Nutrition for Rehabilitating the Starved Horse

It is difficult to comprehend the longterm neglect and surrounding situations that produce such a devastated depressed creature as a starved horse. The bones are so prominent that the skeleton appears to belong to a larger horse the head is disproportionately large compared with the body and the tail is always low and motionless.
But the low hanging head tells it all. The ears barely move to any sounds in the environment no extra energy is spent interacting with herd mates. The eyes are dull without expression without expectations.

Malnourished and poorly cared for horses can be found even in countries of relative wealth such as Canada and the United States. In fact the problem of neglected horses in these countries has worsened in recent years and reflects the growing number of horses that are no longer wanted or needed or whose owners are no longer capable of providing care for them physically or financially. The degree of worsening could be related to both the global recession that has created economic hardship for many horse owners and the simultaneous closure of U S. equine slaughter facilities in 2007. During the previous decade these slaughter plants had processed approximately 68000 horses per year.
It is estimated that approximately 100000 horses per year in the United States alone are categorized as unwanted. Unwanted horses range from being normal healthy horses of varying ages and breeds to horses with some type of disability or infirmity horses that are unattractive horses that fail to meet their owners expectations for their intended use e g. athletic ability horses with nonlifethreatening diseases horses with behavioural problems or horses that are dangerous.
A relatively small number of these horses end up in a rescue or sanctuary facility where they can be rehabilitated and rehomed. As might be expected for horses that are relinquished to nonprofit facilities poor body condition is apparent in many of the horses with a number of them considered emaciated very thin or thin.
In humans suffering from starvation caused by illnesses such as anorexia cancer or gastrointestinal obstruction patients can develop refeeding syndrome when they are given concentrated calories which in turn can lead to heart respiratory and kidney failure three to five days after the initial meal. This same syndrome has been reported in the literature for horses. Thus University of California Davis UC Davis researchers have developed a refeeding program for horses that would minimize these