critique please

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=14pt]I am also not going to do a real critique on this colt till he gains about 100 pounds. Right now he looks bloated, has muscle wasting in his hips and chest and neck looks ewe necked with a big head. He may look totally different when at the correct wt. Im really sorry this is harsh but he is as Jill said dangerously thin,he may have had lots of hay but NO nutrition, His body is using the protein content of his muscle to survive and that is wasting or deteriorating his muscle. That belly is gut fill if it isnt worms but when you can count a horses ribs from a photo which generally adds wt to the look, it is serious. Dont increase him suddenly tho or you can kill him.... Work him gradually up. Feed him a Senior complete feed which is mysolized for easier absorption.[/SIZE]

You cant critique a horse that has no muscle or fat anywhere. Sorry.

Lyn

 

[Marty]

If this was my colt this is what I would do:

1. De-worm him. The "pot" belly could be a sign of worms, or sand.

2. Feed him a good quality grain 3 X a day in small amounts plus quality hay even if it meant having to drive a distance to get it. I just drove 180 miles this weekend for my winter hay.......not a happy camper but it had to be done.

3. Check teeth

4. Be sure that he has a very good sturdy shelter for winter. He doesn't have enough meat on his bones to keep warm. If he gets chilled, he will shake and that will cause him to burn extra calories and loose even more weight

5. I would leave him alone until next spring and not consider any exercise. I would let him use this time to thrive and grow and get many hugs.

By next spring, I think you will have a very handsome young man on your hands. Best wishes and much luck and love to you and your boy.

 

[Minimor]

Goodness, that little guy is much too thin to critique. The points that look like serious conformation flaws here will look quite different when he's up to ideal weight. His neck is short, but I suspect that he isn't actually ewe necked.

 

[Charlotte]

You've had LOTS of good advice here from folks who want to help. If you're new to miniatures or even to horses in general sometimes it's hard to 'see' what they are and what they should be. I have the feeling you may have a pretty nice boy there so we are all looking forward to seeing pictures later down the road.

Just another note on feeding.......there was a study done on starving (I mean horses dying of starvation....much worse than your colt) horses. I don't remember the university, but the study found that the diet that saved the worst ones was alfalfa. I would suggest an alfalfa based diet based on that study. In the starving horses grains were not well tolerated and those horses died.

Here we use an alfalfa balancer supplement and alfalfa hay/pellets/cubes for weight gain having found that to be the safest way to go.

Good luck and please let us see your boy when his weight is up!

Charlotte

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

Since you can get Nutrena feeds personally I have had great luck with Safe Choice and Empower... both are not going to make him hot but are high fat feeds .

I put my VERY hard keeper and my aged T/B on this feed and both have never looked better and are getting HALF the amount they got with other feeds. I am very confident with them both going into winter with there weight gain and these feeds.

I feed that along with beet pulp and alfalfa hay

 

[Joyce]

You've received some good suggestions, and I agree, he needs weight badly. Also be sure he is wormed and his teeth checked are really good suggestions. Hopefully you can post pix again when he has gained some weight.

 

[misfitminis]

If everyone is losing weight I would have your hay analyzied. Maybe some adjustments in your grain need to be made. Or have some blood tests done by the vet to see if there are some nutrients missing that are needed for proper digestion.

 

[chevycouple]

Thanks again everyone. I don't think I can say that enough. I do change wormers at every use and I know not to use Quest (thanks to everyone here)The last three I have given are Zimectrin Gold, Jeffer's Ivermectin, and I just ordered Exodus Paste. Then next will be safe-guard. They are all from different groups. I used a weight tape to determine dosage but I do have use of a scale. He has been on a regular worming schedule for almost a year now. He eats fine..nothing falls out of his mouth.

Margo all chaffhaye is is Alfalfa sprayed lightly with molasis. You can got to the web site www.chaffhaye.com

Karla I will be more than happy to post more pictures as he improves. I'm sure y'all would like to see them to make sure I'm doing things right...you just put it in a nice way...Thanks I think I will go down to my friends scale and get a starting weight and get new weights with the new pictures :bgrin

Lyn...to me the picture makes him look worse. Even when I went out to feed this morning after having updated myself with this post. I do whole heartedly agree that he needs to gain weight but I don't feel he is dangerously thin. Also you were not harsh at all just honest. I appriciate that.

Marty...My senior horse that I took into the vet got tested for a variety of things and the only thing that was found was sand so everyone was put on a sand clear type (can't remember the brand). That was only a month ago. I put everyone on the maintance schedule minus the senior guy. They are getting there second dose of it this week. I agree that its worth driving to get good hay. My hay came from El Paso, TX but I had it shipped it. We do have nice shelter and we even have insulated shelter if needed plus blanket.

Charlotte I am not new to horses but newer to mini's. Almost everything everyone has told me I already knew and was already doing or was getting ready to do. But it's nice to hear that I have the right idea's to get weight on.

Misfit...I changed hay that had been analyzied to be sure they would gain weight. The Dairy people were buying up all the great and good hay that left us with crappy hay. I had one horse blood tested and everything was normal. I would have all horses done but that is expencive. But I figured if everyone was doing the same thing the test would probably speak for them all. Now it's just a waiting game for me.

Thanks everyone I'm off the the feed store

 

[rabbitsfizz]

OK...I'll drop in on the worming!!

PLEASE do not rotate at random, as you are doing, get yourself into a programme and stick to it.

And PLEASE do not use safeguard on it's own as a wormer, Fenbendazole in a single dose is VERY ineffective.!!

Horses need to be wormed for

Tapeworm

Encysted small strongyles (nasty)

Bots

All the other worms, + I would think in your colts case, Roundworms- big long white things - YUK!!!

These are all a problem at different times of year.

You need to do the Fenbendazole (safeguard) five day in Spring and Fall, this gets rid of the encysted small redworms.

You need to worm for Tapeworms (Praziquantel)in Fall (or depending on what is recommended for your area.)

You need to worm for Bots (Ivermectin) after the first hard frost- I do it in November.

In between stick to the cheapest generic brand Ivermectin product and do it every eight weeks.

PM me if you want more details as I have put this info up so many times everyone must be sick of reading it!!!

:

 

[Ashley]

I would be feeding him Equine Jr. He desperatly needs weight and he isnt going to get that from oats.

 

[AJ]

Calf Manna guaranteed to put on weight and safe.