[QUOTE=Hillside H Ranch;6436861]
I never stall rest for physitis. I generally just start them on Rejuvenaide and keep an eye on it. I’m not a fan of alfalfa for babies; I prefer free choice grass hay with an appropriate ration balancer. That would be my only other change in your case.[/QUOTE]
Rejuvenaide is excellent.
Physitis is caused by an unbalanced feeding program. The particular culprits are calcium versus phosphorous in the feed. It is better to have more calcium, as long as you have enough phosphorous - if not you will have problems. If you have too much phosphorous and not enough calcium then this is called “inverted” and will also cause problems.
I prefer youngsters on pasture grass to which I either use a kibble to balance them out, or dole out measured amounts of alfalfa to keep the ratios clean. Pasture grass can be a bit inverted, depending on the grasses in the field.
But if on hay, a mixed grass hay, with some alfalfa, but no more than 10-15% alfalfa in the hay mix, strong emphasis on GRASS in the hay. A good solid, clean quality grass hay with a teeny-tiny bit of alfalfa is good for warmbloods, but not a lot of alfalfa. Then a balancer and the temporary use of rejuvenaide will be all you need.
You have to watch the calcium to phosphorous balance, generally being 2 parts calcium to 1 part phosphorous.
Grass hays tend to be about 1:1 to 0.5:1 (inverted), so a wee bit (and I do mean a WEE bit) of alfalfa increases the calcium to about 2:1. The exception is timothy which tends to be properly balanced; however, it does not have enough protein or lysine - so those things need supplementing. They need the lysine found in the alfalfa and growing youngsters need higher protein.
Alternatively, you can go with mixed grasses like timothy/orchard etc. and then add something with a higher calcium in the growth formula kibble which will also have higher protein and you should see on the ingredients list lysine specifically. So on your product label, if you see Calcium 12%, then you want to see phosphorous at about 6-8%.
You do want warmblood babies to be lean, i.e. readily feel the ribs and see the ribs clearly when they take a deep breath/sigh. Since she is too heavy, you may want to enlist Kentucky Equine Research for some help on a way to keep the proper ratios, but allow her to SLOWLY reduce or grow into her weight class. Youngsters should not be put on a drastic weight-reduction program unless you are very careful about maintaining the right nutritional elements.
Some balancers have no calories, but keep the nutritional elements correct. I tend to use a noncalorie supplement for balancing purposes.
This is a good article:
http://shady-acres.com/susan/Calcium-Phosphorus.shtml
While it is geared for endurance, it is still excellent for applying the knowledge to your growing youngster and/or pregnant and/or lactating mares. It also shows you how to do the proper calculations.
Also, edited to add: Weanling to Yearling warmbloods have different needs than 2 year olds and different again for 3 year olds. I had a lot of help a number of years ago from Kentucky Equine Research and I kept their dietary recommendations for the 4 classes of youngsters and never had another problem since.
