need self care board advice, moved my horse bc he got hurt

[magoobear]

Hi everyone, I have not been on here in a long time. I recently got my horse out of a full care boarding barn when the conditions there deteriorated at an alarming speed, first they started feeding round bales to a group that has only been on full pasture board together, my horse was bossy about the hay pile in a group of 5 older horses (in a FLAT pasture) without telling me they moved him into a completely different herd up on a steep mountain pasture. Its currently icing up just below the surface, its nov in CT. They were also round bale fed, needless to say 3 days later my horse is dead lame upon walking out of his stall in the early morning. They called to inform me, when I got there 20 mins later there was dried blood down his right hind leg and a very small 1/2" wound right between the hock and the knee on the more cranial side. This was on thanksgiving morning, he was three legged lame, able to walk slowly out and I put him in a private paddock, he made decent improvement with basic wound care and bute, kept him separate from the other horses for 5 days. I made the decision to move him to a self care board at a closer barn that came avail and moved him by trailer yesterday, he was not good about getting on the trailer so we took our time.. he had jumped sideways a bit, at this point 5 days out from his injury he could even trot in hand without major lameness, now upon seeing him three times today he is dead lame now. Im so happy to be taking care of my boy and got him out of what would of been a very dangerous situation for him. I cant believe how quickly they had made these absolute MAJOR changes at their barn. Poor management could of easily gotten my horse a fractured leg or worse. Vet comes out tomorrow morning first thing now that he literally cant walk on that leg now. I literally saved his life for a second time...
The next part of this is I have never done self care board before and need advice on how much hay and grain this boy should be getting. He's 20 years young, ottb, 16' hands and a stocky build but also is a true narrow fit for an english saddle, I cant begin to guess at his weight, hes nicely filled out at the moment and Id like to have him stay that way. he's not a true hard keeper but just about. I have him on nutrena performance grain I have a 2 cup scoop and started giving 2 and a 1/2 of those at a meal twice a day. two flakes of hay twice a day and hes on stall rest for now but will have some grass avail to him when hes out. Im very happy that I got him out of that place so quickly, I just needed to take care of my boy myself.
If I didnt mention it yet Ive been on the phone with the vet about all this, shes coming first thing in the morning and upped his dose of bute already. Im a vet tech and an EMT, massage therapist too so with all that round about medical experience hes pretty well cared for. okay so phew... how much grain and hay does he need?? and while on stall rest? hes in only light work when hes 100%

[ZenRider]

The amount of grain you feed him will both depend on the type of grain you feed and how much hay you feed a horse. If your two cups cup is really two kitchen cups, probably not enough, but really can't say for sure. So is it the Safechoice/Performance on their website? Most feeds are adjusted by the weight of the feed and it should have a recommended weight of feed to weight of the horse when healthy and at proper weight. Of course, this is adjusted further by the actual horse itself, changes in the amount of work the horse is in, etc., but a good guideline to start with.

Hard place to treat, but if there is anyway to do some wraps with Animalintex, that stuff is great for drawing any crap that might be in the wound. Best if you can rewrap twice a day for the first three/four days then once a day for a few more, until the wound looks pretty clean. Make sure to use prepare it as directed from the instruction. Furozone is still one of the best things to wrap with afterwards, making sure to hose off all the poultice first and dry. Lots of people like Vetricin, but I like that more for more minor things. Sadly, if one wants the best outcome, it's a lot of work on our end to make it happen.

If your vet is coming out she'd be a great person to help you adjust his feed. And likely will do a better job then we can.

As for the other boarding place, their largest error was being naive on top of cheap thinking they can only put one round bale out for a herd of horses. Someone will always get left out and/or beat up, no matter how they rotate the horses.

Jingles, and best of luck and healing for your horse.

[magoobear]

He's still about the same this morning, thou he looks well rested. He is certainly happy that I'm now taking care if him.
Vet will be out in an hour , I'll let ya know what she thinks

[magoobear]

Well, xrays showed no fractures, he does have arthritis in his stifle but that's due to age I believe. We found a small pocket of pus in the1/2" wound so cleaned fflushed did AB inj antibiotics to use , a culture on it and more bute

[magoobear]

He's improving quickly now, thankfully, he let me flush his wound easily today. With a huge syringe and catheter tip he trusted me, he absolutely saw it too... didn't even budge what a brave good boy he is

[magoobear]

It was poor management on their part, I hope they'll learn something from this. My vet willed with feeding guidelines. Hay stretcher always helped him.. that being said done in the short term and not ever limiting his hay.. my barn owner tends to take it out of the field which I don't appreciate, I need to see how much he's eating right now and adjust to that . What's the most hay that they can possibly eat??

[numerologist]

What type of hay are you feeding? My understanding is that if it is decent quality grass hay, they can't overeat. However, if it has a lot of alfalfa, you could get into trouble with overfeeding. If he is still on stall rest, you might want to use a hay net with small openings - it keeps them occupied for a longer time, since they have to work to get at the hay. Good luck!

[magoobear]

He's now off of stall rest, he's out and about. Tomorrow though its gonna rain and be gross out. So I may keep him in for that .. not sure yet. I had gotten the timothy blend from Agway. I had to get hay asap
He's doing very well now, antibiotics are amazing stuff

[ZenRider]

Glad to hear he's doing better.