Thursday progress......

Last night, I was just positive that I have some weight gain...and this morning I felt under the blanket so my eyes wouldn't contribute to assessing her. I can feel that there is some "filling in" taking place towards the last half of the rib cage. Now, it's only the lower portion of the ribs-no real gain higher up the body as yet. And, there is a slight "pudding" feeling around the tail head too.

What this means, is that she has replaced what she lost on the inside. This is a big milestone for recovery, and one that I sweat out every time. She has a lot of wasted muscle to replace and that comes on slowly-it is a balancing act, providing sufficient protiens to rebuild what has been lost, without causing other issues to occur (such as laminitis, for example) It takes a while for the entire system to start functioning normally, and once it does, appreciable weight gain is usually not far behind.

As far as the alfalfa goes-I am having second thoughts. She has always been a tad picky when it comes to hay.....she would leave coarse stems laying, picking off leaf from local timothy, for example. So with this alfalfa hay, she is doing the same....at every feeding there is a small amount of stems left but no leaves. I am presuming this is a personal preference of hers, but I am naturally concerned that she is not consuming what she needs to. Tonight, I am going to start soaking alfie cubes to add to the mash-I'll start with just a pound twice a day and go from there.