Only a horse owner knows how tedious or cumbersome it is to maintain a horse and keep it healthy, strong, active as well as disease-free. It really requires great efforts to keep a horse in good health for which the horse owner must choose the best suitable and balanced diet for the healthy living and growth of the horse.
Horses must be provided good nutrition as malnutrition can cause so many health complications for them and proper medication when horses catch some disease.
Common ailments among horses
Most commonly, horses suffer from:
- Gastro-Intestinal disorders like Indigestion, Dyspepsia, Hyperacidity, Gastric Ulcers, or even insulin imbalance
- Parasitic i.e., Worm Infestation
- Dental issues- caused largely due to lack of adequate dental care and hygiene that may result in loss of inability to chew food properly causing indigestion and other GI disorders as well as weight loss.
Mature and older horses usually suffer from missing or losing teeth, hooks, waves and other malformations due to uneven wear pose hindrances inefficient chewing of food.
Besides the above broken, cracked, or infected teeth can cause pain in jaws making chewing difficult that warrants horse owners to visit a veterinarian for a routine dental check-up at regular intervals.
- Overweight i.e. obesity – occurs largely due to overfeeding is the main reason for equine obesity and may cause metabolic disorders or problems due to metabolic syndrome causing insulin imbalance, ulcers, colic, or laminitis.
Overfeeding among young horses or foals may also cause rapid growth joint malformation and joint malfunctioning as the horse grows.
- Underweight – can be due to improper feeding, malnutrition, or diseases that may lead to so many complications like lack of energy, weakness, low performance, and low immunity which can be an open invitation to diseases among horses.
Other factors that may affect the health and behavior of horses can be:
- Environmental – like excessive heat and cold can cause health problems. Usually, horses need more calories to stay warm in cold weather and need to be protected from cold weather whereas extreme heat can result in losing interest in food. The living area should be free from mosquitoes, flies biting flies, etc. to avoid problems among horses
- Social changes – Social hierarchies development is often seen commonly in hoses kept in stable herds that causes behavioral changes
- Lack of water – extremely essential for equine health and needs to be kept well hydrated. Dehydration can cause impaction colic and hence need to have sufficient intake of normal clean water twice or thrice a day.
- Inadequate salt intake – may lead to electrolyte imbalance and hence adequate amounts of salt are to be given to horses. Usually, horses are able to self-regulate with a salt block in their stall or pasture.
The diseases of horses need medications and dosages are given as per the body weight and dosage calculator for horses.
How to calculate dosage?
Normally, veterinarians are capable of estimating yet you can know exact dosage using formula i.e.
Weight of Horse X Dose Rate = amount of drug to give divided by Concentration (mg/ml or mg/pill or paste)
However, instead of calculating manually, you may calculate using dosage calculator for horses.
Should you more information about horse foods and dosage calculator for horses, contact BAROSTAC – The horse people is a registered trademark of Ridley Agri Products
