Cat
11-09-2008, 10:45 AM
Drifter will be 4 in Feb. and has always been on the lean side. When I brought this up to my vet in the spring he told me that he is a paint, NOT a haflinger, so he's not going to be a thick boy. Teeth were great, etc at this point. However, now that winter is here he is getting where it looks to my eye that he is losing conditioning along his spine and his wither is more prominant looking than it should be. Not bad, but not a trend I want him to keep following either.
So today I pulled him away from the other boys and gave him some hay seperate since he is low man of the herd I thought maybe that might be the cause. Then I watched him eat.
No wonder the boy is thin! He is more concerned about digging below the hay and finding the few strands of grass still around than actually eating the hay. He will take a bite or two and then look for short strands of grass - bite and pull a few strands, then go back to the hay. Its good hay and the others gobble it down. But if he is digging around and in a sense "playing with his food" the others are most likely getting a good portion of his share.
I'm now worried he's not getting enough fiber for gut health either.
Right now we only have one stall available since we used the other 3 stalls as hay storage this year and Bandit is resident of that stall at night. So I am thinking after Bandit leaves this week (just waiting on the shipper to get me a date/time) I'm going to keep drifter in the stall a bit so that I can monitor what he eats and there won't be any strands of grass to divert his attention from his actual meal.
But is there anything else I could do to help? I will have the vet check his teeth when I have him out here to geld Willie too.
So today I pulled him away from the other boys and gave him some hay seperate since he is low man of the herd I thought maybe that might be the cause. Then I watched him eat.
No wonder the boy is thin! He is more concerned about digging below the hay and finding the few strands of grass still around than actually eating the hay. He will take a bite or two and then look for short strands of grass - bite and pull a few strands, then go back to the hay. Its good hay and the others gobble it down. But if he is digging around and in a sense "playing with his food" the others are most likely getting a good portion of his share.
I'm now worried he's not getting enough fiber for gut health either.
Right now we only have one stall available since we used the other 3 stalls as hay storage this year and Bandit is resident of that stall at night. So I am thinking after Bandit leaves this week (just waiting on the shipper to get me a date/time) I'm going to keep drifter in the stall a bit so that I can monitor what he eats and there won't be any strands of grass to divert his attention from his actual meal.
But is there anything else I could do to help? I will have the vet check his teeth when I have him out here to geld Willie too.