From: mary@cairo.watson.ibm.com (Mary McHugh)
Subject: Re: Feeding Old Horses(LONG)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 23:39:27 GMT
Reply-To: mchugh@watson.ibm.com (Mary McHugh)
Organization: IBM TJ Watson Home for Tired Hackers

This is a timely subject for me.  My older horse (Bubba - 20 yrs.) has a very
bad case of the heaves.  Add to that the fact that he is not now nor
ever has been
an enthusiastic eater.  Some vets here (in CT) have had good results by
treating 
bad heaves cases with MSM, which I have tried.  However, the MSM caused Bub to
go off his feed almost permanently.  He dropped an incredible amount of weight
in a very short period of time, to the point where he looked emaciated
and I had
to keep a blanket or sheet on him so people wouldn't be alarmed at the sight of
him.  Time for drastic action:

I didn't have the luxury of trying one thing at a time to see if it
worked, so he
got a full barrage of treatments.  In healthier days, Bub's diet consisted of
about 1/2 -3/4 scoop of sweet feed a day (Blue Seal Pacer, 10% protein), with a
generous serving of timothy/grass hay.  The last time I dosed him with
MSM (late
August), he stopped eating grain regularly.  So, on the days he would eat, we
eventually increased his grain to 2 *large* scoops (not the regular
sized scoops) at night and what ever else he would eat in the morning. 
He continued to lose 
weight at an alarming rate.  So..... I wormed him with Ivermectin (Don't use 
STRONGID-C with MSM), put him on alfalfa hay, and changed the sweet feed
mixture.
Note that I can't give him a complete pelleted feed because he refuses
to eat just
pellets.  I now mix 50 lbs. of Blue Seal Rebound (sweet feed for heavey horses
which contains beet pulp and has no oats),
50 lbs. of BS Charger (similar to Pacer, but higher protein), and 50 lbs. of 
BS Demand (complete pellet especially formulated for weight gain).  The
mix of 2/3
sweet feed to 1/3 pellets is about the maximum amount of pellets he'll
tolerate.

He has been on this diet for about 1 1/2 weeks, and the improvement is 
astonishing.  He has gained back about 100 lbs., his appetite improved, he now
drinks a full bucket of water each night (used to just take 1 sip), and best of
all, his mischievious Arab personality is back!  Just last night he chased me
down to the barn trying to steal the apples I had :*).  

I give most of the credit to two things:  The alfalfa hay (which he gobbles no
matter what) and the Blue Seal Demand pellets.  I had tried another type of 
Blue Seal pellet (Sunshine) which is more of a supplement, but he wasn't crazy 
about it -- it smells like licorice and reminds him of Agway feeds which *both*
of my horses refuse to eat.  Its not bad feed, they simply don't like it.
I can't recommend the Demand enough.  It is a combination of ground
soybeans and
corn, highly palatable (if Bub eats it, anyone will), and high in fat.

I don't recommend changing a horses diet as drastically as I did in such
a short
time, but in this case the alternative was death by starvation.  As he improves
I will try to reduce the total amount of protein (I'm afraid to tell you how 
much alfalfa he gets... but it has not caused him any distress).

Sorry this got so long, but I'm just tickled to have my little mischief-maker 
back in form!

Mary McHugh (and Bub ... who thinks all the attention he's been getting
is great
... and Wilbur who is peeved that Bub gets all the good stuff to eat and
who has 
destroyed three stall guards trying to help himself to Bub's food)