Morphometric changes in overweight horses following 10-week weight loss programs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Up to 70% of horses in domestic equine populations are overweight. Promotion of weight loss is an important component of limiting the detrimental co-morbidities associated with excess adipose tissue. The use of a body condition score (BCS) can help equine caregivers track their horse's weight-status. However, this single score doesn't reflect changes in individual adipose depots. The purpose of this study was to characterize morphometric changes (including 8 anatomic BCS measurements that make up the whole-BCS) in horses during 3 different weight-loss programs over 10 weeks.

Methods

Thirty-two horses were randomly assigned to one of three weight loss groups [exercise (E; fed to 100% digestible energy (DE) requirements, exercise 5x/week), feed restriction (FR; fed

SUBMITTER: Garland A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12512596 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature