Feeding Youngstock
Саман своими руками by Dr Derek Cuddeford, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh The word youngstock is a “catch-all” term that includes fillies, colts and geldings less than three years of age so in order to discuss the feeding of these animals we must consider the period from birth of the foal up to it developing into an adult at three. It is necessary to separate breed types within this grouping of...
A Role for Magnesium?
by Dr Derek Cuddeford, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh Without magnesium (Mg) we and our horses would fall apart because it makes up about 0.05% of body mass which is equivalent to 0.25kg in a 500kg horse. Sixty per cent is located in the skeleton (0.15kg) and without this mineral the bones would collapse. Around 30% is in the muscle and the rest is present in enzymes, blood, etc. Apart from being...
How quality of forage affects quantity of hard feed to be fed
The primary consideration when constructing a suitable diet for a horse is to determine its physiological status. One has to ask the question what is the horse doing; is it at maintenance (idle!), pregnant, lactating, working, undergoing rehabilitation, etc? All of these different situations will affect the animal’s total energy and protein requirements and thus proportionate forage/hard feed needs. Remember that supplying vitamin and...
Feeding the old horse in winter
by Dr Derek Cuddeford, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh Old horses can run out of teeth before they run out of life! Horse teeth continuously grow and they have quite a lot of dental reserve but once this is used up we have a problem horse. Nearing the end of their growth phase the teeth are less well “rooted” and, as a result, teeth may actually fall out. So the first and probably the most critical...
Feeding animals with problem feet
by Dr Derek Cuddeford, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh Everyone knows the old saw “No hoof, no horse”. This is rather misleading as the hooves per se are not solely (no pun intended) responsible for problem feet eg., navicular; there are other issues to consider. There are a number of diseases of the feet including corns, laminitis, sand cracks, navicular, abscesses, white line disease and thrush....
