Malnourished horse

Question
I recently had my 16.3hh Thoroughbred out on lease. He was returned to me basically a bag of bones. I am feeding him 3 small (wet) feeds, consisting of high fat pellets, lucerne and oaten chaff to bulk it up, and pasture hay once a day. He has a mineral block also. He has severe rain scald, I have bathed him in Quit itch(an antiseptic/bactericide/fungicide). Is there anything you can suggest(feed or treatment wise)that may speed up his recovery, or do you think I should just continue what I am doing?

Cheers

Lisa

Answer
Hi Lisa,

Thank you for your question, and very sorry to hear about your horse's situation...its a shame really.  The approach you take in getting your horse's body condition back really depends on how long your horse has been in such bad shape.  If he was starved for a prolonged period of time, you need to slowly nurture him back to health as his digestive system and metabolism would have slowed in an act of self-preservation, and feeding too much too soon will cause potentially dangerous digestive upset.  If your horse wasn't starved as much as he was worked too hard for the diet he was fed, a more aggressive approach to weight gain will be ok.

If you need to take the slower approach to your horse's weight gain, you want to ensure that you have good quality forages available and feed many little meals throughout the day as opposed to one or two large meals.  At this point, beet pulp may work better for your horse than the lucerne/oat chaff as it is more energy dense with more fermentable fiber.  The choice of high fat pellets is a good one and much safer than a starch-based feed.  You may also want to consider a quality probiotic, and feed it for at least 2 months (you can feed it indefinitely if you would like, but if price is concern, 60 days will work well).  In this instance, I would urge you buy Alltech's LifeForce Formula...by far my favorite on the market!  Your goal, in the case of starvation, should be to take at least one month to work your horse up to a full ration.  Start with about 1-1.5kg of high fat pellets, 0.5kg beet pulp and 4-5kg of good quality hay daily and gradually increase amounts to a full ration.  Guessing your horse's weight, the final diet should be about 4kg of grain (high fat pellets), 2kg beet pulp (dry weight, then add water) and free choice good quality hay.  Then once your horse has gained his weight back you can cut his grain way back and continue to allow him hay free choice.  

If your horse has lost so much weight because his diet wasn't energy dense enough to support work, you can start him on hay free choice right away.  Start his beet pulp at about 1kg per day and high fat pellets at 2kg/day and work up to the full ration over the course of 10-14 days.  I would still suggest feeding the LifeForce Formula for 2 months as it will help him capitalize on his feeds, especially his forages. The end diet should be the same as above.

Including some milled flaxseed or flax oil in his diet may also help his skin and hair coat improve, and help heal his rain scald.

If I can be of any more help please let me know, and best of luck.

Thanks, Corlena