My mare has always been an easy keeper but was pretty easily managed via ration balancer (Vermont blend), limited grass, exercise and Thryo L. I retired her from competing this spring and bred her. She’s in light work (mostly trail riding/hacking around the field) but I can not keep the weight off her now. She’s on first cutting hay in a slow feed net. Her paddock is basically a dry lot this year. Are there any other supplements or medications that are safe for pregnancy that can help regulate her weight? My vet said to leave her on Thyro L, which I’ve done, but he didn’t have any other suggestions. I’m really worried she’s going to founder if I don’t get weight off her. Side note: she doesn’t sweat well either. Not sure if that’s related or not.
Have you checked for cushings?
Soak the hay? Is she getting anything besides hay now? Consider a protein-fortified ration balancer, or a forage balancer like VB and adding lysine or tri-amino powder…
Yes, she’s still getting everything she got before, but swapped from second to first cutting hay to further reduce calories. I know she isn’t working as hard as before, but she was never this hard to manage before getting pregnant, and I’m not sure what else I can do.
Soaking hay is a PITA, but doing that for 30 minutes removes 20% of the calories and most of the sugar, IIRC. (There are other posters here that could give you the exact numbers.)
Have you tested the hay? First cutting isn’t always diet hay but testing is the only way to know for sure.
Have you tried experimenting with the Thryo L dosage, maybe double the dosage?
Reduce the amount of hay even if she has to fast for a bit and soak the hay.
How much sugar is removed depends on how much water you use, and what temperature you started with hot water or 60 in cold, with as MUCH water as you can, removes the most sugar
Soaking longer in the same water doesn’t move any more out
Soaking again does remove more (because you’d un-equalized the gradient again) but also starts removing additional nutrients
Assuming you have at least a few months’ worth of this hay, I would do the 601 test through www.equi-analytical.com and see what you have
Weigh the hay - 1.5% of her current, or 2% of her ideal, whichever is more right now, as a start.
Soaking as per above will reduce calories via reducing sugar, you just don’t know if you’re feeding an EMS-safe hay either before or after soaking.
It’s also worth a metabolic panel to test for IR/EMS
