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Discussion on Malnourished (skeletal) thoroughbred with heart murmur and infected wound.
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Member:
Meercat
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Posted on Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003 - 7:55 pm:
Hello friends,
I have been a member for a few years and usually lurk and find my answers through hunting but I am stuck. I am adopting a six year old thoroughbred mare (retired racehorse with not a lick of competitiveness in her) that has been so neglected that she looks like a skeleton, has two huge, infected wounds on her foreleg (which are healing nicely), has a heart murmur (don't know if this is possibly a result of her condition) and all of her hair has fallen out. The blood tests show nothing abnormal, meaning that the people who had this sweet girl for seven weeks just locked her up and forgot her.
She is putting on weight slowly and looks forward to her feed, there is no apparent lameness associated with the tremedous wounds on her leg. I am trying to get her well enough to transport her to home.
My question is this, what kind of supplement or all around vitamin can I give her that would be beneficial? She gets all the hay she can stand, is up to 3 LB 12% sweet feed twice a day, hand grazing for 1/2 hour a day and all the love she can stand.
I want to bring her home to live with another abused horse who is now a big baby, and a burro, chickens, cats, an evil coven of ducks, and a dog; all of which are adopted.
Any information on vitamins, love, care, feed, exercise would be welcome. Thank you for being here to help me through alot of things. I lost my first horse on February 9th of this year to Cushings and got a wealth of comfort and knowledge from this site. I want to save this one.
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003 - 8:39 pm:
Hi, there,
Glad the new mare has a good home. Please go to Dr. Oglesby's article on FEEDING THE MALNOURISHED HORSE. It may answer many of your questions.
Holly
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 18, 2003 - 7:59 am:
For general recommendations the article Holly suggests is good. For a specific recommendation on a vitamin see the article associated with this forum on vitamins. Diagnosis on the murmur would be based on its character and loudness but undernourished horses often have a murmur that goes away once the horses condition improves.
DrO
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Member:
Meercat
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 18, 2003 - 4:22 pm:
Holly and Doc,
Thank you for your responses. I will follow the recommendations in these and other articles I have read on this site. My main concern was the heart murmur and any adverse reactions that may ensue by adding supplements. I am thrilled to hear that a murmur is possibly caused by the malnourishment and may go away once we get her healthy, but regardless, she is coming home with me.
Once again, thank you for your time and expertise.
Carolyn
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