A little help needed...

I haven't been around much lately and a couple of you know why already, but I need kind of a group effort to come together on this to put our heads together to get some good advice and info on my problem. This has nothing to do with showing or halter, period.

Last Wednesday, I finally took my best mare, Lady (the big sorrel I do barrels on), to the vet to have her coffin bones x-rayed. When we bought her in July, we were told that she had foundered severely from an alfalfa pasture overload and that not only were both of her coffin bones rotated, but one of them was a sinker. We began a course of corrective shoeing immediately and she was reacting to this and was more comfortable. There isn't a lot you can do to "treat" those horses besides theraputic farrier work. Well, we were wrongly informed. I'll be totally honest, I always wanted to get her checked out, but x-rays are not cheap. I finally got frustrated with not knowing for sure, so we took her in. The news that we got was very relieving in one way, but still not great either. Lady had foundered at some point in time, but she had no rotation at all and neither were sinking. She did, however, have a severe infection in both of her front coffin bones, and I do mean SEVERE. Her entire sole, on both feet, are completely underun with abcesses that lead to her coffin bones. She has some osteomylitis, but the good news is that if we can get the infection gone, this mare will be 100% sound and lead a normal life. The other good news is that she is responding to the internal and topical antibiotics. She is blowing out abcesses like crazy, but that is actually a good thing here. She is currently on Sulfa from the vet, and a gram of bute daily. We're alternating prodine and icthamol every five days topically on both of her feet, and she's wearing hospital plates to keep any debri out of her sole area. On my own, we have put her on MSM, a high biotin hoof supplement, and an herbal infection fighter. Some how, all of this is working to make her better, thank God. This mare just means the world to me, she is my absolute favorite horse and I would sell every horse I own to pay for her vet bills.... I am so thankful she is getting better and I hope it continues. So here is my problem...

Lady cannot have any high amount of carbs in her feed (alfalfa, etc.) and she is currently getting free access to bermuda grass and about six lbs. of grass pellets a day, with a cup of corn oil. She is having a very tough time with keeping this weight on. She is a AQHA papered mare, but she has primarily thoroughbred breeding. She usually cleans up her feed, but she's loosing and not gaining weight. I don't want her to be fat, it wouldn't be good on her feet. But, I don't want to see ribs anymore and she just realy needs to fill out to be healthy looking. She will not eat rice bran, period. I've tried everything to get her to eat it, so that's out. I need your suggestions on feed products to help her gain some weight semi-quickly. Any help would be greatly appreciated and if anyone has ever had any experience with bone infections, please do share

Ok hun you know how I skim.. Well, Chad is on high fat and low carb since they think he has PSSM.. I feed him Nurtena feeds.. Safe choice and Empowered. Now, Empowered is spendy but he only get two pounds of that a day..

So, with that said the Empowered is 22%fat..

He gets 1lb X 2 daily Empowered
1lb x 2 daily Safe Choice
2 oz DAC oil
1.5 heaping cup soaked beet pulp X 2 daily

Plus all the Orchard grass he can eat.. He does well on this. I am not a corn oil person since it is high in carbs.. The beat pulp helps hold the weight on..

Now the stud on my signature (JMS MODEL PRINT) was foundered for purposes of winning at the world show.... .. He has the special foot work and he is not on low carb diet.. I keep him lean so he does not stess his feet..

Trial and error.. All your grains are going to be too hight in carbs.. You may get by on a hight quailty roughage and some fat.. Beet pulp can be an aquired taste.. Keep working through the problem.

We also feed Empower by Nutrena. It is great for adding weight - the TB gelding that we bought in Jan with the help of 7Cs went on that and he has been gaining weight very steadily!!!! His coat is pretty also...and he is an OTT TB...he was in pretty poor condition...

Empower down here is about $26 per 40lb bag...


The Purina comparable thing is Amplify which comes in a 30lb bucket - it is more expensive and is pretty much the same thing. Which is why we feed the Nutrena version!!!

I like beet pulp. I also feed canola oil. It'd be similar in fat content to the corn oil you are feeding, but up here canola oil is one heck of a lot cheaper. There are weight building products on the market, but I've never used them and don't know if they are any good or just hype. Too bad she won't eat the rice bran. My skinnies get rice bran, molasses and canola oil mixed into their grain or pellet ration.
Good news on the feet. Let us know how she does.

You might try Platinum Performance, our vet recommended we put our horses on it and we are very happy with it. Our two biggest team roping head horses are hard keepers. Since they've been on the platinum, I've actually cut back on their feed. Interestingly, the easy keepers did *not* gain weight on the PP.

I give them two scoops a day and it runs about $ 50.00 a month, but it is well worth it. It also really helped their overall condition, coat, feet etc.

The Empowered here cost $30.00 a bag. The Canola oil sounds like it might be a more cost effective way to get the fat in there.. With Chad, he cannot eat grain.. So, maybe some soaked beat pulp and the oil would work.. Or, even a vegatable oil will work as well.