SARAH: Jenna.and.Ginger are asking, "My horse has a lot of trouble gaining weight.
Do you have any tips and tricks?"
So the opposite situation we were just in.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
So did you know I used to work for a horse rescue?
SARAH: I did.
DR LYDIA GRAY: OK.
SARAH: I did know that about you.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So I have a lot of tips and tricks for getting horses to gain weight.
The first one is you've got to get the veterinarian out, because there are lots of reasons why
a horse might be thin or have trouble maintaining or holding weight that are medical in nature.
In fact, I went to a CE yesterday, and we talked about one.
So I had forgotten about that one.
SARAH: What's a CE?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Continuing education.
SARAH: Thank you.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So it's where vets go to keep up with the latest and greatest and the new
things.
And one of the trainings was on Equine Herpes Virus, which I know is huge.
So you've got to get the vet out.
And once you have the all-clear, then you look at the diet and you say, am I feeding
the right amount?
And am I feeding the right-- so that's quantity-- quality?
So some examples are, we like to feed about 2% of a horse's body weight.
You like math, right?
SARAH: I do.
So we like to feed about 2% of a horse's body weight in forage.
So if it's 1,000-pound horse-- I'm putting you on the spot here.
SARAH: 20 pounds.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's 20 pounds, right.
So 20 pounds of hay, which means you have to weigh your hay.
And you can use a luggage scale, a fish scale.
But you put the couple flakes in a hay net, and you weigh it.
You don't just go, hmm, looks like-- that's quantity.
And then quality-- it can't be hay from like three years ago and it's brown and dusty.
I mean, it should be fresh and good-smelling and green and bright.
There's also grain.
There's a host of grain choices-- not only companies, brands, but types of grain.
And the important thing there is to feed the minimum that's on the bag so that you're getting
the vitamins, minerals, and the protein.
In this case, you probably also want the calories from the grain.
And so there are grains that range from hardly any calories-- and therefore the question
before, right?
SARAH: Sure.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And then there are grains that have a lot of calories.
They're very calorie-dense, is what we call them.
And so that's one.
But then other tips and tricks are things like feeding more than twice a day.
I go out to a rescue place.
And then I'd see a horse in a dry lot.
And it was thin.
And the person's like, well, I just can't get him to gain weight.
And I'm thinking that there's no food in front of him.
So they had to have food in front of them.
And that's why I like-- this is going to sound crazy.
I swear I'm not crazy-- small hole hay net.
SARAH: Oh.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right?
You didn't see that coming, did you?
SARAH: Restricting access to food for a horse that's having trouble gaining weight, it feels
like a surprise.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It does.
But here's why it works-- because that's how mother nature intends horses to eat, just
small amounts all the time, because that's how their digestive system is made.
They secrete acid all the time.
So these horses-- it turns out that that horse that needs to gain weight does so with a small
hole hay net because they're eating all the time, versus a big meal here that their small,
2-gallon stomach can't handle and then a big meal later.
But if you keep a small hole hay net in front of them all the time, they're eating all the
time.
And they don't have these peaks and valleys and spikes and troughs, but food is present
all the time.
And it's fresh food because it's not trampled-on hay.
And you've got to remove those reasons, too.
What else?
Oh, and so there are things like beet pulp, hay cubes, hay pellets.
Chopped hay is quite tasty, if I say so myself.
SARAH: I want to know more about that later.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Fat puts weight on some horses.
The thing with these is you have to try something for at least two weeks-- maybe four weeks
is better-- because, again, like I say, every horse is different.
So fat might work in one horse, but it might not work in another horse.
So you just try it.
Some horses respond really well to digestive support, things like probiotics and prebiotics,
yeast and enzymes.
These things all work differently.
But the main focus is they help digestive efficiency.
Does that make sense?
SARAH: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: They help the horse do his job of breaking down and absorbing food.
SARAH: Rather than just passing it right through.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, they get more out of-- they're able to extract more nutrition out
of the food they're getting.
I mean, I could go on all day.
SARAH: And then you're getting more for your money's worth with what you're paying for
hay.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, my gosh.
But look at, also, the environment.
If you've got a horse that prefers to eat-- they're social creatures, right?
If you've got a horse that prefers to eat with other horses and he's not eating because
he's alone, that's stressful.
Then he's losing calories, not gaining.
Conversely, if you've got a horse that is in a herd, but he's low on the pecking order,
then he's not getting his fair share.
So you have to take a lot into consideration when you've got a horse who's not gaining
weight.
Why?
First, the vet.
Then the quality and quantity of food.
And then you keep opening the picture up, the frame wire, and looking at other things.
SARAH: I have several follow-up questions for you.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, goodness.
SARAH: The first one-- so you said try something for at least two weeks.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
SARAH: Would you recommend for this person, similarly to the person before, keeping that
journal of the weight tape and the body condition scoring?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, I would.
SARAH: So that you can see trends.
And then that way, you're objectively evaluating how your horse is responding, rather than
saying, ah, I think he feels better this week.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right.
And this is a person, too, that needs to body condition score and weight tape so they have
those hard, objective numbers in that journal along with things they tried.
Because there might be three, four, five things they have to try to find the one that works.
And you don't want to forget what you already did.