What to feed a SKINNY Foal?

3Beasties

3Beasties

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I've just taken on a little Fillie to help a friend. She is an Arab x cob (we think), about 5 months old and is extremely skinny. She has been wormed, and will have ad-lib hay. In at night out through day.

There seems to be so many foal feeds out there so I really don't know which one to go for? What would you feed her?Would Alfa A oil be OK with a foal feed as well? Also would Pink powder be useful for her?

Here are some pictures of her

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Also would you (lightly) Rug her? Everyone seems to have such different opinions on the matter!!
 
Yes I can feel her ribs, and her spine, shoulders, and pelvis. I think her fluff hides most of it. For some reason though she still has a pot belly even though she has been wormed.

Would Alfa A Oil be OK instead of the original? What quantities would you feed?
 
What kind of wormer did she get? Has she been done for tape worms too?

Also how tall is she? My foals are currently approx 14hh, they get 1/2 scoop of suregrow, 3/4 scoop of alfa a and 1/2 scoop of sugar beet twice per day. (Stubbs round scoops)

I think Alfa oil would be ok. The suregrow amounts vary depending on the height of your foal - I think the amounts are listed on the D&H website.
 
I'm not sure which Wormer it was, I think it was Strong P / Strong x or something like that, can't remember exactly. I have been told to worm her again in a week.

I would say she is just under 13hh. How big are you expecting yours to make?
 
Alfa A oil would be fine for her.

Personally I feed Baileys Stud balancer and have had fabulous results with it with both skinny and up to weight youngsters. However I have also heard a lot of fab things about Sure Grow...all i will say is that you will feed a lot less of the Bailey's than you will of the sure grow and achieve the same results.

My advice would be to ring one of the feed companies and have a chat about her....they are very very helpful
 
She does look skinny to me, but also very sweet
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I've give her the reccomended amount of Bailey's stud balancer (or D&H Suregrow) with loads of alfa A and ad lib haylage untill her condition increases, then adjust the alfa a/ haylage accordingly.

with regard to rugging; she looks like she has a good coat, and hasn't been rugged before- but does she feel cold? on a cool day are the base of her ears cold, or does she feel cool on her chest under her fur? I would avoid rugging her if you can, but remember she's burning calories keeping warm
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so you'll have to play it by ear.
 
I would worm her with a 5 day panacur followed by an Equest (what we do with all our foals & anything that comes onto the yard|). I wouldn't rug her. You will be surprised how quickly she will gain weight with ad lib hay and a small amount of hard feed. Don't overdo the high protein feeds though as you don't want growth problems.
 
agree with all the worming suggestions, i'd also stick her winergy growth. you can literally feed as much as she needs until she looks better but because it has no cereal in it and is proven low glycaemic, it wont cause DOD's, OCD etc. also got best spec of vits, mins and antioxidants i have ever found - can only be a good thing if she's a bit weak.

read their bumf - they can explain much better than I can! www.winergy.com
 
It is amazing how much goodness there is in hay / haylage and if she has previously had poor feeding etc I'd be especially wary of feeding her anything as rich as even Alfa A for a long while for the risk of hr developing DOD / OCD.

I'd start with the hay / haylage and increase gradually from there. I've found speedibeet to be good for weightgain i my growing baby and otherwise she is just on hi-fi lite and add lib hay. she can't be on anything too rich due to her OCD.
 
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