Feeding Starved or Malnourished Horses

Overfeeding these horses can cause them more harm than good. The best initial feed is often good-quality hay.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

By Dr. Bryan Waldridge, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, ABVP

Few sights are worse than the tragedy of malnourished or starved horses. It is important to consider that not all underweight horses are the victims of abuse or neglect. Occasionally, horses may have or be recovering from serious conditions (cancer, inflammatory/infiltrative bowel disease, parasitism, colitis, surgery, etc.) that have led to weight loss, and their owners are doing all they can to help the horse regain its previous condition. When refeeding these horses, we must overcome our first impulse to immediately feed them whatever and however much they want. Months of neglect cannot be reversed in a few days or weeks.

It takes an estimated 60-90 days of feed deprivation for a normal, healthy horse in optimal body condition to drop enough weight to lose its ability to stand. Starvation causes muscle weakness and hypothermia, and decreases gastrointestinal function, wound healing, and immunity. Horses that have been unable to stand for three or more days have a poor prognosis for recovery, even with aggressive treatment.

Overfeeding malnourished horses can cause much harm and potentially death. Starved horses will have decreased gut bacteria and protozoa populations (flora) that are essential to ferment forages and other feeds. Additionally, the gut cells that produce digestive enzymes will have decreased ability to digest and absorb feed. For these reasons, refeeding must take place gradually to allow the gut flora and digestive ability to recover their normal functions and readapt to feed. Initially, starved horses should be fed at 50% or less of their current (poor body condition) needs. The horse then can be fed at its present (but low) body weight for another two to three days. Once the horse has adjusted to feed intake and its gastrointestinal tract has readjusted to eating, the amount of feed can be increased over seven to10 days to meet requirements for its ideal body weight. It is not unusual for some diarrhea to occur with refeeding. The diarrhea is usually fairly mild (the consistency of a cow pie) and resolves without any treatment

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
353 votes · 353 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!