extremely skinny Dutch warmblood - HELP!

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Nikiska

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I have just recently been 'given' a 3yr old Dutch Warmblood Stallion but he is incredibly skinny. I of course wormed him (5 day panacur) to flush him out - but all clear on the worm front. He is not stabled so is out grazing all day... and I have a Hay rack in the field which is always full of hay... so I am now ready to start with hard feed but with everything that's out there, it's all soooo confusing can anyone suggest the best mix of hard feed/alpha/oils/build up/topline cubes etc etc to give him??? My other horses are on Balance Show mix which I swear by but I don't know whether that's enough for my Warmblood.
 
mine ballooned on a mix of haylage, "16 plus", chaff, double-refined oil, garlic, speedibeet and going out for a few hours everyday.
now i cant get him to lose weight :rolleyes:
 
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When I got my ex racer last Feb, he was extremely emaciated. The main thing was to feed him ad lib haylage. He then had three feeds a day of Spillers conditioning cubes, Alpha A oil, NAF pink powder and speedibeet. Really did the job well on him, he is now working 6 days a wk, still on ad lib haylage but on smaller rations of h+ p cubes, alpha a and beet
 
Rice bran pellets are good. They have like, 18% fat and it builds horses up real fast. You can only give two pounds at a time, though that might depend on the brand you get.
 
Make sure he is warm enough horses use a lot of calories keeping warm, rug him much as he needs.

Good quality ad lib hay or haylage.

I personally would feed sugar beet, some kind of chaff my preference is one of the Dengie Hifi range perhaps the original would be enough or possibly the alfa oil would be better to help with the weight gain, and a feed balancer i like the dodson and horrell ultimate balancer or top spec comprehensive, my boy is on the Spillers low cal because he has the opposite problem. Split into at least 2 feeds but if possible 3. This is the diet one of the liveries at my yard who is a very poor doer is on and if he still doesnt hold his weight she will add soya meal.

Best of luck :) x
 
My boy who came to me in failry poor condition in the middle of winter was given Blue Chip, D&H Build up Cubes, Alfa- Oil and codliver oil. He put on quite a lot of weight on this but seemed to stop and didn't put anymore on.
I then put him on TopSpec Cool conditioning cubes instead of the D&H ones and he has all of a sudden ballooned and looks brill. Can't recommend them enough, and hasn;t fizzed him up too much. :)
 
do you want to keep him as a stallion? and is he good enough temperament, conformation, ability? if not then my first thought would be to geld him. if wanting t keep entire just be careful with the amount of grub you give him coming into spring... he could get very very stroppy. you have done the worming, now look at his teeth. then introduce long stem fibre (alpha, high fibre cubes), oil will give good coat and shine and condition (and energy) it will take a while to build him up, and should be done slowly. Dr Green will be your best friend soon. keep him mannered and handleable at all times. if he is poor now you are realistically looking at at least 16 weeks before you see a significant change in condition. Good luck. blood tests and worm count might give you an indication as to why he is poor. i know bloods cost quite a bit, but can save you money in the long run.
 
OMG hes stunning !!!! How did you come by him??

I can compeltely recommend Winergy equilibrium conditioning mix (the pink one) - I did a trial of this for them, and the difference in my horse was truly amazing. You dont need anything else either - the only thing I added was water and her think mud - I was told not to feed any sugar beet or any other additives at all, the helpline was amazing - and I cant recommend it highly enough.

(and I fed it at 1/3 of the amount they recommended - god knows how fat she would have been if Id done what they had said with it!!!)

good luck - hes truly gorgeous
 
Ooh had a look at your photos he is very skinny bless him he's a lovely looking chap. Personally i'd geld him. I'm sure with spring well on its way the grass will pick up and he'll soon be looking heaps better with care from you and the right nutrition..x
 
He truly is a big girls blouse, he follows me around the field like a lost puppy, nudging me all the time, but so so gentle with it and he adores my 8yr old daughter. She can lead him about too. So temperament wise he could stay entire... Conformation wise...well, I have only seen him 'fly around the field' once or twice but when he does - my god he looks amazing!! I had thought about gelding him, but was concerned that now might not be the right time because of his weight (or lack of!).
 
I think you need to establish that lack of food is the reason he is thin before you consider gelding
The field looks quite bare and he is sharing with other horses I assume they are geldings and he is not up to mischief!
So as above feed plenty of hay/haylage which you will probably have to bring him in for morning and night.
Use a measuring tape weekly at same time of day and keep a record and get at least 50kg on before gelding
 
Nikiska said:
He truly is a big girls blouse, he follows me around the field like a lost puppy, nudging me all the time, but so so gentle with it and he adores my 8yr old daughter. She can lead him about too. So temperament wise he could stay entire... Conformation wise...well, I have only seen him 'fly around the field' once or twice but when he does - my god he looks amazing!! I had thought about gelding him, but was concerned that now might not be the right time because of his weight (or lack of!).
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How much of his history do you know? He could well be a very different horse in a few weeks when spring hits, grass is there and ladies suddenly become interesting. He may be a poppet now but he is weak as water and strength could make him a VERY different horse. What id his breeding? What are your long term plans for him> Unless you are looking at competing him to maximise breeding potential I would cut him. He is a stunner but do think very carefully re not gelding him. Best of luck with him.
 
I'd recommend allen and page calm and condition with some alfa A chaff twice a day. Also use haylage rather than hay in the field.
 
Unfortunately I know nothing about his history, but I am still trying to find out. Long term, he will be for my daughter for local/county shows so gelding is definately an option. But I need to get a bit more weight on him before I do that just so he's strong enough to recover from it in case of any complications. My Anglo Arab is a mare and he has yet to show any interest in her, in fact he has bonded really well with my gelding so if it comes to it i will section off the field - boys one side - girls the other. They have moved to an 8acre field so I have plenty of room.
 
You may find that now he has ad lib hay and you pampering him that he picks up weight naturally over time.
If he was mine I would start out feeding him less and see how he goes for a few weeks, you can always add more a little at a time.
After teeth, worming ect I would add a balancer or a biotic supplement (pink powder?) to his feed. Biotics are amazing for picking up a poor horse, if he is that skinny his gut bacteria have probably been compromised.
Now he is used to having hay I would add some HIFI (Alfa might be a bit rich at the moment), high fibre nuts or some sort of high fibre cube, Speedie beet and possibly some oil. None of that is heating and all of it is good for his stomach. If after a 8 weeks there is no difference (there probably will be a big difference!), then could try swapping the high fibre cube to a conditioning cube or high fat supplement like equijewel. I would worry though if he doesn't pick up that there is something underlying and he may need bloods done. Just be careful not too pump him full or rich foods too quickly as it may tax his system too much, start slowly and remember fibre is your friend lol ;)

Good luck!
 
Thank you all for your advice.... I will keep you all posted with updated pictures - maybe not for a few weeks or so depending on how quickly he improves! lol.. thanks again everyone some truly useful stuff here :)
 
Hi, having taken on very skinny stallions and also having gone through a lot of KWPN horses I thought I would comment.
Unless your planning on having him graded and a stud career then please do geld him asap. it's the right time of year to geld and at his age now he will be fine. We have just had a warmblood colt (rising 4) gelded as he was quickly getting ideas above his station. Your chap won't be feeling it now as he's so thin but I wouldn't be letting any 8 yr old child of mine around a young colt. You will prob find he will also put weight on much quicker when cut, as colts and stallions tend to run up light as spring comes in, too much energy is spent on making their bits work and he's prob also gonna start to get a bit more stressy, this will also make him lose more condition. I would also get his teeth done asap as dutch modern bred horses tend to have very small mouths and are prone to mouth/teeth problems. All of mine are done every 6 months, if they aren't they will again lose condition quickly. You should be feeding ad lib hay and a bit of haylage, I personally wouldn't be overdoing it on the hard feed as you want your lad to stay managable, not be climbing the walls. I would be using Alfa A oil and a topspec/blue chip with ad lib hay and thats about it.
 
A lot depends on why he is skinny in the first place. If it is just lack of food in his previous home then ad lib haylage and a balancer will probably do the trick on its own, if he has a good appetite. Definitely get teeth checked as if there is a problem there then he won't eat enough haylage. If he is a naturally poor doer or fussy feeder then you may have to add more bucket feed, but as others have suggested try to make this based on fibre and oil, rather than cereals so as to avoid temperament problems as he begins to feel brighter!
 
My WB is on ad lib hay, baileys no4 and baileys no1 with micronized linseed. Only thing that has worked for him (he's 16 so have tried a lot), but he always comes out of winter a bit ribby - the spring grass will sort him out
 
Lots of good avice regarding feeding allready. Obviously access to adlib haylage is essential - and personally I would look to be feeding him 2 or 3 times a day as well.

I'm assuming that you have him rugged - but just removed it for photos???

Re gelding - I'd say it was a must, but obviously not until he's picked up considerably.

NB. The minute your mare comes in to season - he'll be on her, and if she starts soon, it will not help his condition.........
 
kirstyl said:
When I got my ex racer last Feb, he was extremely emaciated. The main thing was to feed him ad lib haylage. He then had three feeds a day of Spillers conditioning cubes, Alpha A oil, NAF pink powder and speedibeet. Really did the job well on him, he is now working 6 days a wk, still on ad lib haylage but on smaller rations of h+ p cubes, alpha a and beet
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I second the above, I bought a very skinny TB in January and fed him on Alpha A Oil, Speedibeet, but I used Bailey's No 4 conditioning cubes. He also had as much haylage as he could eat. He improved very quickly and 8wks on he is a completely different horse! :)
 
amymay - yes I have rugged him although I fear it was the first time he'd had one on his back as he was fairly nervous about the whole thing. So yes, it was ONLY removed for the photos!! :)
 
I have a KWPN who can be difficult to keep weight on. However this year he has really got a good weight finally and maintained it without heating up. I have been using cooked barley, it stinks and is a bit of a hassle (thankfully the yard deal with boiling it), but it is cheap and really works.

I would also think about the gelding issue. My KWPN has ideas well above his station and can be a pain around mares and stallions (he will try to get in with stallions to fight and does occasionally cover mares if they are really forward and in his face when in season). He is not a rig or anything but he was cut late (just before UK import). He was from very top international breeding lines so they gave him as long as possible for his conformation to improve (it didn't he is slightly hollow backed). The habits seem to have formed and stuck to some extent so I would always want to get on with gelding if I had a KWPN youngster.
 
4 weeks later and he's a changed man! Thank you all soo soo much for your advise with regards to his feeding program. He's doing really well (piccys in my album). The Vet has given him the all clear so I can geld him when I'm ready.
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Looking at the before and after pictures he looks soo much better now! I think this weather will be helping too :)
How did you come to get him?
Well done, hope you have fun with him :)
 
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