Re: Re: melanomas and ulcers

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Well, she doesn't look excessively thin to me, but as you mentioned,it's
hard to tell under winter fuzz.  Given her history, that makes more sense to
at least consider ulcers.  In the meantime, you might try dinking around
with her food just to make sure it isn't just one ingredient in there that
she just doesnt like, ie the texture of the oil.  Try a few things like
adding some carrots or applesauce to her mash, or sprinkling a handful of
brown sugar over the top, or using a different grain, ie sweet mix instead
of COB or whatever.  I'm not a tremendous fan of feeding a lot of rice bran,
but you might try substituting that for the oil to see if she likes that
better, and if you are adding oil, make absolutely sure it's fresh and hasnt
gone rancid---alot of horses that would otherwise snarf up food will walk
away from rancid oil because it smells bad.

Wouldnt be a bad idea to put her onto daily probiotics, and also add a
spoonful or two of brewers yeast for the B vitamins.  The extra bugs from
the probiotics will secrete B vitamins, the yeast is an additional source
and B vitamins are pretty powerful appetite stimulants.  Waaaaaaaay back
when I was training dolphins a very long time ago, one of the tricks we'd
use to start a beached/sick dolphin eating again was to give them a good
dose of probiotics.  It's used in zoo animal nutrition quite a bit as well
for the same purpose, works especially well in reptiles. :-)

Susan G
----- Original Message -----
From: Michelle Fink <michrowe@redwrench.com>
To: Susan Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>;
<ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 5:29 PM
Subject: RC: Re: melanomas and ulcers


> > Michelle, what other than weight loss makes your vet think your horse
has
> > ulcers?
>
> Hi Susan -
>
> I have had the mare for ~6 months (before that she was racing), have been
> feeding oil, BP, grain, free choice hay (grass and a flake or two of
> grass/oat/alfalfa mix), and now there's good pasture.  She has not picked
up
> weight as expected, and is generally just not eating heartily.  I'd feed
> more beetpulp, but she won't eat more than a pound of it, and often won't
> eat that much.  My vet and I were talking about getting more weight on
her,
> and the vet thought it was possible she had ulcers persisting from her
track
> work.  I think what caught the vet's attention was that the mare will
wander
> away from the food and not always want to eat as expected, i.e. when the
> other horses are pigging out.  She's in a mellow group of horses, so I
don't
> think herd stress is a factor.  Vet suggested adding Equine Sr. to her
> ration, which I'll do.
>
> This is a recent photo of the mare.
> http://www.redwrench.com/mischorse/rides/mj-032401/m4.jpg  It's kind of
hard
> to tell from the picture, but her ribs are slightly visible under her
winter
> fuzz, and there's no fat around her dock.  She has a slight hunter's bump.
> She's just plain lean, and she's not doing more than 5-8 miles three times
a
> week.
>
> I am open to suggestions on feeding, etc... :-)
>
> Thanks!
>
> m
>
>
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