Cold horse, would else could cause?

[Toffee44]

My mare is 16 yrs old this year. Out of work since Nov due to my pregnancy. Full turnout since yard move in April 17. Usually a good doer and struggled to keep her down in the summer. Welsh cob x Hackney worming in date.

Last month or so she dropped off a lot so added coolstance copra to her feed- which helped. Shes currently on hi fi mollasses free half a stubbs, fast fibre 1/3 stubb, coolstance copra 1 coffee mug and turmeric. Shes had ab lib haylage since december.

When she first dropped off I added the copra and upped her rug.

Last week the grooms felt she was cold so we put her HW and MW on. Asked them to leave just her HW on yesterday. But she still felt cold and although covered still a bit ribby for her so we have kept both on for now.

Chriopractor this week anyway
Dentist this week anyway


Am I missing something obvious??

 

[Cecile]

Take her temperature to see how that is?!

 

[Toffee44]

See something obvious I was missing .. will do that tomorrow.

 

[mandyroberts]

I know you said worming in date but I would do a worm count test and then worm covering tape worm and encysted red worm which don't show on worm counts

 

[ihatework]

Sorry for a really obvious question but what is she doing / how are you assessing that she is cold?

A heavy and a middle weight rug on a, not ancient, not working, unclipped horse is pretty excessive. So if she was genuinely cold and has been showing abnormal weight loss you might need to consider vet intervention.

 

[laura_nash]

A heavy and a middle weight rug on a, not ancient, not working, unclipped horse is pretty excessive. So if she was genuinely cold and has been showing abnormal weight loss you might need to consider vet intervention.

I'm afraid I have to agree, the only time I've known non-ancient, unclipped horses on adlib forage get excessively cold it was always due to being in pain.

Is she actually getting the forage, i.e. not being bullied off it?

 

[Cecile]

Is she actually getting the forage, i.e. not being bullied off it?

I have a bully, his theory seems to be is what is yours is mine and what's mine is my own, pecking orders do alter sometimes but its such a shame that the bully doesn't seem to loose weight with all the guarding and trotting around

 

[ester]

I think I'd pull some bloods for her weight dropping off as rapidly as you suggest.

 

[Sukistokes2]

I was also going to suggest a bully horse. Is she getting her fair share of the haylage?

 

[Toffee44]

I have not seen her since last week. Shes on a yard with experienced grooms (full grass livery)

Bloods is something I am considering too :-( spoke to my vet who said unless teeth or chiropractor show anything major she will come out next week.

I have only every wormcounted in summer? Would anything show this time of year?

Shes not lost anymore since introducing the copra but nor have I got her back to normal if that makes sense. Shes in a pair and they share their haylege no problems so shes definitely getting it.

 

[Toffee44]

Thank you I am just twitched on a horse I know really well (8yrs!)

:-( my main worry is she just isn't coping with full turnout. I can’t afford stables in my area.

 

[pansymouse]

My usually tubby mare dropped weight badly about three months ago and it turned she had a high tape worm burden (did a saliva test). After she was wormed I upped her forage massively and she has been steadily been gaining weight since. She is heavier rugs than she has been in the past so she focusses all the calories on gaining weight. I've got over 15 kgs onto her. I feed her conditioning hard feed twice a day and she has 200ml of micronized linseed with each meal. When I took feeding advice I was told that only way to make a real difference was to get good quality forage into her. She has been having 2.5% of weight a day and up to nearly 5% in the snow.

 

[ester]

When was she last wormed? - I'm presuming they either have had, or are due an encysted redworm treatment anyway/do they rely on counts throughout the summer? Yes it would show this time of year.

On work experience I did see a cold, losing condition horse whose owner said it was a completed mystery and they were quite worried, he was hooching with worms.

So I would say definitely worth testing if you can get that sent off.

 

[Toffee44]

Worming at weekend. Her count last summer was low and its only been her and the other field sharing.

Will try and get count off her and just get count kit for tack shop.

 

[ihatework]

Worming at weekend. Her count last summer was low and its only been her and the other field sharing.

Will try and get count off her and just get count kit for tack shop.

Does this mean she had a count in the summer but has not had a wormer for 6+ months? Counts can give false negatives as well. Definitely worm and make sure you cover encysted reds.

How much haylage does she get given?

 

[Toffee44]

No whole yard wormed in sept or october. Was my choice to count, we have to be in the worming programme.
Due pramox at weekend.
I have to admit I didn’t even consider tape being an issue. If she has I have no idea where its come from. I am going to feel awful if its tape worm.

 

[ester]

cross posted

 

[Goldenstar]

I would say the horse loses wieght when it’s cold I have experianced this with one of mine he lives out if he wears two heavyweights he holds his wieght reduce it and he loses .
I brought him in last week during the storms and he’s piled on weight because he’s warm and resting .
I would think it’s extremely unlikely anything sinister is going on .
But you must check the worming situation .

 

[Cecile]

No whole yard wormed in sept or october. Was my choice to count, we have to be in the worming programme.
Due pramox at weekend.
I have to admit I didn’t even consider tape being an issue. If she has I have no idea where its come from. I am going to feel awful if its tape worm.

If it turns out to be worms there is no need to feel awful, just crack on and sort it - it may not be worms so don't beat yourself up
Only real reason for people to feel awful is when they know their horse is wormy and can't be ar$ed to do anything about it

 

[Slightlyconfused]

My sisters tb lost lots of weight. He was diagnosed with ulcers and treated but still no weight gain so vet tested for tape and he came back high.

He was on a worming program witj worm counts so dont worrry if it is tape. It happens.

Bloods would be my next step

 

[HashRouge]

Sorry for a really obvious question but what is she doing / how are you assessing that she is cold?

A heavy and a middle weight rug on a, not ancient, not working, unclipped horse is pretty excessive. So if she was genuinely cold and has been showing abnormal weight loss you might need to consider vet intervention.

Sorry if you replied OP, but I'd also be interested to see how the grooms are judging that she's cold. Is she shivering? Are they taking her rugs off and she feels cold underneath? Is it that she feels cold, or that they feel cold and are anthropomorphising? Because if she's genuinely cold with all those rugs on I would be quite worried! My 25 yr old Arab got through the Beast from the East in a middleweight with neck cover and still looks like a little fat dumpling.

 

[TGM]

See what the dentist says. With the history of being a very good doer in summer and then struggling to stay warm and keep weight on in winter, I would guess she is struggling to eat enough haylage due to a dental problem.

 

[SEL]

I have one who always drops now - coat change. Last year he got so ribby I was worried it was something really serious. He had tapeworm even though I'd done Autumn worming. His field mate came out of winter overweight and no worm burden which rather threw me.

 

[Goldenstar]

The best person to judge if a horse is cold is comeone who has seen it .
I don’t think wearing two rugs during the last ten ten days is in any way excessive

 

[Toffee44]

Wormed today was unable to get count kit before. She has definately gained some weight so thats good. Chiropractor found her a bit sore but nothing awful agrees undermuscled even for a horse out of work.

Vet is coming if she doesn’t gain more in next couple weeks now been wormed.

 

[ester]

will someone be able to check if much comes out?

 

[MuffettMischief]

Is that amount of food in each feed or split between both feeds? I have Welsh Cob x Hackney mare and know of two others and they are all cold horses and relativaly poor doers in the winter. My mare is way more heavily rugged than my other two. She is only hacked once a week at the moment due to an injury of mine and she gets 1 heaped stubbs scoop of spillers conditioning fibre, 1/2 scoop of grass nuts and a big cup of linseed in each feed, when shes working i can triple that! I would try and up the fibre in the feed so maybe more chaff and go for a whole scoop of fast fibre and see how you get on over a couple of weeks. You can feed plenty of fast fibre as your probably aware, and as it can be used as a total hay replacer I wouldnt think it would hurt upping it to a scoop. I have also had good results with my old pony by giving her a simple systems grass block each night as she isnt a huge hay eater, and that has made a difference. She thinks its a treat so will eat all of it!
If your horse is anything like mine and the other part bred hackneys I know, she is a very busy person! Constantly on the move in the field so I dont think she helps herself.
Edited as I didnt see the otehr two pages of comments when I posted! Maybe she is feeling a little stressed with less turnout and stressing the weight off a bit?

 

[Toffee44]

The girls will check- they are aware it was in my thoughts re worms. Half the field gets poo picked as well even through winter- hard to explain but half of it gets trashed and the other half seems to stay dryish so that bit still gets cleared even though thats where the haylage is.

Im reluctant to keep adding up feed if shes slowing going up as in a month I will hopefully have my good doer back and be having opposite problem. Her and field mate were away from haylage picking at the grass today so maybe its coming through a but (fingers crossed) and summer fields open in April.

I do wonder if worms or not she has got cold and I have underestimated her rugging.

 

[ironhorse]

How are the other horses in the field faring?
The reason for asking is that we had unusual amounts of windchill last week and a different wind direction to usual. I'm horseless at the moment and off work after an op, but we just could not get our house warm, for the first time ever.
At a local yard where we used to keep our horse, the YM had to bring in his retired horses as an emergency one winter - the wind direction had changed and the horses had gone into 'survival mode'. They were standing in the most sheltered part of the field huddled together and would not eat the haylage he had put out. The vet reckoned that one of them would have died within 48 hours if they had not come in. Not saying this to scare you, but it's worth going out in the field and feeling the temperature - it doesn't even have to be that exposed, this field is on top of a hill but has large woods on two sides.

 

[pansymouse]

I have one who always drops now - coat change. Last year he got so ribby I was worried it was something really serious. He had tapeworm even though I'd done Autumn worming. His field mate came out of winter overweight and no worm burden which rather threw me.

I had exactly the same; confusing isn't it?