How to Safely Refeed the Malnourished Horse

also have catastrophic health effects for the starved horse.
What Should the Horse be Fed?
The safest and most effective way to initiate the safe refeeding of the malnourished horse is to offer it multiple small feeds per day of a good quality alfalfa or grassalfalfa mix hay. Alfalfa hay delivers a safe source of protein and hind gutfriendly fibre for energy. The goal should be to offer meals of about one to oneandahalf pounds of hay at intervals of three to four hours for the first few days. Avoid concentrates like grain initially. Starved horses often have compromised endocrine function and so may not cope well with the blood glucose and insulin swings generated by starch and sugar. Dont worry about including mineral supplements until after at least the first ten days of refeeding the horse. A salt block can be offered free choice along with freechoice water. It is advisable to offer water in a bucket rather than automatic waterers initially to allow intake to be monitored.
When the horse is progressing satisfactorily on this regime for three to five days then it is safe to increase meal size and reduce the number of meals being fed. Horses that successfully make it to ten days on a feeding regime like this are at much less risk of developing refeeding syndrome. After ten days it is safe to introduce small amounts of low nonstructural carbohydrate NSC complete feeds again keeping the meal sizes very small. Any manufactured feeds introduced should complement the hay intake of the horse not replace it. Most horses who have been in a refeeding program for at least ten days can safely eat about onehalf a pound of commercial complete feed fed twice a day. This can be increased gradually as needed.