|
Location: South East UK
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 27,437
|
|
Originally Posted by
AussieGeek
I do agree with you that Sassy is underweight and Dixie still is herself. The guy at the farm where our horses are has them on 1 scoop of Nutrina Compete twice a day. (the scoop is a 3.5 pound scoop)
Me and my husband tried to up it for them for the babies but he said we were feeding too much and that a horse can kill itself by eating too much. (We had upped it to 2 scoops twice a day) Im gonna do more research and figure out how much to feed them and we are going to buy our own bag to help them out.
So Im going to have Dixie checked out to see if there is something causing her pain and rule that out for her behavior. I talked to another friend of mine and thats what she suggested. She said it might also be making her fussy with the baby. If she is not in pain I guess we are going to have to work with her the best we can and hope we get help along the way. I dont want to do anything wrong so Im giving Luna more time with Dixie but I will be keeping a close eye on them and make sure Luna isnt getting too beat up.
Yes, he's right there, BUT, same with a dog, in any ONE feed, plus of course you can kill it with unsoaked sugarbeet too! There are mixes and there are mixes, same again with dog foods. You really need to find a proper mix for a horse in foal (maybe they do one for a mare in foal and one for a mare who HAS already given birth I really don't know!
). I used to give crushed barley with my high energy mix because I know that barley is a very good weight putter on for horses and that's what I needed when my poor horse looked like a hat rack because I was galloping the guts out of him across country (he was an ID/Tb so he could take it plus he loved it!) Anyways, I for one am certainly not getting at you, but then again, I probably sound like it coz I sometimes come across as quite aggressive without meaning too. I just want to try and help you out to see if we can get to the bottom of if and where you might be going wrong that's all. As ZB said, we're all staunch animal lovers on here so it's only right that we want to take the time and effort to help somebody if we can, be it on the puter!
If I were you, I'd go off to your feed store and have a chat with whoever runs it, sometimes these people can be very informative and they might point you in the right direction of a good and appropriate type of food for both your horses plus of course Luna, and personally I also think they need some supplements. I always gave supplements to my own horse, but then they were just in hard work, not giving birth, so I'm sure horses either in foal or having had one needs some kind of supplement too?
Having read through and through, my gut instinct is, the reason your mare Dixie has turned nasty is wholely 100% because she is hungry. I've seen it myself with people's horses when they aren't feeding them correctly, and quite honestly, it's quite a balancing act to get it right sometimes and weight falls off them very rapidly, a lot quicker than a dog!
From what you are saying about the food, quite honestly, no, I don't think they're having enough feed, and they should always have ad lib hay if not
half a bale each overnight if they're out - that's a MUST! It looks to me like they are living out - are they? That would make a whole world of difference if they are. Grass is just not enough, they need more hard feed than you are giving, and if you can't do that, then they need a bale of hay each every day, morning and night 1/2 and 1/2 and a good overnight rug for when it turns cold, otherwise you'll be defeating the object of all the food, it won't do them any good, it'll only keep them warm.
I'm sorry you're taking offence at our postings, I'm only trying to be helpful. Whether you take my advice or not is entirely up to you. Meanwhile, I'll carry on clacking away on here with any help I can offer through my knowledge of horses. I don't know everything, nobody can ever know everything about horses, but mine were always happy, healthy and willing which was enough for me.
Please don't take offence, I'm only trying to help you out.