Galaxy Update!
I’d love to be able to give you a really detailed update on progress with Galaxy.
Unfortunately though, with the scoping that was planned last week now postponed until ‘sometime in the future’ due to COVID restrictions, I can only give you an update on what I can ‘see’ from the outside.
Galaxy in all seems to be doing well
She is eating like a normal horse now, head in her feed bin and contentedly finishes her feeds.
For a few weeks now I haven’t seen her walk away from the feed bin and come back once (where when she first arrived she would do this repeatedly and often not finish her feed for hours).
She has also integrated well into my little herd. She and Spotty were a bit at odds with one another but this seems to have settled and they are happy to graze alongside one another now.
Galaxy LOVES Poet and is often standing so close she is touching him… makes me wonder if this will be a part of her healing process, this close company of a small herd of horses.
She grazes well now too. When she first arrived she would often just stand and stare off into the distance. Now she grazes more often than my horses (which I have to say is quite the achievement!).
She is a quirky little thing. And she definitely has a more anxious temperament than the other 3.
If there is something slightly unusual happening she will be the one paying the most attention (this may be because she is still newish, time will tell). And when we take one or more of her mates out to be ridden she is at the fence calling for them.
This ‘anxiety’ for want of a better term possibly has something to do with her being prone to ulceration. Will be interesting to see if it settles more over time. For the most part though she is a happy pony, and you honestly wouldn’t know she has (or at least had) severe ulceration.
I did brush her for the first time last week!
She was eating her lucerne hay, relaxed, no halter (which Felicity Davies pointed out may have removed her usual triggers for a negative reaction to being brushed… i.e. that she wasn’t anxious about being girthed up and ridden). She accepted the brush quite happily all over her near/left side. This hopefully is a good sign!
Her same diet continues
Grain free balancer, buffering gut supplement with amino acid support, full fat soybean, vitamin C and lots of lucerne as well as free access to grazing (which currently is a mix of 90% dead old native grass and 10% lush green cool season grasses).
I have added 40 ml/day of sunflower oil and will build this up slowly over time. I wasn’t able to find corn oil, so I chose sunflower as it has an equally high omega 6 content… if that freaks anyone out and you are thinking wouldn’t you feed a less inflammatory oil high in omega 3, I agree it does sound and feel very counterintuitive to feed a high omega 6 oil. But it seems the omega 6 and the proinflammatory cytokines it gives rise to are important for the healing of ulcers… I plan to review the data around this in more detail as soon as I get the time!
Next moves…
My next move with her diet will be to incorporate very small amounts of additional fibres with copra meal and beet pulp going into her feed and Rhodes grass hay fed with lucerne hay in the afternoons. I want to support her hindgut microbiota as much as possible. We sometimes forget that the gastrointestinal tract is all joined together. So while her immediate issue is in the stomach, promoting the best possible hindgut health is also a priority.
So far I am happy with her outward progress, but I am dying to see what is actually in her stomach! This process is teaching me patience!!
Until next time, love from Galaxy!
Xx
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