feeding an underweight 4 1/2 dartmoor foal

[happyhacking:)]

I have recently taken on a 4 1/2 month old semi ferral dartmoor hill pony straight off the moors. He is at the moment quite wormy and not in the best of health. He is at the moment very thin. He is now settling well at home. He is at the moment feed haylage (i offered him both hay and haylage and he seems to have a preference for the haylage) as well as a few high fibre nuts a bit of happy hoof a bit of original brewers yeast and from tomorrow will be on a vitamin and mineral supplement.
I have well and truely chucked myself in at the deep end with him as he is my first youngster. I could really use some advise as to whether i am feeding him the right thing in the right amounts. Im concerned as he is a native that if I put him onto anything too good that i could end up with a laminitic pony but on the other hand am aware that as a growing foal he is going to need the correct things in the correct amounts. May well be over thinking this but could really do with some advise.

 

[Monkers]

Hi there.
I really think you should take your vet's advice on this one. Worming him is likely to be a high priority, BUT if he's very poor you need to check he's going to cope with the drugs.
He probably has a very high round worm burden and if you worm him with the wrong product or the wrong amount, you could cause a blockage in his gut as the worms die off.

Personally I would suggest initially a low dose of ordinary panacur as this is good for roundworms. It won't get rid of tapes/ encysted red worms etc, but this is probably a good thing, it would be dangerous to get rid of all his worms in one go.

As for feeding him, keep it simple. Good quality forage and a high spec supplement like surelimb should be all he needs unless he is really poor, but as I say, you really need to get your vet's advice on this one. As I have said many times on here, never muck about with worming foals!

 

[happyhacking:)]

sorry should have mentioned that we have a worming program set up with the assistance of the vets. it was more a am i feeding him the right thing? type post than anything.
Vet has been very good with regard to the worms but didn't give me a straight answer with regard to feeding.

 

[Monkers]

sorry should have mentioned that we have a worming program set up with the assistance of the vets. it was more a am i feeding him the right thing? type post than anything.
Vet has been very good with regard to the worms but didn't give me a straight answer with regard to feeding.

That's great! As for the feeding, personally I wouldn't be overly concerned unless he's really thin. Native ponies do so much better growing slowly, it's so easy to over feed them. A bit ribby over winter is fine.
Is he going to be in at night? If so, I would leave him unrugged and feed as I said before. Once the worms are gone he should pick up. If he's out 24hrs, you might want to consider rugging at night if he is poor, but personally I would rather have him in pm and unrugged.

If you are still worried, there are some good feeds like suregrow that might be useful, but I would feed less than the manufacturer recommends. Sugar beet and chop are better fed in a few months time as I believe the gut at 4 months isn't really adapted to these feeds.
I don't have much experience on feeding haylage, I make my own hay so it's not something I have ever used, so someone else can advise you on this.

 

[anniebags]

2 months ago we took on a very poor 4.5 month old foal that had been very poorly done by his mum. He looked absolutely shocking, spine, ribs and hips all clearly visible and a dull wiry coat. With advice from my vet,feed merchant and Allen and Paige we put him on fast fibre, calm and condition with graze on and equivite bodybuilder pellets. 3 or 4 feeds a day if he could manage them plus ad lib haylage. He was worm counted and then wormed appropriately as his condition improved so as not to shock his weakened system. 2 month on he looks lovely. Still a little way to go in terms of muscle building as he'd lost just about everything but his coat is blooming his weight is getting close to where I'd like it and he has the energy to be a right little scoundrel! He'll always be under his potential height as he had such a bad start but seeing him blossom is so very rewarding.

Good luck with yours.x

 

[tristar]

don't be tempted to overfeed and get his bones growing faster than his tendons, i've seen some right disasters from overdoing poor youngsters, let him grow and recover very slowly and develop naturally, if he is vigorous and lively don't worry too much he wil come into his own next spring with the grass, so feed cautiously, worm completely, give him a warm bed in wet weather with all that fur he does'nt want to stand out soaking in the rain, access to salt or salt and minerals, a little boiled food, linseed and barley is good for digestion, but later on, for the moment try to give access to grass, and write across your heart, he is a native , he will get too fat if he eats to much!

don't worry too much, he will come right in his own time

 

[bugbee717]

I have 2 hill ponies, food is your friend with these ponies. This will sound silly, but don't feed him to gain weight or growth. He has been living of scrub on the moor, so any hay is gonna be bliss for him, is he still in ferral mode. You can tell if he is. He will empty any water bucket u put in his stable. Use the food to get close too him. Did you get him from the sales or one of the groups. Oh and good luck they are hard work, but worth it.

 

[Flash_28]

Firstly good luck with your little foal!

I took on a neglected 11 month old foal a year and a half ago now and he was also in a terrible condition. Infested with lice, so underweight, unhandled, nervous and had no idea of hard feed. I started him off on a very bland high fibre diet and then when his stomach could cope I introduced him to Baileys. I rang them and they were so helpful with everything! Feeds, amounts and gave me lots of charts to plot his progress so I could see his growth rate and watch out if it was occuring too quickly and a weigh tape. Seriously give Baileys a call and see what they say! Helped me so much with Foaly and my million questions. I updated his little thread in this section only the other day so have a little peek to see the difference that Baileys made to him x