Ok despite being exhausted I had to check in with an update for everyone who gave me their advice. The mare is definitely thin. You can see a few ribs and she has very little muscle…however, she is not in a state that animal control would look twice at (although its painful for me to see…she has always been sleek, shiny, and butterball fat). She had rubbed all her skin off of her neck and chest and face, but I saw new hair growth, she told me she’s been treating it 3x a week. I think what shocked the people who saw her was the top of her hips in the middle. She has an SI injury that I had diagnosed and spent thousands on trying to get that diagnosis. At the time it was a small bump that looked like a mild hunters bump. It is now sticking up at least 2 inches…and it seems hard qnd calcified. She has muscle wastage mostly in the hind end…she appears “tucked up” and the muscle is just gone over her top line and hindquarters. She said she has had a chiropractor out, who gave her some exercises to do with her on the ground of course, to try and get her to use her hind end properly. However, she told her she needs weight before she does anything with her… I think pain has made her stand more camped out, and it has gotten insanely worse in just these 4 months. I can see where someone would have seen that and immediately thought protruding bones/starvation.
I started by asking her if she had tried × grain, because she looked super thin and she needs something she’s not getting. She said she has only been feeding her coastal hay, alfalfa cubes, and beet pulp. No grain. No vitamins/minerals. Herein I think lies the problem. So we discussed her different options, good things that would help support a good quality grain and give her an extra boost. I told her frankly the mare needs to gain weight, and discussed her having the vet out, which she seemed receptive to as well. I am thinking the vet can reinforce good sound nutrition with her. I also suggested the vet could give her a shot for her allergies to help clear her up even quicker.
The mare’s feet had just recently been trimmed, they were not overgrown. She had mentioned having issues with bugs and is into all natural fly spray, and I told her sometimes the risk of spraying chemicals onto your horse is needed for the comfort of your horse, and they will be JUST FINE. When she pulled her out of the stall she grabbed the fly spray by her stall door and lo and behold…it was the one I had recommended to her a few weeks ago. So, she did take that advice to heart.
I kept repeating the mare was not getting what she needed, and she kept admitting she knew she was in bad shape and explained all the steps she has been taking to get her into a better condition. So I think there’s hope. I gave her some money and told her to go buy the mare food. Whatever she needed, get her started. She wouldn’t take it but I gave it back to her and told her to take it and make sure it went towards the mare. She promised she would go in the morning. I made plans to go back out this weekend with some better shampoo I have that I think will soothe that irritation and will help bathe her. I’m going to be like a hawk and be over there every chance I get
Everything stayed actually relatively comfortable, I gave advice in a friendly way, she received such advice and we came up with some solutions that will help. But I am going to make sure I see action, and results. All in all it went a LOT better than I thought it would go. I felt heard, she got the message. Mission accomplished. I will keep everyone up to date on any progress I see, and want to thank everyone for calming me the heck down and making me think so that I went in with a clear head and think we might just solve this whole thing together. I also told her when she needs more feed or anything for her, to please pm me and I would paypal her. Im thinking of getting her paypal anyways so I can at least send $50 bucks a paycheck, even if she doesn’t ask. I really can’t afford it right now with our impending move but it appears she needs help, and I want the mare to be happy and healthy. I’ll just eat Ramen twice a day for a bit hah!
