Saturday smiles :)

Today it is sunny out, if not exactly warm at 35 degrees. I had a friend come over, and the horse's foster Dad arrived also....so, since she was overheated in the sun, we took off the blanket.

I am delighted to say that we can see real improvement, woohoo!! Yes I took some pictures and I will get those developed tomorrow-and get them up as soon as I can-I promise!

We also weight taped her, and came up with 916. That's up from the 876 from a week ago, which I think is fairly amazing considering everything. It's easy to see that the lower third of the ribs are starting to fill in, and the gaps between the rest are shallower too. You can see a teeny bit of "butt jiggle" when she walks also. Not much of anything deposited on the upper third of the body at all, but the hip bones don't seem as stark and there does seem to be a minute amount of increase over the spinous processes.

I am just thrilled. She was wormed with ivermection yesterday....next dose is four days from now. (On veterinary advice, doses five days apart for ten doses) She had no troubles with that liquid squirted on the mash either, thank heavens :)

And on Friday

I am happy to pass along that the mare has finally (yippee yi yay!) gotten her old appetite back!

To say that I am thrilled is putting it mildly....previously, she had been leaving just a tad bit of grass hay between meals. Last night, on the late evening snack, her entire dinner was gone and she was definitely ready for more :) So I bumped the evening snack by about a pound, and this morning it was cleaned up and she was hungry.

As in: Iwantmybreakfastnowandrightthisinstant! hungry >vbg< So, I upped breakfast by another pound and set out a hefty lunch too. I think she is ready for free choice, YAY!

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.

Tuesday report.........

I managed to figure out (roughly) the caloric content of the feeding regimen....and it's astounding. It exceeds the typical requirements in hay alone, never mind the two mashes a day. Figuring the grass hay at about 800 calories a pound, and the legume at just 1000, that works out to nearly 20,000 calories a day just in roughage! Wow! Then at least half again in the mashes-it's quite a bit. If the average mostly idle horse needs between 10 and 16,000 calories a day....it's safe to say that this exceeds the minimums, haha

I was informed last night that during the day yesterday, the mare was observed to be breathing rather hard. No one thought it worth calling me, of course >rolls eyes< I checked her over carefully last night and did not see any signs of anything amiss. Heart rate, respirations, gut sounds, gums, etc, all within normal range and she appeared to be breathing normally. Manure is a little soft, but not so bad that I am overly concerned about it either. It's firming up now that I have backed off the oil and alfie just a little bit. She's bright and eagerly awaiting her meals, so I am not entirely sure what that was about-other than: She had been standing in the sun and has come into season. I am not entirely positive what happens when horses with no body fat stand around and absorb solar energy. Do they get overheated? I don't know. I did not think to take her temperature last night or this morning, so will do that this evening, just to be safe. She's consuming a normal amount of water, eating well, and is chipper over all.

I have to say that it's a little hard to wait for the results to be seen on the outside of the horse. I do know that it can take several weeks for outward weight gain to be noticeable. She needs to replenish the inside before the extra can go anywhere else-as a horse loses weight from the outside in, so they regain from inside out. Sounds weird, but it's true for the emaciated.

This morning she was very eager for breakfast. It consisted of two pounds of alfalfa hay, 5 pounds of orchard grass hay. Two pounds senior, one pound Nutrena. 1 and a half cups beet pulp (soaked with hot water) 1/2 cup of oil, and Fast Track which is a probiotic. That is as large a meal as I am comfortable feeding at one time-both volume and weight. In the evenings I add to that BOSS and flax seed for additional fats. It takes her about 15 minutes to get down the majority of the mash....then she eats hay, and eventually licks the feed pan clean within about two hours. Midday snack consists of another 2 pounds alfie and five pounds grass hay-which is the same amount she gets four times a day now. Just 28 pounds of hay a day, which is barely over what she would normally consume when healthy.

Today I contact the owner, we need to have the vet out for a once over. I am sure the vet will say I am going overboard on the diet, but in my experience, it does work quite well. I base the hay on how much is left when the next meal is due-if I add any addtional hay, it will be grass from here on out.

I am open to thoughts or comments on the heavy breathing episode. The very experienced barn help I have commented that "she smells sick" and I agree....nothing smells quite right and it probably won't until such time as her digestive tract is finally balanced and working correctly.

Saturday update

A fairly productive day today :)

First, the horse got a hoof trim. This does not sound like much on the surface, but the poor thing was standing on nearly one and a half inches of hoof wall (ouch!) The wonderful person who trims had great patience as we dealt with a horse in some pain.....it was really rewarding to watch the horse figure out "hey that doesn't hurt so bad any more" and to see the hairline on the coronet return to a more normal line. The swelling on both hinds (looked nearly stocked up) had receded by about 80% within three hours.

And we put the weight tape on her-and got 874. Now, AC had her at just over 900 the day she came here, so I will attribute the difference to the inaccuracy of the weight tape itself. But, since that's what I have to use, I will tape her once a week on Saturdays. Later on this afternoon I noticed she was walking freely, and showing her signature circling head toss-a sure sign she is feeling better.

Also today I noticed several loose stools. Because of this, I will back off the oil just a little bit, and cut back the alfalfa hay by one pound a feeding and then try one or the other to see how she handles the increase. . She is really digging into the grass hay with relish, which is wonderful.

Naturally this is not going to happen overnight, but I am anxious to see or feel any gain. Since the weather turned off colder with snow all day, I think this may set that back a few days. But I am optomistic I will see/feel appreciable gain in about ten days.

The recovery horse in better days

Here's a picture of the mare, taken last summer. I am thinking this was taken around June, and since that time, she had packed on some additional weight-she was right where I like them coming into the winter months. About the weight of the pretty red mare pictured with her, as it happens.

(Yes, the date is incorrect in the photo-it *was* last summer, during the time that both mares were being ridden and trained by a great local guy)

As of today, I have worked her up to 12 pounds of superior quality alfalfa hay a day, plus unlimited imported grass. She is only eating about 6 pounds a day of the grass at this point, which is much less than I would like to see her consume daily. Her warm mashes consist of 2 pounds Senior, 2/3 cup oil, FastTrack, half pound of Nutrena, 1 cup beet pulp, plus BOSS, flax and v/m sup. Right now these are just twice a day, and as soon as I think she can handle it, I will be adding a third mash as well. She is still eating slowly, but shows anticipation for the meals. I will be working up to two cups of oil a day, and 6 pounds of senior, along with about two pounds of Nutrena roughly. If that doesn't seem to kick start her, I will add alfie cubes to the mash as well-even though she is eating the alfie hay pretty well. Eventually I hope to wean her off the senior and replace that with the Nutrena and other goodies, to cut down on the sugars in that ration. She does much better on a lower carb, higher fat approach as I learned from her previous stay with me. I forgot to weight tape her, me bad-will do that tonight.

Also hoping to find someone to come give her a snack during the daytime after my hub leaves for work next week-any takers?

The consequences of faith

Let this be a caution to everyone who boards horses up here. The photo at left was taken yesterday at our local AC, just before the horse was delivered to my place for recovery.

That, dear visitors, is a condition score 1.5

This is the horse that left last September a plump condition score 5.5 to 6. See what happened over six months?

She's actually a little worse than the picture shows-pictures do tend to add false weight. She has been started on a detailed recovery program, with everything weighed down to the ounce and pound. She will be fed four times a day to start, and have clean, nutritious grass hay 24/7. She is a bit lethargic (to be expected) but settled right into her old digs, calm as could be. Testing proves that there is no physical reason for the horse to be in this condition. Period.

This is what happens when you have faith alone, that the horse is in a good place. That the caretaker knows what they are doing. When you believe what they tell you about standards of care, about their management, their feeding regimen.

To anyone thinking of moving their horse(s), for whatever reason-I can only suggest that you ask around to other horse owners, or ask your vet, before just taking a casual friends' word for it that the place where you are leaving your pride and joy, is safe, experienced, and knows what they are doing. Find out if they have a business license. You should have a good boarding contract that spells out (in detail if necessary) the diet and the responsibilities of the operation.

I am sickened over what has happened to this horse. I am even more upset about the woman who runs this "boading place" since she has had numerous loose horses, one has died on the property this winter, and has been formally charged with animal cruelty over this horse. I know her name, but not her face-and that's probably a good thing because I would surely loose it and get myself into all sorts of trouble if I met her in person!

Letting the chips fall where they may..........

Leta Belardi, I hope you rot for what what you have done to the innocent horses in your "care"