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Is my filly skinny? Or is she just a typical growing filly?

17K views 62 replies 23 participants last post by  Oldhorselady 
#1 ·
Okay, I know I came on here looking for feed advice, and I think I've found what works, but I have yet to really get it. My 3 y/o QH filly, Ginger, is so hard to keep weight on. Sometimes a nice, green, open pasture makes her fat as a tick, and other times it isn't enough. I've had her on multiple different feeds, high fat, high protein, high and balanced everything, etc etc, and her weight still fluctuates.

I don't have an adequate pasture at home, however, and I will be re-seeding it so that it can start growing properly. So, until my pasture looks like a big green sea of grass-heaven, Ginger has to be on hay. And the pasture I usually rent out is taken for the summer, so hay is all I've got.

I was told by my vet to buy some high-protein hay that has some sort of grain in it, like barley, wheat grass, or rye grass. I found some nice rye grass/blue stem mixed round bales that were high in protein. This has put on some weight, and has given her that oh-so-attractive hay belly, but she just doesn't look right to me.

I also read about the benefits of BOSS seeds, and have started gradually adding about a pound of those into her diet. She is also on a pound of Nutrena's Empower Balance grass ration balancer a day. This might not sound like enough for her, but I am slowly increasing the amounts. She is 14HH and approx. 950-1000 lbs. With this she also has 24/7 access to mineral and regular salt. My vet said this is balanced, but is there anything I'm missing? She is UTD on everything.

Here are some pictures. It shows her from when I first got her a year ago and recently.

I might add that she was bone skinny when I first got her, so her growth has been stunted A LOT. Her sire and dam were nearly 16HH, and she is just a smidgen over 14HH.

First picture is after I had her for just a week, and she put on a good amount of weight.

Second picture was after I had her for two months. She started getting some fat and muscle.

Third and fourth pictures were taken last week, a year since I had gotten her. She has grown very little, and sometimes even loses weight with no cause. But she looks fat, however her ribs are still visible. Is this normal?

Thanks for any input! Ya'll are GREAT!
 

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#60 ·
A fecal egg count will only show the eggs - so if the worms are not producing eggs at the time that the count is conducted, they're not going to show up.

I know of a horse that was wormed regularly and has regular FEC's done, and came down with a shocking case of colic. The vet found, upon opening her up, that she had an incredibly huge worm burden, of encycsted red worms, that had not shown up in fecal counts, and as such the owners did not worm for them.
 
#61 ·
poppy i know fecals cant test for encysted red worm or for tape worm hence my horses get wormed in spring and autumn to which is the best time to kill them. I also religiously poo pick my paddocks and cross graze to minimise the chance of worms in my paddock

we do not have pancur powerpac over here however it is the chemical that is the active in panacur that the worms are resistant to, so you could pump your horse full of them but it wont kill the worms.

We have a limited number of drugs that kill worms, constant over worming is leading worms to become immune to them. what do we do when they are resistant to all of them?
 
#62 ·
Well it's the same as humans getting resistant to overuse of antibiotics. I just had a bad case of worms with my rescue horse that should have been taken care of prior to adoption. So I try to really stress that not all dewormer is the same. But prevention is key to anything.
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#63 ·
As with humans.....preventing resistence is key. Resistence comes from wrong dosage of product when not necessarily needed. You need to be sure you are providing the correct dosage and not UNDER-dosing and by always doing the length of time instructed. Never say....my horse is sick, I have some left over antibiotic....I will give him it for a day or two just because.
 
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