healthy | Horse Racing Free Tips

Winter Feeding: Keeping Horses In Good Weight

Shivering helps horses maintain their core body temperature in winter, yet the metabolic price is high, considering temperature regulation requires significant calories. Additional calories will likely be needed to maintain an appropriate body condition score (BCS) during cold snaps. Exactly how much more feed does your horse need to consume when the mercury drops?

According to Dr. Kathleen Crandell, a nutritionist for Kentucky Equine Research, some horses won't require any additional calories, whereas others may need to consume up to 25 percent more calories each day to maintain condition.

For example, if a horse typically consumes approximately 2 percent of its body weight in forage per day (equivalent to 20 pounds of dry forage for an average 1,000-pound horse), then this horse could require almost 30 pounds of dry forage per day in cold weather. Rather than simply feeding more of the same forage to offer additional calories, horses can be fed concentrates, fat (either as oil or high-fat supplements such as rice bran), or energy-dense forages such as alfalfa or clover mixed with their regular hay.

“Healthy horses living in regions that typically have milder winters, are maintained indoors, or are blanketed when outdoors for limited periods of time can be fed a diet similar to that fed in warmer months,” Crandell advised. Horses that may require additional feed to maintain an appropriate BCS include:

Horses that fall into the senior classification,
Horses with an underlying disease;
Horses asked to perform their regular work throughout the cold season;
Horses that reside primarily outdoors in regions with harsher winters; or
Horses that are not routinely blanketed but do have access to shelter.

Horses maintain their core body temperatures by diverting blood flow from the skin to their internal organs, shivering, growing a thick coat, altering metabolic pathways to produce heat, and fermenting forage.

One of the key factors in determining whether or not your horse requires more feed involves frequent and precise assessment of BCS. While some owners may struggle with this process on the best of days, often underestimating their horse's true condition and therefore overfeeding, the longer, thicker coats and use of blankets can make estimating BCS even more challenging. Nonetheless, this skill is imperative to ensure a healthy horse.

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“Be certain to use your hands to feel for fat cover rather than simply glancing at these regions to assess BCS,” advised Crandell.

Looking for a specific product to maintain an appropriate BCS in the winter? Kentucky Equine Research's feed manufacturing partners offer high-calorie concentrates that will suit your horse's dietary needs.

Sound Check: Learn To Listen To Your Horse’s Lungs, And Know When To Call The Vet

The noises that can be heard when listening to a horse's lungs can offer a lot of insight into his health. Purchasing an inexpensive stethoscope and learning how to use it proficiently can help a horse owner or caretaker know when something may be amiss with his respiratory health.

Practicing stethoscope use on a horse that is healthy can help horse owners know what is “normal.” To learn proper use, the horse should be placed in a quiet area away from excess noise. Place the stethoscope five inches behind and seven inches above the horse's elbow. Ask a helper to restrict the horse's nose so you can hear changes in lung sounds as the horse takes deeper and more shallow breaths.

Healthy lung sounds like gentle blowing, but this can be hard to hear between the horse's gut noises and heartbeat.

If you hear squeaking, loud noises over a large area or bubbly noises, call your veterinarian.

Runny Nose: Nuisance Or Something More Serious?

With the rise in cases of both equine herpes virus and strangles in horses in the United States, horse owners and caretakers have every right to be on high alert to any changes in a horse's health or demeanor. Though some symptoms are always a red flag — like a horse who's unsteady on his feet — some symptoms can be caused by something far less sinister than an equine illness.

A horse with a runny nose is always something to note, but a bit more work may be required to determine its cause.

Look closely at discharge color, odor, quantity and consistency, as well as if there is anything in the discharge like dirt, debris or feed. Notice if the discharge is coming from one nostril or two, as well as the horse's demeanor. A check of his vital signs is in order.

If the horse's nasal discharge is clear and thin, and he's bright and acting normally, he most likely inhaled some dust or hay and has irritated his nasal passages, but is otherwise fine. A small trickle of bright red blood that stops bleeding in minutes is also most likely nothing to be concerned about—the horse probably got poked with a piece of stemmy hay.

The following require a call to the vet as they may indicate serious issues:

Discharge that includes saliva or chewed food, which could mean the horse is choking.
Bright red blood that is flowing freely for more than 30 minutes may be a sign of nasal passage injury.
Blood that is dark and draining could indicate that the horse has blood accumulating in his sinuses or respiratory tract.
Thick, yellow mucus can be a sign of a viral or bacterial infection, or strangles.
Discharge that smells, which may be indicative of an infection.

If the discharge indicates the horse may have an infection or contagious disease, keep him away from other horses and tell the vet what he or she may be dealing with before they arrive so they can adequately prepare. Don't handle any other horses before the vet arrives; if there's no other option, be sure to wash and sanitize hands and change clothes whenever possible.

Care After Colic Surgery Should Be A Team Effort

Colic, a broad term that encompasses all forms of abdominal pain, is the No. 1 killer of horses. Mild cases can often be resolved with simple medical care, but some colic cases require surgical intervention to restore the horse to health. Horses that undergo colic surgery face additional risks, including anesthesia, the surgical procedure itself and the recovery time needed to get the horse back to the state of health he was in before the surgery.

Drs. Johannes van Loon, Emi Visser, Marjolein de Mik-van Mourik, Pieternel Kerbert, Tsjester Huppes and Eveline Menke, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, reviewed clinical records of 283 horses that had colic surgery at the college's school of veterinary medicine. The team sought to determine survival and complication rates of horses that underwent surgery.

The scientists discovered that 59 percent of horses that had colic surgery at the college went home alive; 96 percent of those horses were alive one year later. However, more than half of the horses had one or two colic episodes in that year.

Nearly two-thirds of the horses regained their pre-colic surgery level of performance, but 46.2 percent of owners reported that the horses had gait-related issues or behaved differently than before they had the surgery.

The researchers suggest that improving the quality of care the horse received after surgery could drastically improve the horse's athletic performance and welfare. They also suggest collaboration with saddle fitters, physiotherapists and others who can work in together to return the horse to physical and mental health.