Re: Thin Horse

[a hurley <juno501@yahoo.com>]

 Hi, 

Thanks to everyone with their suggestions. Susan, I
sent 2 notes to you yesterday but it looks like Yahoo
choked on them. Sorry if this is the 3rd note from me.


My vet did a workup on this horse when he first ran
into trouble. He did the look for sand trick with a
plastic bag and it was negative. He also checked for
salmonella and worms, also both negative. He then
advised me to put the horse on all oat hay, probiotics
and Equine Senior. 

The oat hay was a disaster. The horse was a mess and I
 switched him back to alfalfa after writing this
group. I also tried plain beet pulp with grain. It
seems that the Complete Advantage is better as the
main advantage of the plain beet pulp is to put other
stuff in  - like oil. This horse cannot do oil - I
think that is why the equine senior was not all that
great for him. BTW - I talked with my vet and he told
me that chronic runs are very hard to treat. If it is
ulcers (confirm with a scope) then it is pricey for
the meds. As long as the horse is more or less healthy
then do the best you can, was his advice. (I have no
quarrel with the vet - he knows that I do not have
tons of money)

What worked best for this horse was alfalfa, complete
advantage, probiotics and grass pasture. Maybe he does
better with a little bit of food in his belly all the
time? Not sure. Likes colder weather better? I would
do this pasture arrangement forever but I only have
access to the grass pasture for a few winter months a
year. Right now he is on 1 acre dry paddock with a
pal. When he lived alone (over the fence from pals) he
did worse

I can test again for the sand if you think I should -
sounds easy enough to do. If it is sand or might be
sand, then what? 

Stasia 




--- Susan Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
> Stasia, I have a few suggestions about the
> thin-horse-with-runs.  There are
> alot of tricks we can try in just upping his
> calories, but first I think you
> should rule out medical causes.  The one that
> springs to mind is the
> possibility of sand in his hind gut.  


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