horse feeding

[Guest guest]

My sister has an arabian mare that's recovering from colic. As a result of

the colic, it's currently very underweight. The vet told her to feed it

corn oil to help put some weight on it. Obviously, I'm concerned and

suspect that there would be better options. However, the problem is that I

don't KNOW FOR SURE what a better option might be. Butter, cream, olive oil

etc MIGHT be better (albeit expensive) options or they MIGHT cause the horse

to get diarrhea and become worse. Even if she sticks with feeding the horse

corn oil, it seems to me that squeezing a few gelcaps of vitamin E and some

flax oil (to balance the EFAs) into the mixture would be a good idea...but

again I don't KNOW this for a fact. Does anybody have any experience with

any of this?

Might she just be better off getting a particular type of forage for the

horse that would be easier to gain from? How about a pre-gelatinized grain

like steam flaked corn or something?

Thanks!

[Guest guest]

It was evaporated milk and corn syrup that gave me baby colic. Raw milk cured

it. Was a chubby 30 lbs. at a year. Corn oil seems heavy. Could go with

unrefined like Spectrum. Vitamin E a good idea. Healing too. Am not all that

familiar with horses but what about oats and molasses which I know they eat

and

love. Don't know how the stomach would handle the iron in the molasses though.

Thing with horses is the slighest diet change or a not great bale of hay can

mean a vet bill.

Wanita

At 02:42 PM 5/2/02 -0500, you wrote:

>My sister has an arabian mare that's recovering from colic.  As a result of

>the colic, it's currently very underweight.  The vet told her to feed it

>corn oil to help put some weight on it.  Obviously, I'm concerned and

>suspect that there would be better options.  However, the problem is that I

>don't KNOW FOR SURE what a better option might be.  Butter, cream, olive oil

>etc MIGHT be better (albeit expensive) options or they MIGHT cause the horse

>to get diarrhea and become worse.  Even if she sticks with feeding the horse

>corn oil, it seems to me that squeezing a few gelcaps of vitamin E and some

>flax oil (to balance the EFAs) into the mixture would be a good idea...but

>again I don't KNOW this for a fact.  Does anybody have any experience with

>any of this?

>

>Might she just be better off getting a particular type of forage for the

>horse that would be easier to gain from?  How about a pre-gelatinized grain

>like steam flaked corn or something?

>

>Thanks!

>

>

[Guest guest]

> My sister has an arabian mare that's recovering from colic. As a

result of

> the colic, it's currently very underweight. The vet told her to

feed it

> corn oil to help put some weight on it. Obviously, I'm concerned

and

> suspect that there would be better options. However, the problem is

that I

> don't KNOW FOR SURE what a better option might be. Butter, cream,

olive oil

> etc MIGHT be better (albeit expensive) options or they MIGHT cause

the horse

> to get diarrhea and become worse. Even if she sticks with feeding

the horse

> corn oil, it seems to me that squeezing a few gelcaps of vitamin E

and some

> flax oil (to balance the EFAs) into the mixture would be a good

idea...but

> again I don't KNOW this for a fact. Does anybody have any

experience with

> any of this?

>

> Might she just be better off getting a particular type of forage for

the

> horse that would be easier to gain from? How about a

pre-gelatinized grain

> like steam flaked corn or something?

>

> Thanks!

>

>

>>>>>How about wheat germ oil? Doesn't it have a lot of Vitamin E

also? It's a by-product of the flour milling industry. Since so many

folks are allergic to white flour we (industry)must sell wheat germ

oil as a superfood. Do you think it'll fly? Hey Tim, don't forget to

sue all those others besides Betty Crocker. How about Orville

Ridenbacher? I think there's lots of pesticides on popcorn kernels.

Regards, Dennis

[Guest guest]

In my experience, corn oil will put weight on a horse pretty easily,

and for the short term I wouldn't worry about it too much, but I

wouldn't stick with it more than a couple months. I do think vit. E

and flax oil would be good additions. Olive oil would probably

work, I've never given it to my horses but I don't know of any

reason not to.

For an underweight, convalescing horse with sensitive digestion,

fat can provide a good source of energy and calories, and is

preferable in such a situation to high amounts of carbs in the

form of grains like oats, because the equine gut doesn't usually

do well with heavy loads of grains (that can *cause* colic, and

other problems). Also, adult horses really aren't equipped to

deal well with animal fats, IMO, so I wouldn't be too keen on

giving anything like butter or cream. However, I do know that it's

traditional in some Bedouin groups (where the Arabian horse

originated) to feed the adult horses camel's milk, but if this horse

hasn't had a milk product on a regular basis, introducing it at this

stage might do more harm than good.

As for forage, fresh grass is best of course, but I'd stay away

from legumes like alfalfa or clover until she's recovered,

because they tend to produce more gas in the intestines than

does grass. Pellets may be a good option, because the

ingredients are essentially pre-chewed. I'd go for either a senior

horse formula or a working horse formula, and I'd soak them in

water first, long enough to dissolve. I don't like to give my horses

those kind of processed foods, but when you have one that

needs easy to digest calories to put on some weight, they can be

useful.

Aubin

[Guest guest]

Update:

I did some additional reading on horses ('ask the vet' columns and so

forth). Corn oil is indeed the gold standard for emergency weight gain in

horses. I did find some references by vets to adding vitamin E when feeding

supplemental vegetable oil. So what I recommended to my sister is that she

mix in advance 1 quart of corn oil to 1 cup of flax oil and from 2/3 to 1

cup of wheat germ oil. I told her to keep the mixture in the refrigerator

and feed the mixture at the same rate that the vet told her to feed the corn

oil (1/2 cup top dressed on her Senior formula pellets).

Thanks for all the responses!