Rehabilitating the Malnourished Horse
  by Robert N. Oglesby DVM

We will define malnourishment as horses in a condition of emaciated to very thin because of poor care(more info). This will include too little feed, feed of poor quality, and heavy parasitism. Unfortunately, malnourishment from improper care is a common scene with horses. Most often the reasons are not malicious but a combination of ignorance and economics. It would seem logical to think it is just a matter of restoring good care to fix the problem but there is a fairly high rate of mortality when trying to return an emaciated horse to good condition. The reasons for this are:

• other primary diseases present
• diseases secondary to the improper care
• diseases and metabolic imbalances created by an inability to adjust to the better care

This article discusses the causes of malnourished horses and how to return these horses to good health. Included will be dealing with heavy parasitism and malnourished pregnant mares. For horses that are simply a little thin see Feeding Horses an Overview

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