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Michelle
Platinum Member
 United Kingdom
3197 Posts |
 Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 10:44:38 AM
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Some of you may have read the article I wrote in the Link about my yearling filly who had the auto-immune disease, Purpura Haemorhagicca?
Well, the filly, Nelly, is now over her disease and has shown steady progress now for 7/8 months. In June of this year she was 2 years old.
The thing is that she has not grown. The disease made her hind legs swell up to 4/5 times their proper size, and although they have now gone down a lot she has been left with large hind legs full of scar tissue. I don't think she will ever be shown.
Anyway, apart from that she just has not got any taller. When she first started to get better she had a bit of a growth spurt and shot up a few inches but since nothing?? She is now well over 2 years old and is not yet 14hh.
Now, she IS a tad underweight. Not only is it extremely hard to keep the condition on her but we could not keep her too heavy because of the extra weight on her legs etc.
Now I am trying her on a number of different feeds and she has blue chip. She is happy in herself but she doesn't look like the nice filly she was when I bought her.
She is a first foal, she was a big foal and a big yearling until she contracted the disease. Her dam is a big mare, must be 15.2hh. Her sire Hejaz is not a big stallion, about 14.3hh?? I am not sure. She has a maternal half sister called Narissa, by WSA Charismma (also a small stallion) who was shown this year, she is also normal height, not small.
Any ideas? I am going to try milk pellets.
Michelle
IIsis Arabians
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Sheena
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
1810 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 11:50:33 AM
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HI Michelle,
When my colt had his protein intolerance he went well behind in condition. I actually put him on baileys grow and win. Which is supplement not a feed. It will/should put on condition without putting on too much weight.
It might be worth having a call round, Baileys/Spillers?dodson and horrel and just see what their feed experts say. Baileys were really good when I phoned them they gave me all sorts of advice and sne tlots of free samples.
The only other thing would be to put her on a pre biotic, rather then a pro biotic. It all helps with the digestive track, so she digests her feed better and gets more out of it.
Let me know how you get on
Alicia |
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Mike
Platinum Member
Eire
1872 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 12:13:57 PM
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Michelle
A cupfull (teacup) of veg oil in her feed will help to put on condition & its cheap too!
Mike
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k brown
Gold Member
United Kingdom
810 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 1:17:15 PM
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I have used soya meal in the past with excellent results, I only fed a couple of teacups a day so a sack that cost about 8 quid lasted weeks. I also swear by balanced horse feeds show mix.
one day your a rooster the next a feather duster. |
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Vera
Membership Moderator
United Kingdom
8652 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 1:43:23 PM
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I agree oil is a very good way of getting the extra calories in for weight gain at minimal cost. Horses digest it very well and I have read that some endurance horses have up to a pint a day.
A really good source of protein (soya or alfalfa type) is a real must as this makes the bodies building blocks.
IMHO it is best to stick to use a mix/cube made for the job. Feeding straights is all very well if you are an expert on nutrition!!!
Vera and Dennis
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Michelle
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
3197 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 1:54:34 PM
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The condition is not a problem, she is living out at the moment and she doesn't seem like as good a doer as she used to but I know I can get the condition back on her in no time. She is not in a condition that concerns me. It's just the height I am worried about. It's like this illness has stunted her growth???
Michelle
IIsis Arabians |
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Mike
Platinum Member
Eire
1872 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 2:23:54 PM
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It could be that now her system has had chance to recover fully from the illness she will start to grow again, not all horses grow uniformly, some do it in fits and starts sometimes at very irregular intervals. I have a couple of fillies who are currently exactly the same height, one steadily grows a little bit at a time and the other in big jumps occasionally. Four months ago there was almost 3 inches differance between the two of them. Since then the taller one doesn't seem to have grown at all, whilst the "little" has slowly caught up. Time for another spurt perhaps. The two dams are the same height, but there is over a hand differance between the two sires, which might suggest that the filly with the tallest dad should ultimately be the taller of the two. Time will tell.
From a breeding perspective however if your filly has been "stunted" by her illness, her foals will inherit the height she would otherwise have acheived
Mike
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Michelle
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
3197 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 2:36:44 PM
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Yeah I know, it's just annoying, she is like a little runt! and she reminds me of a little brat, she is always poking her nose into the older mares dinners and almost getting it bitten off. She is like a right pest and seems a bit thick.... I do love her loads though, she is very sweet, it's just that I want her to grow nice and tall and elegant!
At the moment she is like a little runty pest (to the others) - my yearling is taller than her!
Michelle
IIsis Arabians |
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jacki
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
1988 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 3:39:10 PM
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michelle
Have you tried brewers yeast? a little in each feed helps them take the most from her feed (use all protenes and vits and mins to her full advantage!) Once her immune system is fully healed then her body can think about growing and putting on weight! Most arabs dont fully mature til 7-8 so she has bags of time Also you can get aloe suplements which help the immune system after illness!
Dont worry
jacki
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Valentine Arabians
Gold Member
United Kingdom
586 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 3:47:23 PM
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Michelle,
Have you thought of asking your Vet to take a blood sample and have the 'growth hormone level' checked? It might cost a pretty packet, but might be able to tell you exactly what is going on and what has happened to her growth.
Best of luck.
Liz |
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Acorn Arabians
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
2052 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 4:49:42 PM
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HiMichele,
I think you will find it is from the sires side,
I have a Hejaz daughter here(on lease) and she is little, her mom Atlantica was a tall mare. To get rid of the scarring try our gelly, it works a treat and the hair comes back the right colour.Have lots of clients on it and they swear by it, ask Andrea Taylor about Hakka.
I would be grateful she is still alive after her ordeal.She did well, poor thing. 
Helen
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Libby Frost
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
4711 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 5:46:04 PM
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| Grow and win is excellent for young horses we put our babies on it for conditioning as Sheena says.good stuff.Milly our babe who's now two, has done really really well on it, fully recommended. |
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pat ww
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
3459 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2003 : 9:28:30 PM
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I would not get too hung up about height. We had a colt, done well by its dam, 15 hands, sire 15.1 well grown foal. A filly of different breeding was a full hand smaller than him, as a six month old foal. Both were treated identically, feed, wormers, etc. both maintained similar condition as young horses. Yet the filly ended up an full inch taller and more substantial. Her dam was barely 14 hands, her sire 14.3, the height she made. The colts full sister was 15.1 when she was sold as a 2 year old.
Full brother and sister, colt made 14.2, filly a shade over 15 hands. All of these had periods where their height seemed to stand still, and non had an illness to recover from. I would just feed her as you would any other young horse, and not give her digestive system more than she can cope with. The genetics of height might mean she is never meant to be huge, I've another 14.2, stocky little mare, almost all her relatives are 15.1 or 2, but she is completely in proportion.
Despite the fashion for breeding taller and taller Arabs, there are still people who are quite happy with 14.2 or 14.3, which was the breed standard height less than 50 years ago.
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Benjamin
Bronze Member
Netherlands
71 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2003 : 8:04:44 PM
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I read quickly your post so dont shoot me if I skipped the obvious...
My immedaiate reaction was to give the beastie a course of D Tox. Then start off again with a good old mixture of a bit of this and that add some guiness and eggs for tea in with the nosh and a bit of natural yogurt here and there with breakfast.
As always horses will have the last laugh but some will shoot up level all the way through some wont, some will be enormous at 2 and fully grown, some will do nothing for a good year. Some horses that you would expect to have finished growing start to grow in race training or heavy work...
Being the runt of my family litter I say some arabs are getting too big, its bad enough having to get steps to get at top shelves in the cupboards with out having to stretch to find the ears.
Only limited experience of bluechip and could have been the quantities we were told to feed?!* B....y rocket fuel, I ran my renault on it for a month!
Pip |
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Michelle
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
3197 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2003 : 09:23:34 AM
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Hiya all, thanks for all the replies! I was off relaxing yesterday....
Anyway, I was having a look at her yesterday and I know that she is not growing properly... 1) because I knew what she was like before the disease and 2) because she looks so angular and unbalanced. Obviously she IS a two year old and a large percentage of two year olds (especially fillies in my experience) go through an ugly stage I am not going to worry about it yet.
She is getting a lot of food and good stuff at that. I will try her with the Guinness although not the eggs (I wouldn't eat raw eggs so I don't expect her to!) and she is due for a jab soon and as it's coming up to a year since she first got ill I think I will have a blood test done to check her out.
Re: Blue chip. Pip, I agree, the stuff can be like rocket fuel. I have one mare especially who does really well on it but she is very firey at the best of times and in the winter on it (when she is stabled all day) I almost get killed just taking her to the horse walker!
Also, i dunno if anyone else noticed this but with the above mentioned mare, when she is on Blue Chip her feet grwo really fast? She came back from stud few weeks ago with nice hooves and since she has been home and on the stuff she has got Aladdin's slippers!
Michelle
IIsis Arabians |
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