Skinny foal - feed advice please (and maybe worming too).

[Spot_the_Risk]

I have a six and half month old colt foal, bought a month ago from a dealer, unhandled until today.

He has just started eating feed this last week, and has been on A & P Fast Fibre, high fibre nuts and apple chaff, as this is what I had in the feed room - I've tried him with mixes, he's not interested in them (has been eating haylage happily) and so I can finally worm him by putting it in the feed, I have no idea if he's ever been wormed before so have done a bit of research and asked on here a while back, and am going with Eqvalen, and then follow up in six weeks with Panacur Equine Guard - does that sound okay? I should say also that despite my sig, the plan wasn't to turn him out until he had been wormed, unfortunately he crashed the fencing and turned himself out, so of course my older gelding will follow the same worming plan, and I'll get them both egg counted.

He has enjoyed a good scratch from me today, and I've been able to handle him from poll to loins, and chest, tops of legs and rib cage, and boy is he skinny under his foal fluff, he has a wither like a sharks fin and I can feel his scapula, back bone and ribs. I want to give him what he needs without going over the top - he is a very native type, cob sire and pony dam, so in theory will be a good doer, but a lot of the feed details I look at are for TB types.

I'm hoping that someone on here will be able to point me in the right direction - I've been on a few feed sites and Baileys No 3 stud cubes looks good - but he would have to eat 4kg a day, which seems hell of a lot!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Fleur100]

Don't worry about getting the hard feed into him quickly so long as he is eating hay/haylage. My youngsters (natives) get Alpha A and a balancer.

Rather than using Panacur (there is now a resistance to this wormer) I would use an Equest/Pramox routine as he is now over 6 months.

 

[Rollin]

I would get some professional advice on worming. I think WHW always give 'equine guard' to new horses with 'unknown' worming history and it is what my vets used to recommend. You do need to worm for Bots after first frost.

None of my horses get anything like the feed recommended by manufacturers. D&H told me that feed quantities they recommend give right amt. of vit/mins. So I have licks in all my fields.

My weanlings both Arabs and Cleveland Bays get PLENTY of good hay and feed of s/b, lucerne and D&H mix for youngstock (not too much of the latter).

 

[henryhorn]

You have to be careful not to overload his system with wormer, which is why my vet always recommends using panacur guard first followed by strongid or similar a month later.
I know pramox is good but it may be a bit overkill for a first ever worming.
I'm sure you will get replies saying panacur doesn't work but our counts tend to be low, so it does for me!
Any feed you give him wants to be palatable more than anything else if he's new to feed, so I would use up any of those slightly out of date bags in the shop, adding pink powder and a good glug of oil too. Adding speedi beet makes it more enjoyable for new feeders. yes the experts will tell you to use specialised foal feeds but with your facilities I'd just feed what you have handy!
I have never found our foals liked nuts much, but enjoyed coarse mix far more.
If he's got ad lib haylage he will do ok, I would also leave a mineral lick in the field for him too.
It might be a good idea to do a worm count on him, then at least you know what you're attempting to eliminate.

 

[Spot_the_Risk]

Hi henryhorn, I was trying to remember how you built William back up, but couldn't! I looked at Pramox and thought the same as you, too strong for a first wormer, so I'm going with Eqvalan then Guard afterwards - weeks afterwards obviously! I'm going to go with Baileys Stud balancer, it did Ellie very well, my God has she filled out, real leg at each corner now but still only about 14hh, I'm also going to feed either speedibeet or Fast fibre, good idea about the mineral lick, I can't leave it in the field as Harley is such a gannet he'll eat the lot, but Tinner can have it in the stable at night.

Thanks for your advice everyone!

 

[tikino]

my gelding has been very ill following 2.5 years out on loan. he has a worm burden and vet school have gave me a worm programe as followed 5 day equine gaurd day 6 equalan duo 3 week break then 5 day equine guard day 6 equimax 3 week break then 5 day equine guard day equest and he will be worm counted again in 6 weeks as well as futher biopys to see if any permanent damage hope this helps

 

[colormorestud]

Sorry to hear about your foal...
Foals are very fussy eaters....I have found that any foals that have been fussy have loved Badminton Ultra Grass ( its just grass with added soya oil ) Have tried changing to different grass,chaffs,alpha etc... in the past but always revert back to this one as they just seem to love it! Its conditioning too...if you can find a base feed he likes,he'll soon be tucking into his feed...I find my foals have never been great hay eaters...love haylage so do a mix of the 2 so they get both...worming is very important especially in babies as you are providing the foundation of thier adult life...
Good luck

 

[henryhorn]

William had a diet devised by Saracen's feed rep, as we wanted slow weight gain but had to be tempting.
I would have added speedi beet and definitely alfa A, we were feeding a lot of that at the time.
You should see the size of him now, he's bigger than his year older brother!
Your foal will steadily gain weight once he's wormed I'm sure, anything coming from a dealer with a high turnover usually has a fair burden, and if he's got ad lib hay/haylage he'll soon look better.