and help that you can give me to help my boy..

Thankyou in advance
Shell

[MissBandit]

Hello and welcome to our forums. I commend you for your rescue of this poor soul. It will be trying, but so well worth it in the end. Have a read here:
http://www.completerider.com/starvedhorse.htm It lays out recent findings on studies done on how to feed the starved horse. You really need to follow a very careful diet as refeeding syndrome can occur if too many calories are added to their diet too quickly.

Taken from the link:

Our research showed that starved horses had very different responses to several diets. We found that the best approach for initial refeeding of the starved horse consists of frequent small amounts of high-quality alfalfa. This amount should be increased slowly at each meal and the number of feedings decreased gradually over 10 days. After 10 days to 2 weeks, horses can be fed as much as they will eat. The horse will show signs of increased energy after about two weeks. Ears, eyes and head movement will be the first noticeable movements. Some weight gain can be achieved in one month, but three to five months usually are needed to rehabilitate back to a normal body weight. Veterinary care and nutritional advice should be sought as complications can arise.

[Dawn]

First off, I would get into contact with an equine veterinarian. There are a few reasons for that. One, it will cover your behind when it comes to neglect/abuse charges. Two, you will have a qualified vet that knows your situation if this turns more serious. Three, you will have professional advice.

The best thing to do in these situations is to start off slowly with roughage. At this time, he really needs to be on a hay (preferably a grass type) only diet, working up to free choice. After about a week, start slowly introducing him to grass (very slowly). After at least a week of hay and grass, then you can start introducing other forms of feed. At this point you need to keep the glycemic index of his feeds low. The easiest way to do that is to stick with forage based feeds. Probably a combination of beet pulp and aflalfa cubes or pellets would be a good route. Then (if he still needs some more to his diet) start adding oil (corn, veggie, ricebran (those type of oil)).

The low colour in his gums points to a few things. Malnutrition will, in itself, cause this. But it is also a red flag that you might be dealing with a worm issue as well. So I would have an fec run, and also be aware of the fact that you could be dealing with tapeworms.

If it were mine, I would also go ahead and have a cbc pulled to make sure everything is okay in that area (it will also help you to determine the cause of the low gum colour).

[Cntrysass20]

Great adivse so far. I would like to add that you should worm him (even if the other owner said he has been wormed) as if he has never been wormed before. I prefer Safeguard for starters. If you use something strong, it can kill off a large enough amount of worms to cause an impaction colic.


Would also like to add another Thank you for taking him God will bless you for that.

Jessie

[horsenhound]

Thankyou for your advice so far. I am concerned about the Alfalfa though as i havent read too many good things on it.

I was also advised that i should get a tub of multi-vitamins and a rice based pollard to mix with his food..

Ok here is what i was told i should purchase for him and only give small amounts per night.

*Lucerne
*Economix (like pony nuts - good for a mixer)
*Coprice
*Rice based Pollard
*Tub of Multi-vitamins
*Molassis (mixed with water to dampen the feed)
*Good grass hay for the mornings

To make a small mixture of this to give him each night and then once his stools are solid again slowly increase the amount given.

Any advice on this please?

Thankyou al lso much..

Shell

[Dawn]

It's like you're speaking another language, lol.

Can you describe what those are? The only things I recognize are a multi vitamin and molasses, well and grass hay.

Molasses, he should not be getting, at all. Multi vitamin, most likely not necessary. Now a good mineral supplement might do him well.

The rest, straight over the top of my head.

[MissBandit]

What part of the world are you in?

[Dawn]

She's in Australia.

[MissBandit]

There you go - language barrier.

[MissBandit]

I would not feed this horse molasses or anything of that sort. I would be too afraid to shock his system. There is nothing wrong with alfalfa IMO.