Thank you very much, @TWH_Girl. I very much appreciated the empathy, and recognized it as such.
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Because going to vet school doesn’t automatically give you the 40+ years of horse experience that a lot of horse owners have. In fact, I’ve met equine vets that never were into horses before vet school.
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Sending Jingles for a weekend of rest & recovery for you & Seven ~ AO ~
Canter On ~ you two are doing great !
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There is a time and place for anger and indignance and preaching. This is not one of those times.
I’ve been following this post with hope and empathy. I lost a horse to a strangulating lipoma, and it was heartbreaking.
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It’s hard to watch our horse friends go hungry. I certainly sympathize, and understand why they are fretting about their friend. I also understand why they are now doubting and second guessing anything the vet[s] are saying, having received inconsistent and contradictory advice and service from one such vet.
That is a good mantra, that you won’t kill them underfeeding (in this situation) but you sure could kill them overfeeding. All the horses I took care of post colic surgery did not have hay the first several weeks. Lots of soupy grain mashes, though I remember one had soaked timothy pellets almost right away. The reason they avoid hay is because of the potential for impaction or more colitis. The coarse, rough texture of hay can worsen irritation, and can lead to more blockages or worse, cause sirritation at surgical sites where the intestine was resected or operated on.
@cutter99 Vets are human too. Sometimes unfailingly so. My vet asks me for my opinion sometimes on soundness. It doesn’t mean I know more than him, just that he recognizes there’s another horse person in the room.
BTW – I called out a vet years ago for an emergency visit, horse came in from turnout looking like he’d got into a scrape with a blender. Muddy, lacerations all over his flank, and blood all over his flank and legs. It was gruesome, that’s the best way I can describe it. I didn’t hose him off until the vet got there, I was terrified to blast water into some of those holes - what if I pushed foreign matter into the lacerations?. Vet came, we cleaned him off, she stitched what she could up, and she was packing up to go when I begged her to take a second look at one of the small punctures in his hip. She had glanced over it but didn’t think it was worth stitching. Well, I am so glad I pushed her to take a second look at that hole because she ended up extracting a skinny 2 inch long ROCK from inside that horse – that would have killed him, it was so close to his cecum. Vets, just like us, are human - it takes all eyes on deck sometimes to keep a horse upright and ventilating.
Sending more continued jingles for Seven and NaturallyHappy. 
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Well, let’s see. I have owned horses since 1979, which would be 45+ years. I have been lessoning and showing since 1971, and have shown and hauled horses up and down the East Coast. I have worked very closely with vets as a professional in the feed industry.
I am married to a man who taught Animal Science at a major East Coast land grant university for 20+ years, and is responsible for starting the current model of that university’s Equine Science horse sale. Plus he has his undergraduate degree, Masters and PhD in Animal Science.
In other words, my husband was the professor teaching the vets for their undergrad degrees. I can only guess how many of his students went on to become veterinarians.
We have a little experience with horses. Just a little.
And guess what? Our vets still know much, much more than we do.
If you think you know more than you vet, why don’t you sit for their boards? You will find out quickly what you do not know.
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Why do you feel the need to attack OP when they are dealing with a horseperson’s worse nightmare? 
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Because the OP is talking here about not trusting her veterinarian and their refeeding recommendations, and refeeding based on the fact she perceives her horse as being hungry.
I have lost a horse to a strangulating lipoma so have lived that nightmare myself.
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I know this thread is long - so perhaps you missed the part where the horse was initially discharged with no feed instructions, and was fed some questionable things post-surgery by one of the vets responsible for his care. The horse would not eat what is being recommended by one of the vets. The OP is just trying to do what’s best for her horse. Any of us would be so lucky to be a horse in OP’s care.
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Thank you, @beowulf. @cutter99, I appreciate your concerns. My late DH was an FEI Veterinarian and I’m older. We ran a rehabilitation facility for years. I’m at least twice as old as the initial veterinarian who did not confer w anyone else on the team w respect to refeeding. My horse is now in the care of very experienced veterinarians in internal medicine and surgery and I am following excellent instruction to the letter. I only asked about the hay net in a “hmmmm” manner. I didn’t do it, nor would I. So, can we please get back to the supportive thread this has been?
I’d still like to meet everyone here and thank you each in person, including cutter99.
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Very glad Seven’s care is now back in the hands of the vet you know and whose opinion you value!
I think it’s important to share our concerns aloud with others who may have been in the same or similar situation - it doesn’t mean we’re not going to follow the vets instructions! It just means we need to work through how we feel with compassionate and understanding compatriots!
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I am not familiar with the Senior Active, but the Senior Gold soaks well and has the extra marine calcium. I wonder if that might calm his tummy for the periods he has to go without food.
I don’t have experience with this kind of colic, but the hospital here (even for impaction surgery) will start with grass hay before doing any grain/concentrate and then alfalfa (flakes) is last to be added on refeeding. I think when you get to longer forage, Timothy Balance cubes (soaked well) may also be something to consider along with the chopped hay products. If copped or cubed hay is not allowed, I really don’t see why some soaked hay pellets would not be. It is not considered long stem forage and can’t be any worse than the alfalfa and beet pulp in what he’s getting already.
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Thank you! I drove 30 miles twice for the Gold when it first came out. The first bag I got was a big “nope”. I thought perhaps I got a bum bag because it got such good reviews here. So I got another.
He didn’t like that, either. 
Good morning, all! We are now back up to the 14 pounds of dry concentrate he was getting in the hospital. One thing I don’t believe I mentioned above… everything he was getting was dry. I was told horses don’t need as much water when fed dry concentrate and no hay. He had some pretty dry fecal balls so I brought paste electrolytes in for him and asked that he be given them. We are making sloppy soup out of everything he is getting. He isn’t drinking much, but I doubt he needs to since everything is soup.
The Senior Active soaks quickly and he loves it. I called TC again to ask more questions and learned it is actually an extruded pellet (I guess I thought all pellets were extruded but apparently not) which means the starch is sort of pressure cooked and more easily digested. It also has extra gastric buffer.
Again, everyone, thank you for your support, well wishes, information, and encouragement. I wish I could hug you all!
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Good Morning !
Blue Ribbon update !
Good job !
Canter on ~ Seven & NH ~
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I love that, “blue ribbon update” @Zu_Zu
Big continued jingles here. Glad he is eating it up and yeah, that senior soaks great and the horses seem to love it.
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Great update! You each deserve a medal for fight! Sounds like you have a great plan going. If he’s eating soup, then yes he won’t drink quite as much from a bucket. One suggestion my vet had for a previous horse after colic surgery was one bucket with plain water and one “flavored” with electrolytes to see if he had a preference and encourage as much water as possible.
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Glad you got the food sorted out! Seven is lucky to have you for a mama!
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