June Happenings

So what have I been doing in June, besides not posting?! Digby has been oddly sound then sort of not sound. I'm terrified that he has Lyme, as that's a common sign. I'm hoping it's not (please don't spend ALL MY MONEY. GAH) and that he just was fresh in the field/was working too hard. I gave him about a week off now, paired with a few Vetrolin baths, and he seems to be doing better. The game plan is to ride tomorrow and see how he does. Here's an update photo of his weight that I promised last post:

As you can see, mucho, mucho better. Thank goodness! So finger's crossed that he continues to do better. I'm still hoping for a couple extra pounds and some lots of topline. I went down to the shore (Ocean City, NJ) last weekend so Digby got neglected while I was away. It was awesome and much needed for mental sanity. My friend's family has a house and they weren't going to be there so I swung down (it's about 2 hours away from me and only one $1.50 toll) and hung out on the beach. It was PERFECT weather on Saturday. High of 79, sunny, light breeze... Sigh! Perfection.

Noms. (Note, wild hony is not being held.... I clearly think he's going to run away.)

The weight battle.

Digby had some weight issue this winter. 

Ribby in early April.

Probably mid-April.

ZERO TOPLINE/NECK. ARGH!

I've posted about his weight issues this winter and spring before here and here. After changing feeds to Triple Crown Senior, having the vet out a few times, and treating for ulcers, he finally seemed to be gaining weight. There was much rejoicing. 

Fancy trot, fairy skinny horse. Late April.

Mid May.

Late May.

As you can see, he was putting weight on and gaining muscle which was even better but still needs a few pounds. I sadly don't have any good conformation shots from the end of May but I assure you his neck is probably double the size than it was and he's adding on weight all over. Yay! The combination of hay, meds, 8 lbs of senior feed, and  a scoop of soaked alfalfa cubes seemed to be doing the trick.

We had treated him for an entire month and around mid May, started backing off his omeprazole. There's an article that (sort of) touches on the topic of "acid rebound effect" and why you should slowly back horses (and humans!) off omeprazole. He has since stopped gaining more weight while we were backed him off his normal treatment dose. His hay, alfalfa cubes and grain stayed the same. I spoke with my vet and she suggested treating him for another month. It's possible if his ulcers were bad enough that one month of treatment was not enough. We've bumped him back up to the treatment dose and we'll continue that for another month. Hopefully that does the trick!

Has anyone else had ulcer issues? What's worked for your horse? What hasn't? I'd love to get some other opinions, as it seems that there's easily 100 different opinions and options on treatment/prevention.

A wee bit skinny

As you could see from the last post, Digby is skinny coming out of winter. Sigh.

He had lost a little weight between when I moved back and before I moved him back to PA but he was probably a 4.5 on the BCS so I wasn't too worried. Enter cold winter of doom.

All in all, I guess he could look worse...? But he looks pretty bad. His coat is still pretty shiny which makes me chuckle and he is always a very enthusiastic eater. He got tons of blankets and free choice hay. Fecal was fine but I dewormed him before I moved him back to PA with equimax and again in December with a powerpac. His teeth were up to date but I did them in March anyway. They weren't great so the equine denist is coming back out in May to use some power tools. I also switched him from what the barn feeds (Blue Seal Strider) to Triple Crown Senior in January. I've fed it before and had great results. He gets an entire scoop (3 quarts) twice a day and still looks like this. According to weights on their website, that's about 6-7 lbs a day. That's a lot for a 15hh guy like him! The last time I fed TC Senior he got max 5 lbs a day and that was in the dead of winter, not March and April.

The vet is coming back out for the second round of spring shots on April 9th so she's going to run some tests then. I'm thinking we will pull blood, discuss the possibility of cushings, Lyme or ulcers and see what she has to say. I had given him Ulcergard two days before, during and for a few days after the move, but I suppose he could of gotten ulcers while in PA. Any suggestions? 

Feed and weight

As you know Digby can be a little bit of a hard keeper in the winter. He's had many, many feeding programs in all seasons. I'll do a quick outline of them here.

Before DelVal
- Mostly unknown. I do know for winter though he got as much hay as he could eat and lots of beet pulp. Grain tends to make the kid a little nuts from a young age, apparently.

At DelVal
- I don't quite remember but I believe it was a handful of sweet feed for most seasons. I'm not sure about winter.

With his next owner
- Free choice hay, 2 qts beet pulp and 2 qts 10%/10% Pennfield Grand Prix Granola twice a day. He came to me looking great. Probably a BCS of 5 and very fit. I did look at putting him back on Pennfield when I moved to a self care barn but it's very expensive. I figured I'd try other options first. I still wish it was cheaper but it's a high quality grain for sure. He looked fantastic, in good weight and was being worked pretty darn hard, as well as having a full body clip.

With me in NY
- Round bales while outside, 3-4 flakes of hay while inside given 3x a day, more if kept inside all day due to weather, 3 qts local feed mill senior pellets 2x day. 2qts beet pulp in PM as wel. Kept weight on for the rest of the winter at a BCS of 5, maybe 5.5.
- Spring: gradually backed off grain until turned out in May as a live out. Had acres of fresh grass. No grain.

With me in PA (first barn)
- 2-3 flakes hay 2x a day, given no grain at first. As winter approached, started gradually upping grain from handful to 3 qts 10% pellet for a local feed mill. He was in work, though possibly not as hard as last winter due to my fault not his, and had a full body clip. I asked to have his grain switched to senior but that was frowned upon. I was also not allowed to buy beet pulp to feed. He ended up being about a BCS of 3.5. It took till I moved in April to get weight back on.

Second barn in PA
- BCS of about a 4.5 when I moved. Was started on McCauleys WB100, 2lbs 2x a day and 2 flakes of alfalfa 3x day. Had access to fresh grass when outside. Gradually brought down to 1lb WB100 and then when he went lame, was put on McCauleys M30 1/5 lb per day and hay was reduced to 1 flake of alfalfa 3x day.

Current barn in PA
- BCS of 6 when moved. Currently a 5. Started on small amounts of Triple Crown Senior and gradually upped as winter got colder. Currently gets 4-5 flakes (more if it's absolutely freezing, like the past few nights) when in at night, otherwise has free choice round bales in field and limited grass outside. Getting 5 lbs total for the day of TC Senior. He also gets a half dose of electrolytes when the temps are unusually warm, cold, or the temp at night goes below 25. This is a prevention measure since he is not getting beet pulp or soaked feed to help him get more water in. He has, as far as I've known, coliced twice. Both times were in the winter. I use electrolytes to try to get him to drink as much as possible to prevent this.


Here's the good part. I preemptively upped him a little last week since it's so, so cold here with lows going into the teens at night! He actually put weight ON! Holy crap. Now, he's not in work, he's not body clipped and he's still wearing blankets of various weights depending on the temps but holy crap. He's notorious for not being able to keep weight on. I wish I remembered what DelVal had him eating (maybe someone else does??) during the winter cause he was skinny there too. He's pretty calm as well, not hot at all to work around, which makes me happy. Could I get away with this feeding regime if he was being worked? No idea. TC Senior is low NCS (aka low sugar and starch... or jet fuel, as Digby likes to think) and pretty high fat which is supposed to be "cool" energy because horses don't burn it off like they do sugars. So maybe it would work. I'm so pleased that he's keeping weight on and actually PUTTING it on even when it's so cold out! Yay. Happy dance for Digby.

I've started thinking about what I'm going to do come spring, fall and summer when he doesn't need the calories at all. I think I'm going to put him on Triple Crown Lite or TC 30% which foods designed to be full of the good stuff (vitamins, minerals and aminos acids that they need) without a whole lot of calories. It looks to me that the TC 30% is actually lower calorie and you feed less of it so I'll probably lean that way. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm just happy he's not a skinny mini! :) Go Digby! And a big thank you to Triple Crown for keeping him sane and still plump!