It is always advisable to call for veterinary assistance whenever a change in health occurs and always if it is sudden no matter what. And if you aren’t already doing so send a dung sample for faecal egg count analysis. The vet will administer drugs to treat the disease diagnosed which you might find will be all that is needed to enable the horse to quickly return to optimum health.
If however you feel you need to treat the horse in addition to treating the disease the following brief notes will be of help when encountering everyday ‘off form circumstances’.
It is not always easy to pinpoint what exactly has gone wrong, all you do know is your horse’s condition & performance has dropped off. You will get clues from a blood test if it has been taken and you will run through a whole series of circumstances and situations which may well have led to the problem occurring. But whatever, you have got to do something about it and the quicker the better. For the longer you accept a poor situation the poorer it becomes.
Drops in performance, willingness, attitude and general health maybe so infrequent that you never quite get practiced at handling it even if you have more than one horse, but at Trinity Consultants such problems are everyday occurrences and out of necessity over the years we have developed a number of programs to cope.
Amongst the most common are the following scenarios besetting horses;
· Not quite so keen, still going through the motions, but just that! Possibly a little swelling here and there which goes down but you do notice them. Maybe not quite so eager, almost giving the impression that the horse is more happy to finish work than to start it. Appetite ok but possibly not quite so keen. Hard to put your finger on but you know things could be better.
· Solution: Feed L94 for ten days as an ‘over-feed’ mixed in with the regular feed.
· Definitely something, certainly not on ‘top C’. Not so happy tacking up and may also be a little sensitive to touch in some places. Definitely a little lack luster and noticeable if in active training. Not necessarily short going forward but no longer fluid in movement. Muscles a bit tight and nothing in the eye.
· Solution: Feed L94 for ten days and on day 5 introduce Hydrobase for the next 20 days.
· No presence at all. Definitely poor, really taking a lot of urging and fillings if occurring are not going down. Appetite is erratic and coat not as nice, more of a coarseness to the hair if rubbed between the finger and thumb. If bloods were taken it show levels outside normal parameters often low red or white blood cells, certainly more worrying, possible changes in dung or droppings.
· Solution: Feed L94 for ten days and RaceBack for at least 14 days. On day 10 when L94 has finished continue with Hydrobase L.
· This is not the first time this has happened. Indeed it appears to be occurring more often that you’d like.
· Solution: In addition to the first 3 solutions feed TPGS-5 at two teaspoon-fulls per day and consider changing to the multi-purpose balancer EquiNourish.