Happy Holidays!

Lola and Santa Are Hoping That You Are

'Feeding Your Passion'

This Holiday Season.

Brrr....It's A Frozen Tundra Out There!

Well, the last month as been just lovely in the terms of weather but I can assure you that Lola is handling it very well!! Her and JD have been making very good use out of their shelter and they both have the feed routine down as to which station they need to go into! Lola on the left and JD on the right! Sometimes though you have to watch JD because he will like to be sneaky and pop on over to Lola's and get some Strategy!

Oh, that is the other change over the last month! Lola is now on Strategy rather than Equine Senior! The transition to all Strategy took about 10 days and was completed right before I took off to Florida; this helped make feeding time much simpler for the folks and Danyn while I was away. Oh and in case you were wondering Florida was just fabulous, I apologize for not bringing the nice weather home with me as a souvenir! Anyways, Lola's feeding plan is now 8lbs of Strategy with 15+ lbs of hay a day. How does this compare to the 8lbs of Equine Senior? Well, though our volume of feed is still the same the calories we are providing is not! On 8lbs of Equine Senior Lola was being provided a total of 9,800 kcals versus 8lbs of Strategy that supplies a total of 12,000 kcals!! WOW...go ahead say it...WOW! That is a difference of 2,200 kcals! Remember that we started Lola on Equine Senior because of the high quality roughage sources to get her gut movin' and groovin' again but once we had her up in weight it was necessary to move to a feed that was more calories dense, like Strategy. Eventually, we will begin to slowly decease the volume of Strategy because as she gets to weight it will not be necessary to provide that many calories a day otherwise we will make her fat (obese) and a fat horse is just as unhealthy and can be prone to some equine metabolic diseases. Our goal is to maintain Lola's weight so she is at a body condition score of 5 to 6. Right now Lola is sitting at about a 4. I suspect in early to mid February we will begin to decrease the amount of Strategy to 6 lbs and at maintenance in March she will receive about 4 lbs of Strategy per day.

You maybe wondering why we would not decrease the amount of Strategy to maintenance in January or February if she is up to an ideal body condition by that time. Well, it is winter and it is darn cold out there!! Karen E. Davidson, Ph.D for Purina Mills informs us that all animals have a critical temperature, this is the temperature at which the animal has to produce additional heat in order to maintain their normal body temperature. In horses, at adequate weight with their winter coat, the critical temperature is about 15 degrees F. However, if the horse is young, thin, or did not develop a winter coat the critical temperature can go up to 40 degrees F!!! The critical temperature can also be increased if it is wet and windy outside. So how much more do we have to feed if we drop below the critical temperature? According to Dr. Davidson horses can require up to 15 to 20% more calories per day in order to produce the extra body heat needed! Take Lola as an example. Right now our goal is to feed about 20,000 kcals per day but if we need to feed 15% more calories per day because we dropped below the critical temperature our total daily requirement would be...23,000 kcals!! This is why we will continue to feed a higher volume of Strategy through out the winter because it has a higher energy density and will help provide those extra calories we need. Plus Lola will continue to get larger amounts of hay. The digestion of the hay will also help produce extra internal heat in the animal! To read more from Karen E. Davidson Ph.D about winter care go to: Horse: Purina Mills

Happy Holidays!

More "construction", a roomate, & an abscess!!

Well, its been an interesting two weeks at the Kotz Hotel. There have been many changes for Lola and she has been handling it well. First change came a week ago when four loads of lime were put into Lola's pen!! My Dad had some lime delivered so we could help control the mud issue. Thanks goes to Joe Boge for helping with moving the lime with his skid loader! Always appreciate your neighbors! The next change came when JD returned home after an extended stay at the "Moore Retirement Pasture". We decided the put JD with Lola because each one of them needs special feeding arrangements and it would make chores much simpler having both horses separated off from the rest. Plus it gives Lola a companion and with the cold winter approaching it will be good for the both of them! So let me tell you about JD....

JD is a 30 something grade horse that has been in our family for over 10 years. We purchased him from the Herbst family and he was my horse for many years. I showed him in 4H and local shows, attempted to ride him in western pleasure (head set was way to high), and even tried to run a few barrels...JD is not very fast. He was a great trail horse though and did great in parades. I eventually moved from JD to Buddy and then to Hank! JD has been a great family horse and has given many pony rides to not only kids but also adults. In July I received a call from a family friend of ours, Tammy Moore, and unfortunately one of their horses had passed away and their other horse, Smokey, was very upset, so I offered to Tammy JD to be a companion for Smokey for as long as they needed. JD went to the Moore Retirement Pasture and really enjoyed himself but the day did come that JD had to return home. Now he is a companion for Lola!

When we put JD in with Lola at first he really didn't care and to be honest wasn't too happy. He kept pacing up and down the fence like he wanted to get back out in the pasture with the rest of the horses but eventually he settled down. Though Lola and him are not the best of friends and I think there is a mutal understanding between the two that they just stay out of each others way. The same weekend we put JD in with Lola we made two feeding stantions that would allow the horse to walk in and eat with out the other horse pushing them out of the way. This helps us in feeding and being sure that each animal is getting the feed that they need. Lola's feeding program is similar to JD's. Lola gets six pounds of Equine Senior and a pound and half of Strategy with two pounds of Amplify per day. Where as JD's feeding program is eight pounds of SOAKED Equine Senior per day. JD's feed is soaked to help him better eat since he does not have many teeth.

Now to the abscess. As many of you know we have been dealing with this abscess for some time now and I have good news...it finally blew! Tim McDermott came out and took out part of it up in the toe one day but the abscesss actually then moved back to the heel where we were encouraged by Dr. Beecher and Tim to continuing soaking the foot in Epsom Salt and warm water. Plus Dr. Beecher had us put a Davis Boot on rather than just using the duct tape to keep the hoof covered. Last Monday the abscess let go and you could tell immediately! Lola began to walk around much better and we are back on the road to recovery!

If you would like to see more pictures of Lola and her time at the Kotz Hotel you may become a fan of Three Rivers Town & Country Store on Facebook and check out the photo albums.

Lola's Feeding Plan and Her 'New House'

It was another good week for Lola...she had more visitors, she is at her full feeding rate of Equine Senior, and she has a 'new house'! We did have a couple bad marks this week though. First, we discovered that Lola has some bad manners that need to be taken care of ASAP and she has become a kicker. Get well notes can be sent to Danyn for taking one in the hip! My dad needs a congrats for dodging a hoof while cleaning out the stall. We are now beginning some ground work and teaching manners to Lola because that type of behavior will not be tolerated. Our other bad mark of the week was a small case of thrush. Thanks goes to Danyn for coming out to help me clean out the hoof and treat it. Lola's hoof is doing much better now after another 5 days of stall rest. (Source: 'Fast Facts' http://www.thehorse.com/pdf/factsheets/thrush/thrush.pdf)

Lola's Feeding Program
Currently, Lola is being fed 8 lbs of Equine Senior (4 lbs in the AM an 4 lbs in the PM) plus she is getting hay 3x/day. Equine Senior is a forage based feed that will can be used as a complete feed, which means hay doesn't have to be fed with it), or as part of a feeding program with hay. Because Lola was severally malnourished it was important to begin her feeding program very slowly and work on getting her gut moving again, with Equine Senior we can do this because of the quality sources of forage that is included in it. For example, under normal conditions a person can change a horse's diet over a period of 7 to 10 days; in Lola's case it took us 30 days to reach a full feeding rate! Obviously, the goal to feeding Lola is to not only provide the nutrients she needs such as protein, vitamins, and minerals but to also provide enough calories for weight gain. To add weight to a horse, or to anything for that matter, we need to feed enough calories to EXCEED maintenance. With Lola's feeding program we are doing just this...we are not only meeting her maintenance caloric needs but we are exceeding them. Eventually, we will wean Lola off the Equine Senior and switch her to Purina Strategy. Strategy will be a wonderful fit for her once she begins to add a little more weight. But we have to talk about that feeding program at a later date!! At the moment the good majority of the calories is being provided by forage (hay and in Equine Senior). This week we are going to start adding in Amplify, a 30% fat nugget, at 1/4 lb per day and slowly increase that amount until we get about 2 lb of Amplify per day. Amplify will provide another source of calories...FAT! To learn more about Amplify visit: http://horse.purinamills.com

Lola's New House
It was a busy day at the Kotz Hotel on Saturday, October 24...well at least so I've been told; I was actually out of town judging at the Block & Bridle LNA Show in Ames. The construction project has been in the works for a few weeks now. Dad and I knew that Lola has not been very happy in her stall, and a good indication of that fact was when she dumped about 8 gallons of water in her stall! Dad and I have been talking about how we needed to build a shelter in the dry lot for her so that way she could take cover when the wind picked up or the rain came down but she would still have the opportunity to head back out when the sun decides to peak out. Dad had throwen out a few differnt ideas for shelters that we could do and one evening when he was talking to a friend of ours, Kenny Bergfeld, the two of them discussed options. Kenny told my dad about the shelters he has built and that they were reasonable in price. Best part it that it could be on skids and be portable! Just what my Dad and I wanted! So Dad and Kenny talked and a date was set. On Saturday morning a big blue Dodge pulled into Lola's dry lot and it was full of materials and supplies to build a new shelter for Lola. Kenny Bergfeld stepped out of the Dodge like a modern day John Wayne, but instead of a six-shooter he was packing a nail gun. When Dad heard the Dodge pull in he stepped out of the house with the utility belt fastened and circular saw in hand, he peered out over the deck to the dry lot with a gaze like Clint Eastwood...The two men were ready to work! Luckily there would be two strong, intelligent woman (Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane type women!) to keep them inline and moving through out the day! These woman are known as Janell Kotz and Hannah Bergfeld. Ok maybe it really didn't happen that way but it sounded good right?

So, the construction crew consisted of four people: Dad, Kenny, Kenny's daughter Hannah, and my Mother....Mom was a very integral part of the day making numerous trips to Menards as she dealt with a very uninterested employee in her pursuit to find a 12-foot board, and she also made an extremely important run to Rhody's Food & Spirits to ensure the other team members were well fed with delicious, warm burgers. Plus you will also not notice my Mother in any of the pictures because she was always the one behind the camera....this seems to happen a lot....but we do appreciate her for all the great photos we have. The construction crew worked hard through out the day building the frame, setting it up, and putting the tin on. From what I've been told by my Mom our Clint Eastwood (Dad) and John Wayne (Kenny) were even having nail hitting contests to see how many swings it would take each one of them to get the nail in....At one point during the day Jane McCall stopped by to check on the construction! She was happy to see the construction taking place and that Lola would have a shelter out in the dry lot so she wouldn't have to be in the stall all the time. After many hours the project was finished and the final product looks amazing! The shelter is going to be perfect for the winter because it will allow Lola to stay out in the dry lot for the majority of the winter days! It should be noted though that we did have one minor accident though...Kenny had a minor run in with some boards and his cheek seems to have lost the battle...no guts no glory I guess!

To see more photos of Lola and the construction project visit us on our Facebook Fan Page! There is a link in the left hand navigation for your clicking and searching convenience!

Lola Goes to the Dentist

Hello Everyone!

Yes, I know this blog is running a little late behind schedule....I do apologize. Hopefully everyone has been enjoying Lola's twitter updates as well. Well, Lola has had only a few adventures over the last two weeks. We had a few visitors from Fran Minnaert from Purina, Aunt Jodi and Auntie Danyn, to my Uncle Karl and his daughter Lauren, and we even made a new friend, Mrs. Smith! Mrs. Smith was a passerby that had noticed Lola a few different times and admired her as they drove by in her car but on a Sunday afternoon my father and I were out by Lola and Mrs. Smith happened to drive by at just the right time. She stopped and introduced herself and told us how she has loved horses since she was a small child. She petted Lola and talked to her a bit. Before she left Mrs. Smith was very generous and provided us with a donation to help with the care of Lola. Thank you to Mrs. Smith because through her support we were able to purchase another mat for Lola!

By far the biggest adventure for our foster horse was her visit with the dentist! That's right a dentist for horses! Horse's teeth are unique and require regular examinations by a veterinarian to ensure that there are no abnormalities that could cause abnormal chewing patterns, bit discomfort, excessive wear and premature loss of teeth.

FYI: Horse's have two sections of their teeth, the incisors (in the front) and cheek teeth (in the back). Between these two sections is a large space. The incisors, found in the front of the horse's mouth, are used for grasping and tearing food where as the cheek teeth, the premolars and molars, are responsible for grinding the food. The horse's teeth are constantly erupting out of the gums as they age...this is why many horse people will check the horse's mouth to help determine it's age! Below is a diagram that show how a horse's teeth changes over time (Information Source: "Understanding Your Horse's Teeth" Manuel G. Himens Jr. DVM. ) (Image Source: http://www.thinklikeahorse.org/age_horse_teeth.jpg)

As humans, we usually chew in an up and down fashion but horses are not the same, they chew in a circular motion, which can cause some abnormal wear patterns. Some common abnormalities include: hooks, ramps, waves, and points.

• Hooks: (caudal) "Dominant lower or upper last molar overhanging opposing molar." (rostral) "Dominant upper front premolars overhang lower premolars."
• Ramps: "Excessive height to lower front premolars."
• Wave: "Molar arcade develops an uneven 'wavelike' appearance generally involving many premoloars and molars."
• Points: "Sharp points that generally form on the outside of the upper molars and the inside of the lower molars."

(Information Source: "Common Equine Dental Malocclusions" Advanced Equine Dentistry. Thomas J. Johnson DVM .)

Due to these abnormal wear patterns it is important to have a horse's teeth checked at least annually by a veterinarian and if needed the animal's teeth may need to be floated. Floating a horse's teeth is almost like filing your nails. Most veterinarians today use a powered file to fix abnormalities in the teeth.

On Monday, October 12 Dr. Christine Woodford came to visit Lola and check out her teeth. After inspection we noticed that Lola had a slight wave and some hooks that needed to be fixed.

(Above: Lola's teeth before. Notice the hooks on first premolars on both sides.)











(The pictures above are of Dr. Woodford floating Lola's teeth.)


(The picture on the left is a side by side comparison of the difference between the two premolars. The premolar on the left has not yet been fixed and the premolar on the right has been fixed. Notice the difference! The picture on the left is the final picture when Dr. Woodford finished.)






Thanks goes to Dr. Christine Woodford from Veterinary Integrative Performance Services (VIP's) for donating her services to float Lola's teeth. www.vipsvet.net

Week One

Well, we have come to a close on our first week with Lola! It has been a pretty busy week for us at the Kotz Hotel with many visitors for Lola. Dr. Beecher came by one day to give her the vaccinations that she needed, some friends and family helped to feed her through out the week, she had a photo shoot for the TH, was put into a chute to be weighed, and had some visitors just stop by to say 'Hello'.

(Pictured to the right: Jaime Nedved came out to visit Lola!)

TH Article
On Tuesday I received a call from the Photo Editor at the Telegraph Herald (a local newspaper in Dubuque) and they had heard about Lola from Jane McCall when she had put out a press release about the horse last week. The Editor told me that they were interested in interviewing me and taking photos of Lola that day! A journalist soon called me and asked some general questions about Lola and my thoughts about her....what is she being fed, how much is she being fed, what should she weigh, what did I think when I saw her, ect...Then around noon that day another young lady came out and took many pictures of Lola from her eating to her standing next to another one of our horses to show a comparison shot...wow, what a difference between the two animals! After everything was done they told me that the article was supposed to be published the next day! What a quick turn around! If you would like to read the article yourself go to: http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=258329

Weighing - In
Last week my boss, Dale Hefel, suggested that we use the company's digital scale to weigh Lola through out the process so that way we have exact weights and can accuratly monitor her recovery. What a great idea! Only one small problem...where to store it at the house? The scale as to be set back up on the trailer each time to that it doesn't ruin the weigh bars....thus the idea was formed that every two to three weeks we will take the scale to Lola and weigh her. At first we wanted to trailer Lola out to the store and leave the scale set up in the warehouse but I thought that would be too much stress on Lola at this point to be trailering her off the property that much. Well, on Tuesday of this week Willie Waters loaded up the scale with the truck and hauled the scale over to Siepple Road! When he got their I had Lola ready in her halter, the scale was set up and she loaded onto it like a dream! Now, take a guess at what she weighed....I know I couldn't believe it....Lola weighed 750 lbs! WOW, I didn't expect her to weigh that much! I suspect that our goal weight will be close to 1,000 lbs.

Feeding's
There have been a few volunteers that have helped with Lola over the last week...Many thanks to: Grandma Kotz, Danyn Maroney, and Lauren Kotz. We really appreciate you're help and I'm sure this won't be the last time you are thanked. I do have to laugh because when it was my grandma's turn to feed her she called me and said, "Well, I just pulled in to feed Lola and she is looking at me awfully expectantly!" Let me tell you, Lola is very used to being fed four time a day and she knows what time to expect us! When you come by her area she will knicker and whinny at you and then begin to paw at the ground like she was saying, "Hurry your butt up!!!"

(Pictured: Lauren feeding Lola)

Our feeding rates have also been slowly increasing over the week and we are currently up to 2 1/2 lbs of Equine Senior per day! Tomorrow, I plan on increasing her evening feeding by a half a pound, which will put us up to a 3 lb feeding rate. As you can imagine we are still a ways away from reaching our feeding goal! Our end feeding goal will be 10 lbs of Equine Senior per day. Eventually we will begin to switch Lola to Strategy but until we get her gut going again and she has added weight we will not make the switch. However, to help provide extra calories I plan on adding Purina Amplify into the diet at 2 lbs per day once we get her closer to our goal feeding rate of Equine Senior.

One thing I do have to add is that we ask that when you drive by Lola's home you don't stop and treat her with any food. I know it maybe tempting to give her a treat but we promise you that she is being well taken care of. Right now she is on a very strict feeding schedule and we encourage you to just admire her and watch her as she goes down the road of recovery.

See you next week!

Katie Kotz
Equine & Lifestyle Specialist
Three Rivers Town & Country