What weight should she be?

[asommerville]

I have a 17 year old VERY good doer TB x mare. She is 15.3. In the past 6 weeks she has had 2 bouts of colic and various bouts of sore front feet. The history behind this horse is she has pedal ostitis - showed up after a bout of laminitis 2 years ago which was induced by being on box rest on a yard where everyone felt sorry for her and threw haylage over the door until she was fit to burst. The laminitis was only in one front foot. This has not occurred since. She was always fed hay ONLY and fast fibre and chaff with a balancer.

Since moving her from home (where she was over the summer for 2 months ) where she was sound (in fact the soundest she has ever been) she had 2 instances of colic within 2 daysand ever since then various degrees of footiness (which I have now tied in with being more sore when the grass is frosty) I posted about her feet a wee while ago (think low heels and thin soles, currently the horse has bar shoes and gel pads), and have been keeping her going with a wee bit of Danilon while I wait for my original vet (who has dealt with her before) to return from holiday. She will shortly be going into the vet for x rays and blood tests to check for cushings and insulin resistence.

Anyway the point of the post was – she currently weigh 562 kg on a weight tape. What weight should she be? She was being fed haylage (as refused to eat hay after colicing) but I have gradually weaned her off it. She also refused to eat her fast fibre so is fed dengie molasses free and baileys fibre nuggets with the equimins balancer. Here is a pic of her. Bear in mind she has been mainly out of work for 2 years (just a wee bit of hacking) due to various injuries and illnesses….she’s an attention seeker so has little muscle.

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/196218_546788345332753_145680905_n.jpg

 

[Wagtail]

She is a little overweight right now. I would be aiming to get her to around 520 kg on the weight tape. Ideally, she should be treated as a laminitic and on soaked hay and box rest if she is footy. If she won't eat soaked hay, then she needs a very high fibre/low sugar haylage such as Marksway horsehage hi fibre. Looking at her feet in the picture (the one I can see), her toes are very long too. I would probably want some up to date xrays doing.

 

[asommerville]

Thanks wagtail, i was thinking of ur mare when i was writing it, have taken her completely off haylage now, should get down to the vet soon. just worried

 

[Lotty]

My mare is a Warmblood x welsh d 16.1hh, so is quite a chunky build and she weighs 484kgs on a weighbridge. She is the perfect weight at the moment.

 

[asommerville]

Anyone else??