Is my baby too lean?!

[Mrs. Glittery Jingle Balls]

But the third picture has her with her entire head buried in fresh hay ....
.

It does indeed, but like all the images they are a one off snapshot in time so personally I have based my response on all the individual images and OP's own information. I imagine that is probably what has guided most opinions, the information and images we have been given

OP states that there are three round feeders but lots of others accessing it so foal may not be getting enough. Her opinion.

She also states further on that contrary to above information the foal does in fact have access to hay at all times. Poster illustrates the point with foal busy at an entirely empty feeder with unsurprisingly no other horses visibly eating from empty feeder. Next image taken consecutively on camera shows foal in close up eating from fresh hay in feeder, with at least one other horse feeding alongside it.

Obviously at that moment in time happily getting access to feeder. We have no idea if other horses can and do move foal away on regular basis and unless owner is watching 24/7 they will not be sure either. Saying that foal always has its head in feeder makes me wonder if the poor thing is indeed hungry and shoves her head in the feeder at any chance possible, and perhaps more opportunity when owner there to allow access alongside the others?. Again we can only guess.

Like all responders we can only base our opinion on information given and on balance of probability and removal of reference to vet's opinion I will leave my opinions and advice as posted.

 

[Callies.mum]

Hi all.
Just wanted to update you all on her progress. She had a wec and equisal test done, wormed for tape and Panacur in a couple of weeks. Has Finally taken to some hard feed, still won’t touch chaff so working on that. 2 weeks on she is finally looking a bit ‘healthier’.
Thanks for all of your feedback

 

[paddy555]

Hi all.
Just wanted to update you all on her progress. She had a wec and equisal test done, wormed for tape and Panacur in a couple of weeks. Has Finally taken to some hard feed, still won’t touch chaff so working on that. 2 weeks on she is finally looking a bit ‘healthier’.
Thanks for all of your feedback View attachment 156140

good to have your update. What a sweet little thing she is
presumably if you are having to worm you have had a worm situation so good you are making progress.

Can I suggest that you worm count very very regularly for this particular one. I bought a youngster who I presumed had been adequately wormed as he came from experienced people. He hadn't. It took me a couple of years to get rid of the problem and he needed a lot of worming (after tests) as the worm problem took a long while to resolve.

`I can understand why you are using panacur but could you do a resistance test afterwards to check it has worked. There is a lot of resistance to febendazole (panacur). I struggled with a high worm count youngster and panacur until it dawned on me we had resistance.

ETA just wanted to add that it is really nice when someone comes back with an update so thanks for that.
also that face needs a cuddle

 

[Dopeydapple]

I found Allan and page care and gain and adding linseed oil put weight on my girl quickly when she dropped alot last winter.

 

[ycbm]

Hi all.
Just wanted to update you all on her progress. She had a wec and equisal test done, wormed for tape and Panacur in a couple of weeks. Has Finally taken to some hard feed, still won’t touch chaff so working on that. 2 weeks on she is finally looking a bit ‘healthier’.
Thanks for all of your feedback View attachment 156140

She looks a lovely type and she'll be bonny when the spring grass comes in.
.

 

[Callies.mum]

good to have your update. What a sweet little thing she is
presumably if you are having to worm you have had a worm situation so good you are making progress.

Can I suggest that you worm count very very regularly for this particular one. I bought a youngster who I presumed had been adequately wormed as he came from experienced people. He hadn't. It took me a couple of years to get rid of the problem and he needed a lot of worming (after tests) as the worm problem took a long while to resolve.

`I can understand why you are using panacur but could you do a resistance test afterwards to check it has worked. There is a lot of resistance to febendazole (panacur). I struggled with a high worm count youngster and panacur until it dawned on me we had resistance.

ETA just wanted to add that it is really nice when someone comes back with an update so thanks for that.
also that face needs a cuddle

Yes she did, clear poop but moderate for tape. Wormed for tape and she shed out red and pin, I wormed equest in Jan, westgate have now said try Panacur with her incase of resistance to equest. I hope not as I’ve always sworn by equest

 

[Callies.mum]

She looks a lovely type and she'll be bonny when the spring grass comes in.
.

Thank you. She is so easy, She’s got fantastic breeding too so very excited for her future!

 

[Callies.mum]

I found Allan and page care and gain and adding linseed oil put weight on my girl quickly when she dropped alot last winter.

She seems to have taken to a little linseed mash so we have been adding that little by little

 

[honetpot]

Hi all.
Just wanted to update you all on her progress. She had a wec and equisal test done, wormed for tape and Panacur in a couple of weeks. Has Finally taken to some hard feed, still won’t touch chaff so working on that. 2 weeks on she is finally looking a bit ‘healthier’.
Thanks for all of your feedback View attachment 156140

She looks like she has a big frame to fill.

 

[Somewhat Off The Way]

I'm sorry, but I completely disagree. Looking a little light is one thing, poor (or bad ) is another.

We should strive for health all year round, and I'm pretty astounded that a vet would advocate for a horse of any age coming out of winter looking poor.

He is healthy, that's my point! We're so used to seeing overweight horses that we think it's abnormal for them to lose weight in the winter. Vet is fab and if he's happy and horse is happy, then I'm happy. Here's to the next 15 years!

ETA Vet didn't just glance at him and say he's fine on a whim. Sent blood for full profile. Everything in normal range except albumin which was 37 g/L with normal range 30-36 g/L

 

[Somewhat Off The Way]

This is true and they absolutely do go through ugly phases but I wouldn't say the pot belly and lack of interest in hard feed is standard for an awkward bit of growing. Spring grassad lib forage won't do any good if they have s heavy tapeworm burden unfortunately. But tapeworm is not 'got' by a lot of broad spec products.
Nutrition is so critical to future health and soundness when they are young and growing it's surely better to be safe than sorry.

I did say in a later post that things like worming etc should be kept up to date.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Hi all.
Just wanted to update you all on her progress. She had a wec and equisal test done, wormed for tape and Panacur in a couple of weeks. Has Finally taken to some hard feed, still won’t touch chaff so working on that. 2 weeks on she is finally looking a bit ‘healthier’.
Thanks for all of your feedback View attachment 156140

It's so nice to see an update. She's a lovely looking little thing, isn't she!

 

[Borderreiver]

She is looking great. Kind and knowledgeable worming support is always available at the end of a phone from Westgate. So important with a new horse and especially a youngster.

 

[SEL]

I did wonder if it was tapeworm if only because it's been such a nightmare for me to shift. Spring is most definitely on the way and she'll be plump in no time

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Thanks for the update, she does look rather better. Our grass has been growing in this warm spell, so that will probably have helped her, too.

 

[I'm Dun]

Too late to be much use now, but for anyone who has a youngster that wont eat bucket feed, the easiest way to sort it is to take them and another horse, one that wont be grumpy with the foal around its food and one that's going to eat with gusto and feed them both together, separate buckets but close enough for the foal to watch the adult eat. In almost eveyr instance of youngsters not eating hard feed they haven't been creep fed when with mum so just don't get it. Why would they? ard feed is an alien concept for a horse until they realise what it is.

OP I'd stick her on a decent dose of vitamin e, a mineral balancer and just a basic feed with some linseed in to carry it

 

[Jericho]

I have just bought an 11 month old who is more ribby than yours and I wasn’t happy with that so am trying to stuff as much forage in her as possible but felt she needed more. She also wouldn’t touch hard feed but she did like to lick the others buckets so I gave her a bucket of readigrass which she loved and started adding small amounts of SureGrow balancer and then grass nuts and then linseed and then sugarbeet - is absolutely wolfing it down now! Key with her though is that she was very wormy - I wormed her with Equest Pramox on arrival and her poos the next day full of dead red worm poor thing. I spoke with vet and she said exactly the right thing to do but she is booked in to come and check teeth anyway etc when she comes to do vacs. I wouldn’t just chance a FEC as they don’t pick up certain worms such as encysted red worm

 

[Equi]

I have just bought an 11 month old who is more ribby than yours and I wasn’t happy with that so am trying to stuff as much forage in her as possible but felt she needed more. She also wouldn’t touch hard feed but she did like to lick the others buckets so I gave her a bucket of readigrass which she loved and started adding small amounts of SureGrow balancer and then grass nuts and then linseed and then sugarbeet - is absolutely wolfing it down now! Key with her though is that she was very wormy - I wormed her with Equest Pramox on arrival and her poos the next day full of dead red worm poor thing. I spoke with vet and she said exactly the right thing to do but she is booked in to come and check teeth anyway etc when she comes to do vacs. I wouldn’t just chance a FEC as they don’t pick up certain worms such as encysted red worm

I’m glad you got your foals worm burden under control but I just have to add for anyone who may read this in the future that a strong wormer on a foal with a heavy worm burden which has potentially never been wormed could have serious side effects including colic and death. It’s much safer to do a 5 day dose of fenbendazole (panacur) then do a count and treat again as necessary.

 

[BurntontheoutsideTurkey]

I have just bought an 11 month old who is more ribby than yours and I wasn’t happy with that so am trying to stuff as much forage in her as possible but felt she needed more. She also wouldn’t touch hard feed but she did like to lick the others buckets so I gave her a bucket of readigrass which she loved and started adding small amounts of SureGrow balancer and then grass nuts and then linseed and then sugarbeet - is absolutely wolfing it down now! Key with her though is that she was very wormy - I wormed her with Equest Pramox on arrival and her poos the next day full of dead red worm poor thing. I spoke with vet and she said exactly the right thing to do but she is booked in to come and check teeth anyway etc when she comes to do vacs. I wouldn’t just chance a FEC as they don’t pick up certain worms such as encysted red worm

There's a blood test for encysted red worm now though. I do bloods for that and tape and FECs.

 

[TheMule]

I’m glad you got your foals worm burden under control but I just have to add for anyone who may read this in the future that a strong wormer on a foal with a heavy worm burden which has potentially never been wormed could have serious side effects including colic and death. It’s much safer to do a 5 day dose of fenbendazole (panacur) then do a count and treat again as necessary.

Thank you for saying this- I totally agree (as does my vet OH) Anything with an unknown worming history (especially if young and/or underweight) should NOT be given Pramox. This is when it is most dangerous.

 

[KatieDM]

Thank you for saying this- I totally agree (as does my vet OH) Anything with an unknown worming history (especially if young and/or underweight) should NOT be given Pramox. This is when it is most dangerous.

Mine (rising 5, quite lean) and the 10 month old foal at the yard had 5 day Panacur in December. Recent FEC showed both 200-250 medium. Westgate advised both to now have Strongid P and not to give Pramox at this point, so this is definitely current and sage advice.

Westgate or similar would always be happy to advise over the phone, so if in doubt, please check!