Baby Has Belly!

[ALJUMPER]

I have a weaned 6 month old filly that is a welsh/GRP cross who has a Big Belly! She has inspections next month and it looks like shes wormy or has eaten a ton of hay. Not sure what to do to make it look better. She gets a small amount of hay every day along with Omelene 300, minerals, and Omega Horseshine, full turnout 24/7, and is wormed regularly. I see alot of babies who look like her and then alot of babies that look like they have been kept in a stall 24/7 with a perfect gleaming coat and look incredibly fit. She is shiney and happy and utd on everything. Can anyone give me some tips? :confused:

[TrueColours]

This very subject came up a few years ago at a Buckeye Feed seminar I attended and the consensus was that it was due to the coarseness of the hay that was being fed that was impacting / sitting in the lowest part of the intestines giving that "droopy" appearance. Because the hay was so stalky and coarse and hard to digest it sat there and slowly made its way through to the other end, but gave the very bloated appearance in the meantime

Dont know if that is the case with your youngster at all, but something to consider

I also asked if someone were to start feeding soft, very digestable hay today - how long it would take for that gut to disappear and was told about 6-8 months from the time the coarser hay was stopped and the softer hay started

Good luck!

[jaimebaker]

Had this same problem with an adult horse. Huge grass belly (not hay belly since he's not fed hay right now). Put him on Tri-Amino since I suspected it was a protein issue. From what I've read, it's not the percentage/amount of protein, it's the quality that's important. If it's poor quality, then you have a problem with it not being absorbed correctly and causing that look (as the previous poster mentioned with coarse hay). It has to do with the lignin content of hay if I remember correctly what Tamara has told me.

So, anyway, I put my horse on Tri-Amino to help him absorb the protein he was getting. The horse is in no work at all, and I watched that belly lift and those back muscles fill in too. If I had time to work him, no telling how good he'd look! It's just amino acids so I don't think it would have any ill effects on a foal.

You can get it at www.uckele. com

[TrueColours]

It has to do with the lignin content of hay if I remember correctly what Tamara has told me.


Thanks Jaime. Thats exactly what Jo mentioned in the seminar as well ... :)

[ALJUMPER]

Interesting!
I am located in southern AL. We feed an excellent quality grass hay (not to stemy and not course but soft with no leaf). But she eats mostly grass and I give her about an 1/8 of a flake at night of the hay. Should I maybe go to Alfalfa? I'm wondering if I should even hay her at all?
I will look into the Tri-amino.
Thanks.

[Go Fish]

This is common after weaning. All of mine look like crap with funky-looking bellies after weaning. If I'm taking foals to an inspection, I carefully plan weaning. If the inspection is in the fall, I will wean an early foal, giving me several months to get past the "fuglies." You need at least that long. If the foal is born later in the year, I will leave them on the mare until after the inspection.

[Wraper2]

From what I've read, it's not the percentage/amount of protein, it's the quality that's important. If it's poor quality, then you have a problem with it not being absorbed correctly and causing that look (as the previous poster mentioned with coarse hay). It has to do with the lignin content of hay if I remember correctly what Tamara has told me.

Would you see this in just one horse out of a herd of 6? I have one that came as a 'rescue' 3 years ago(4yr old). Had her preg checked it was so big. She is now in good weight, feacl checked and dewormed every way the vet could think of. Still looks ready to foal any second. None of the others look this way, including one that was 'rescued' at the same time from the same place and same age.

[jaimebaker]

Would you see this in just one horse out of a herd of 6? I have one that came as a 'rescue' 3 years ago(4yr old). Had her preg checked it was so big. She is now in good weight, feacl checked and dewormed every way the vet could think of. Still looks ready to foal any second. None of the others look this way, including one that was 'rescued' at the same time from the same place and same age.

Funny you should ask since this IS one horse out of 6.:lol: It's a gelding who is in a pasture with my stallion. The stallion doesn't look like that. The gelding not only looked pregnant, but his back was sinking. And I'm talking the horse wasn't fat ANYWHERE else. No fat pads, no nothing. Nice thin neck, and smooth rearend with no fat pads, but just this ginormous belly. I have come to think that possibly it's something with the geldings genetics that cause him to not properly utilize the proteins as well. That might be far fetched but I own his dam and owned his sire. The sire was morbidly obese when I got him. The mare always had a bit of a pot belly too. Her belly lifted with just straight lysine fairly well (I sold the sire years ago). So obviously the mare was having issues utilizing her protein too. And this guy REALLY turned around in less than a month on the Tri-Amino when he never quite responded to the straight lysine. He wasn't real fond of the taste so I started out with 1/5 of the recommended dose. Every week I gave him a little bit more. So, after 3 weeks he was finally on the full recommended dose and even by then I'd seen changes happening. My horses barely get 2 cups of soaked beet pulp and their vitamins. They are out on crap pasture 24/7 and are easy keeping Arabs.

I'm about to put all 6 of mine on the Tri-Amino because I am so happy with it. I've had the stallion on it as long as the gelding, and his back muscles began to fill in, but other than that, not much else. So as with everything, it will depend on the horse as to if it will help or not. Some of my horses respond great to certain things and others do not. And most of my herd is related so it's not genetics with everything.