Balancer Question/ grass belly

[tubby1]

My horse has a terrible grass belly, i recently posted coz i thought she was just fat but in hind sight i think she has a grass belly. she is very long with poor top line so I think it looks worse. She is ridden everyday & I have started to bring her her for a few hours during the day & leaving her with a soaked Haynet. After doing some reading last night I believe grass belly is caused by poor gut motility, poor gut flora & possibly needing worming. We are working hard on improving her topline through exercise. when i am riding she poos for scotland & has wind constantly . My question is if I feed a lo cal balancer mixed with some chaff will this help improve condition within her gut.

 

[windand rain]

Firstly if you feed garlic stop doing so
then introduce a balancer very slowly
Personally I feed half measures of top spec leisure time but others will have their favourites
I am sure she is wormed up to date
To boost gut function I would give a shot of probiotic to kick start the system again even if it is a simple live yoghurt type

 

[Annsboroughlady]

You could but make sure when looking at feeds to pick something with less than 12% protein as anything above is too much for their systems. You could also try feeding probiotics like protexin. Another suggestion would be to give her a normal feed and then a littler feed after with some bentonite clay, this works as a sort of detox to their system and often helps horse to drop weight but always feed after medication and normal feed- don't feed constantly if you do choose to, you feed it for 3 weeks on and a week off continuing that routine. Also, you could look at herbs like cleavers to add to her first feed as then help the lymphatic system to work which as to do with processing food.

As for topline, you could try doing stretches with her and, providing she doesn't have shoes on and has a small holed net, leave her hay net fairly low as this stretches the topline and will make it easier to build her topline.
Hope this helps!

 

[iconique]

Worming is the first step, a worm count is a good idea but remember some worms don't show in counts (like tapeworm). Speak to your vet or a qualified person, most tack shops have one.
I wouldn't change her feed until you've sorted that and then only change very slowly.
With garlic there is some research that it doesn't have as positive effect as we believe hence why windand rain has said stop. I agree and with the probiotic, it won't harm at worst.

 

[RoughcutDiamond]

My lad gets a grass belly on the tiniest bit of grass. He recently had a spasmodic colic and I spoke to the vet about this at the time, having read that charcoal was good for the gut. I've just bought some called Happy Tummy - he's been on it for about a fortnight now and I do think that he looks less bloated, though it's difficult to tell as he is short-coupled so perhaps I'm seeing what I want to see!