I switched Foxy out to her thin OLD turnout sheet. The green one that is a little short and small. It actually works good for this weather as it is not really cold at all, and because it is smaller it seems to fit her neck more closely and does not leak rain in as far down her shoulders. Plus it'll give time for the others to dry out...in preparation for the 20 degree weather next week.
Foxy has found a less muddy spot right along the house to hang out in. She was laying there last night (her buddy across the street was laying on his side of the fence with her) and standing there this morning. Still muddy, but more normal mud.
I spoke with an equine nutrition person the last few days and Foxy's feeding program has changed quite a bit. Still the free choice hay of course, with quite a bit of rinsed beet pulp and alfalfa pellets, plus some Triple Crown Low Starch. I still need get the TC-Low Starch...I'll do that tomorrow as the place is near my house and I can't make it there without taking time off work....I took tomorrow off already so I will run out in the morning and get that plus more beet pulp and alfalfa pellets....and if they have started stocking them, timothy or orchard pellets as well.
I soak all of Foxy's extra food and so she has been getting a bucket full of her mush three times a day....we'll see how much hay she eats today, but I have been putting so much hay out there that she has not been eating it all. She did eat all the hay while I was at work yesterday and was looking for more when I got home, but as of this morning she had not eaten everything from last night. I need to weight tape her that way I can keep track easier (not sure where the heck the tape is).
Foxy seems to have mellowed out a bit. I think a lot of it is the weather as it has been quiet since last night....she is tired of the rain and the mud.....I tied her in the shed last night for a bit while I was out there, with a hay bag in front of her. However, she was more interested in me than the food (although she was thrilled about the carrots). I gave her some good pets and scratches and rubs...I think she gets lonely out there and with all the bad weather lately, I have not spent much "quality" time outside with her. She was really happy about the attention. She is so weird about her face though....she pushes it towards you like she wants you to pet or scratch it, but then when you do that, she pulls it away and literally will completely turn it in the opposite direction so you cannot reach it without stepping around her. Make up your mind! She is so quirky....
With the thick fog this morning, it was very quiet and still. She was just standing there chilling out....her buddies were at their fence across the street doing the same. I put a ton of hay out there....it goes in a big tub but because of the thick mud and the amount of hay I am putting out there, she is wasting quite a bit. I'm really curious how much will be left at the end of the day....unfortunately I have dinner plans and so my mom (who flew in from out of state this morning) will be going over after work to deal with the dogs and feed her.
I was surprised there was still quite a bit of hay left this morning, but I did give her about 5.5 lbs (all soaked) of hard feed last night so she may have just been feeling full. Now that I simply keep her hay tub full, it is hard to tell how much she is eating. I'm trying to remember when I started this bale....was it last night? I think so. If it was, assuming a 45lb bale.....if she eats what I gave her today, the hay left in the tub will hold her over until tomorrow morning, I think.....so she is definitely getting enough hay. At least 20lbs+ per day. Plus 5-10lbs of hard feed. If she doesn't put weight on with this, I'll have to get the vet out. But considering prior to the last couple weeks, she was only getting a couple pounds of hard feed a day plus half a bale, she should really put weight on. I have basically tripled (and it will continue to go up) the non-hay feed she is getting. She was always on alfalfa in California (at least a flake or two a day) and did not have any craziness from it, so I will be upping the alfalfa pellets to make up about a flake or two a day. Everything she is getting as "extras" are safe to feed, so I don't worry about overdoing it like if I was adding 5-10lbs of GRAIN to her feed every day.
They also recommended I put her on a calming supplement called At-Ease. I will be ordering that as well. I will also get another batch of the Mare Magic (although just regular human raspberry leaves this time).
The biggest issue I am having right now is the mud. If my yard was not muddy right now, Foxy would be doing great (other than the weight issue).
As an aside, I have never witnessed such fast weight loss. Is that normal for a horse going through a stressful event? Now I wonder if when she was so skinny when I first bought her...maybe she had not been through any long term starvation but just had a bad couple weeks/months. She was much much thinner then. Here are a couple of the pics from when she was on the feedlot I bought her from.
Maybe this mud is giving her a flashback? Ha ha, or not.....but yes. She was quite hairy so it was difficult to see how thin she was, but you can see around her tail is all sunken in and her hip bones stick out, etc etc. She is thin now but still has a muscle and fat in her rear end and over the rest of her body...
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