I cannot post pictures but my Peruvian Paso mare I rescued last April body score of minus one has gained her weight but her topline is still in need of “fill” Her backbone shows and her hip bones still show. She’s muscled up everywhere else but her topline. Am I just too anxious for her to totally fill out? Has anyone else brought back a starved horse and had the same problem? She’s a good eater, teeth done, wormed regularly, has pasture to walk around, etc. She was kicked at the auction in her hip, not broken but severe bone bruise and tissue damage, since she had no muscle to absorb the kick. She could hardly walk when I got her but is doing pretty good now and gaiting. Front legs she does have Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis.
What is she eating?
Quality proteins and aminos are essential for muscle development. Uckele’s Tri Amino might be worth a shot. It really depends on what she’s being fed right now.
Of course steady, slow work is necessary. Trot sets, hill work, transitions, ground poles.
In 7 months my gelding went from this:
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2837644230104109739NXUNGF
To this:
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2254982190104109739EAEwBU
Not perfect but certainly significantly better.
I’ve had two TB’s - they made remarkable progress in the first six weeks and then it was slow and gradual. So it should be - she needs to get used to the extra weight she is carrying around. Keep up tons and tons of good hay, some exercise and I’m sure she will come around considering that the breed naturally has a chubby outline. How are her front legs?
I would also try doing carrot stretches and cat scratch back arching to try to build up some muscle tone. The carrot stretches you do side to side, standing at each hip and get the horse to reach around with their head to get it, and then another stretch to get them to put their head between their front legs. Cat scratches are where you scratch their belly, to get them to round up their back. You can also scratch on either side of the tail on their rump (experiment to find the exact spot) to get them to “hump up” their back.
If you go to this link you can see her before and after pictures: http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/pictures/browseimages.php?do=member&catid=&imageuser=38458&searchid=&orderby=title&direction=ASC&cutoffdate=-1 She has free feed alfalfa/grass hay, Safechoice and Senior grain, oat and grass hay pellets and pasture grass. Previously she was on gain weight and muscle up. Her front legs are clean but has ligament problems associated with ESPA/DSLD. She can still gait and does not lay down, etc She’s always on the go and has good muscle tone. She has maintained her weight with no problems.
I used to board at a barn where an rescued appy lived. He had been so badly starved that his back muscles atrophied and never came back :-(. People would look at him and think he was starving still because you could count most of his vertebrae and see the tops of his ribs… I wish I had a picture to share, but he lived out the rest of his days fat and happy.
Do you have her on AAKG and jiagulan?
for the dsld? and I would use whey protein 20-30g a day for the top line to get rebuilt.
MW
You haven’t mentioned if she’s being exercised in any way. I suspect at this point she will require regular exercise, even if it’s not riding, in order to rebuild the topline.
Thank you for all the great suggestions, I really appreciate it! Now to ponder and when the weather is better get busy with some exercises. I cannot ride her yet because of her hip injury from being kicked at the auction. The Vet originally said back in April it would take a good year to heal. She does walk all over the pasture but I haven’t tried any specific exercises for her back muscles. She’s come so far if you look at her before and after pictures in reply #5 I just hate seeing any bones protruding on her. I did forget one thing she has been aged by two Vets at 17 so coming 18 now.
[QUOTE=FancyASB;4630919]
I cannot post pictures but my Peruvian Paso mare I rescued last April body score of minus one has gained her weight but her topline is still in need of “fill” Her backbone shows and her hip bones still show. She’s muscled up everywhere else but her topline. Am I just too anxious for her to totally fill out? Has anyone else brought back a starved horse and had the same problem? She’s a good eater, teeth done, wormed regularly, has pasture to walk around, etc. She was kicked at the auction in her hip, not broken but severe bone bruise and tissue damage, since she had no muscle to absorb the kick. She could hardly walk when I got her but is doing pretty good now and gaiting. Front legs she does have Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis.[/QUOTE]
Progressive Nutritions Pro Advantage Grass Diet Ration Balancer does wonders for providing excellent/balanced nutrition of vitamins/minerals/protein/amino acids-which correlates to the topline- and will greatly improve the condition of any horse…i give it to many types of horses-from young wb’s to aged seniors to hard keeping tb’s-there isn’t one horse who doesn’t look fabulous on Progressive Nutrition-its the gold standard in Premium horse nutrition …they also make an extruded fat supplement called Envision Classic or they make an all in one ration balancer/fat supp in one called Hi Fat Formula
check out www.prognutrition.com
body score of minus one
Not to be picky but there is no body score of minus one (assuming you are using the Laflamme scale which is industry standard)
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The Vets gave her that score because they both said she should have been dead. She went straight from the auction to the Vet’s clinic and fell down in the trailer too; so weak. Even in the one photo at the auction it doesn’t show how really skinny she was because of the hair. I used garden gloves with the rubber palms to get the wormy hair off and her skin was so thin, like paper. She has scars all over her body too. Heaven knows what all happened to her…she’s been to Hell and back.
I second trying the Tri-Amino and the whey protein powder, along with probiotics if you don’t see significant muscling in a month or two. All of these products are touted as helping with laying down muscle and the Lysine in the Tri-Amino aids in soft tissue repair.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the topline until you are able to ride the horse though (assuming you are able to ride her with a DLSD diagnosis). Riding a horse properly (from back to front) will build that topline more than anything else you can do.
Let us know how she progresses.
Aside from the suggestions…you will also need patience. Even with good food it is still going to take a long time (like a year) for the topline to come back.
Our one rescue: Ideally you don’t want to give her too much grain at first and colic her but the one I had simply would not even eat hay or grass at first…all she would do is stare at it…the only thing she WOULD eat was grain so we had to go with it. We tried both grass and alalfa hays. She did slowly pick up interest in food. Deworming is also an issue. I did just a half dose at first. If she is very wormy with poor care in the past that is a problem too…but you don’t want to colic her with a massive worm die off either…so I did a half dose first, later a full dose and later yet a double dose when she was stronger.
We feed a good brand of supplemented pellets and though her weight came along well I did notice that when I added Source to her diet she really improved a lot more. While the healthy horses on the regular diet all looked nice and shiny she still had a dull coat and brittle hooves for some time. Those improved a lot once she got the Source so I would recommend that as well.
Try adding 1/2 cup Progressive Pro-Add Ultimate. You can do all the exercises you want, but if she doesn’t have the right nutrition it won’t help. I recently used it on a rescued mare and she developed a lovely top line, without any work!
I rescued my guy 3 years ago now, and he was a 1 on the body scale and about 350 lbs underweight. so weak that he could hardly even move. no personality what so ever. sad. how i brought him back was giving him free choice hay, a higher protien grain to help build his muscles back(all his muscles had atrophied), and a top quality vit/mineral and joint supplement. he was also on a probiotic. once he had gained a good 100+ lbs he was started on light lunge work over cavalettis on the ground. once he gained more strenght, we raised the cavaletti 6 in. and then the were 9 in. and then added side reins to help him balance and really work his back. he gained great muscling but still had a not so nice topline. and pretty much, what has worked best for him, is lots of long and low work under saddle, and a lot of hill work. now he is filled in everywhere, although he still has a bit of a bony back, although i think he always will being he is a big-boned TB.
I’ve had two aged horses who had pointy hip bones, although not starving like your mare was. I was able to keep them both in good weight with a diet of grass hay, alfalfa pellets, beet pulp, and rice bran. I also feed a supplement that is made to complement the hays we feed in CA http://www.californiatrace.com/order.html and all my horses have done well on it.
I think that if she gets the ok from the vet, that work would help build up the muscle that would help her look more well-rounded. It doesn’t even have to be anything strenuous or fast-paced - even walking would help.
16 months after rescue:
[IMG]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/watermarkfarm/AngelMarch4.jpg)
I allow this mare free access to a 1-acre private pasture (my yard), which is flat, has firm footing, and no deep mud and encourages her to move alot. No forced exercise, no horses to chase her. It’s good to read up on DSLD/ESPA so that you can follow general diet guidelines (things like no MSM or joint supplements). She is barefoot and I keep her on a frequent trim schedule as well.
Hi Racheldub. I see you are a fairly new poster. Typically on COTH folks don’t reply to really old threads (this is from 2010) and start a new one if they have a question.
Also a word on grammar and punctuation. I honestly can’t understand what you are saying in this post. Who did what to whom? That made doesn’t have a body score of 1 which is at death’s door.
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@Scribbler And you have a typo–“mare,” not “made.” We come from all walks of life and education levels. No need to be rude and act superior.
