yearling refusing to eat. help!

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Guignol

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I have just bought a yearling who is very weak and underweight. She will eat grass and hay but nothing else. I have tried all sorts of different feeds but she just is not interested. I know youngsters shouldn't be fed too much but i really need to put some condition on as she really is weak and wobbly. Does anyone have any suggestions or been in a similar situation?
 
i recently aquired a 9 month shetland colt underwight and poor. He won't eat chaff, beet or cubes and to begin with he picked at the hay and haylage i had in. I just don't think he had had anything and just didn't know what to do with it. Now he eats his haylage ok. I started him with some carrots (which he loves) and a handfull of D&H mare and youngstock as there are few cubes in that, he did push it around a bit but now clears up. Now i have just introduced some suregrow, just a handfull and he clears that too, so some progress. Hope this helps.
 
If a youngster wont eat its probably because he doesnt know about hard feed. He may have been abruptly weaned from milk, with no gradual transition. So you have to teach them! I would avoid cereals and mixes , as the high starch will make the digestive system have problems- the bacteria to digest them arent present and they also increase acidity in the stomach. Unless you are feeding the recomended amount of a mix you will also be giving an unbalanced diet, in particular in relation to calcium/phosphorus, which will be detrimental to a young horses bones.

Give as much hay as the horse will eat and plenty of grass. You could supplement with soaked grass nuts, grass chaff or a fibre feed such as badminton fibre complete nuggets, again soak them. They are very palatable. Leave the horse with some soaked in a bucket and remove and replace with fresh after 24 hours. Eventually he should learn to eat them. Dont be tempted to try things like garlic, keep it simple and not too pungent!
 
Thank you very much for your advice. It reassures me anyway that i will be able to get her to eat something eventually. I will try your advice and see what happens! Thank you again. I get worried when they are so frail and weak.
 
You could try D & H Suregrow. It's a tiny pellet which has all the vitamins and minerals that youngstock of any type need to grow safely. Normal rations are only something like a mugful a day. When the foster boys came to me at a fortnight old, they were handfed a mouthful mixed with some damp bran to encourage them to eat. Within a few days, I was able to stop the bran and feed it dry and in a bucket too, they never looked back. It's something like £13.50 for 20kg so not expensive as it lasts ages.
Be careful that because you are so relieved that it's eating at last, that you don't give more than it needs, it's an easy trap to fall in to.
As long as it has access to good fibre as in hay or haylage plus turnout, it won't come to too much harm and will come around to eating hard feed when it's ready but please don't make the mistake of cramming food into it, that will do more harm than good. If it's as bad as you say, be prepared for a long haul, it could easily be the end of the year before it's into the right condition.
 
I will be careful. I also have a 19yr old mare who was very poor when i got her as a 4yr old and took me about 18months to put the condition on i would say. She was also one for not being keen on her food but now lives for food and is on restricted grazing as tends to get porky! (she is only on a feed balancer and hi fi lite) I will do my best to remain sensible and only feed in small quantities. (it is so easy to get carried away as you say so must remind myself daily to be strict with myself!) I have been advised to not even feed to recommend daily allowance until the winter kicks in to give her body time to adjust... well, that is if i can get her to eat first! She is eating haylage and is out at grass eating as much as she can so i shouldn't worry myself too much.

Does anyone know if this will have stunted her growth or done any damage?

Thank you so much for your advice everyone. I have only just joined onto here and i am amazed by how helpful and welcoming everyone is :)
 
It's good that you've been through this before in some ways, you know how long it seems to take and won't be expecting instant results!
Providing you can give her what she needs from now on, I'd be very surprised if it's stunted her growth simply because she's still growing, she'll now be playing catch up and should just take longer to mature than normal; that's my take on it anyway!
Do you have any pictures and details of her breeding you can put up?
 
i will take some of her over the next few days. She was eating haylage this eve and managed to start choking!! it cleared within 30 minutes. I feel this filly will be keeping me on my toes! still no joy but will try every day with some feed and hopefully one day will eat a few mouthfuls.
Thank you again, i am relieved if i sort her out now she will still mature correctly.
 
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