Fresh Eyes

As part of our dental rehab program, Butterball got acupuncture done in early December. He tolerated it waaaayyyyy better than I thought the sensitive soul might. Granted Ben was super sensitive too, but had none of the "OW, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?!?!?" feeling that BB has about needles. 

DH and I had in fact hit some of the face points with his dolphin stim, so we were on the right track. But the hard part about the dolphin stim is you have to keep touching, so they basically can't move their face. The electroacupuncture made that somewhat easier. But the needles for the face are quite short, so they did want to pull out during his treatment. 

His vet commented, and I definitely see it in the pictures above, that he was somewhat poorly muscled all over. She said it was everywhere from his masseter muscles on his jaw to his back to his hind end. She also pointed out some spots of regional adiposity. She told me that there is new info that insulin spikes highest in January, so recommended testing him again. I last did that in September of 2024 and he was at 20, which is the highest spot of the normal range. Pending those results, she recommended either topping his feed with a higher protein dressing or switching him to a low NSC performance feed. If he was in the 20-50 range she recommended trying diet alone, potentially KER brand low NSC, limiting grass, etc. If he was over 50, she recommended one of two pharmaceutical options. 

June, when I think he was actually looking his best 

Since moving to Ms. GY's, he has eaten ration balancers of a variety of brands. I think he actually looked his best back when we got the portions right at his old barn, so I messaged that barn owner. He was eating Seminole Equalizer at that point. 

So I went and picked that up. While he ate the rest of his previous ration balancer, I top dressed his food with the Pre-Fuel liquid that EM recommended. It is distinctly NOT Butterball's fave (who really likes the taste of pure amino acids?), but he persists. 

December: A week or two before his vet saw him 

February: I think we're moving in a positive direction. He's got more topline again and, honestly, more weight. I've said it before and I'll say it again, feeding the half-pony is trickier (albeit cheaper) than feeding the thoroughbreds. He is very susceptible to weight swings due to grass, hay, and relatively minor changes in workload. 

Fortunately his insulin results came back well within the normal range at 9! And I feel like he is in fact building topline pretty well now with the grain change. The other change his vet recommended was switching him from Dac Oil to Ahiflower oil. The AI comparison basically mirrors what she said. 

I only just put that one in to play because we had five gallons of Dac Oil to work our way through. It will be hard to assess if this makes a difference because he has really nice dapple genetics and does seem to have adequate insulin control. But the ahiflower oil does seem to check more recommended boxes. 

Anyways, the never ending saga of making sure things are as optimal for the Butterball as possible. But I very much appreciate his vet not just showing up for his coggins, but taking a look at the whole horse and making recommendations. She was the one who pointed out last January that he was standing abnormally after his feet were done; this led to our farrier change and likely saved a whole lot of discomfort for the pony in the long run. 

Current diet: 

• Seminole Equalizer: 1 pound twice daily 
• Purina Outlast: 1.25 cups (0.6 pounds) twice daily; additional serving(s) before a ride or before trailering and then before working after getting off the trailer 
• Ahiflower oil 30mL once daily 
• Coastal grass hay 5-10 pounds per day
• Orchard grass hay 5 pounds per day