Nutritional Management and Feeding of Sick and Hospitalized Horses

When a horse arrives at a veterinary hospital, several nutritional or feeding challenges may be encountered. Feeding programs should aim to avoid weight loss, unless it is required for a specific condition (e.g., equine metabolic syndrome). Negative energy balance can lead changed intestinal microbiota, reduced immunity, and increased incisional complications. Some horses with peracute or chronic disease can lose substantial amounts of body weight, and these horses need to be in positive energy balance to gain weight during recovery.

Determining how much to feed a horse in the hospital milieu is one of the first challenges, and this will depend on not only the medical reason for the admission but also age, size, metabolism, and other health concerns. Some hospitals choose to consult with an equine nutritionist to help formulate appropriate diets for patients.

Decreased appetite or anorexia can be a problem among hospitalized horses, which can lead to rapid weight loss, especially in cases of sepsis, pleuropneumonia, or bacterial infections. Improving appetite, therefore, becomes a priority for hospital staff, and this is achieved through treatment of the primary health problem and the provision of tempting feedstuffs, such as fresh grass or leafy, high-quality lucerne. In ideal circumstances, hospitalized horses should be offered feeds similar to those fed at home; however, it is often necessary to provide a variety of feedstuffs to encourage intake.

Colic remains a leading cause of hospitalization among horses. Nutritional support for colic cases hinges largely on the type of colic diagnosed, with diets depending on the anatomical region of the problem: small intestine, large intestine, or specifically the right dorsal colon. Horses with liver and kidney disease also have specific nutritional needs.

This was first published in the Proceedings of the Bain-Fallon Memorial Conference, 2017.

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