hes not looking good :-( is there anything more i can do for him? *pics*

china

china

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bought prince in today after his weeks rest in the field after his cortisone injections and i think he is looking very poor. you dont realise how much muscle they have untill its gone. you can see his ribs more than i like, he lost all his muscle on his neck, back and bum which i know is to be expected but its makes his hips more prominant. he is on very nice grass, ad lib haylage if he comes in at all. rugged up over night.he has a stubbs scoop of hoof kind chaff and 1 scp of nuts and soya oil for his joints up to twice a day. hes not on something more conditioning as he has just started inhand walking and i dont want him to become unmanagable with high conditioning food as hes not doing enough work to burn the energy. there isnt many tb's you can walk out inhand in just a head collar and id like him to stay that way. he is very happy in himself with a nice shiney coat but i just feel sad when i see him. the vet is likely to be out to see him anyway as he still doesnt look sound so i will speak to him about it but would like to know your experiences and any home remedies.
thank you
this was him 4 months ago
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and him today
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Email the various feed companies, they all have contact email addresses on their web sites & tell them the problem you have & they will provide you with free advice. They are very professional & they won't rubbish another companies feeds. Good Luck
 
I wouldn't worry too much about his condition he's not exactly emaciated (not even near!!) he's just lost some muscle tone. You could try adding an oil based supplement such as saracen equijewel, or equivite body builder. Or alpha beet is supposed to be quite good.
 
the image of him 4 months ago isnt working but the photos i can see he doesnt look too bad. his neck is a little thin and his quarters are a bit pokey but his rib coverage isnt that bad. find a photo of a horse in the wild and he wont look much different to yours.

what did he used to look like?
from being off work and loosing muscle its not suprising he's looking different. but his coat is glossy and his eyes look bright n cheerful. as a horse out of work i dont think you need to worry massively, if he still doesnt gain muscle when he's back in work there could be more to worry about.
TB's are so typical at loosing weight and muscle quickly and i think he loooks lovely compared to some TB's i know with staring coats and pokey ribs no matter how much their fed!
foodwise there are loads of good chaffs with high bulking and low sugar/energy. has he got fizzy on stronger mixes before? some horses work better on them than others, he might not react badly to it if you try it?
 
LivingTheDream92 said:
the image of him 4 months ago isnt working but the photos i can see he doesnt look too bad. his neck is a little thin and his quarters are a bit pokey but his rib coverage isnt that bad. find a photo of a horse in the wild and he wont look much different to yours.
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The image will work if you copy the bit between the IMG code into a new window address bar. Fiddly, but allows you to see the pic.
 
hopefully thats worked now. he lost muscle a month or so ago but was very very round and the vet even said he doesnt want to put anymore weight on but in the last 3 weeks hes gone very tucked up and even more ribby but he has been away to horspital in that time also. he has been on higher concentrate foods before and is fine if in constant work or he tends to get abit silly. not dangerous just silly and unreasonable. i will get in touch with food companies for advice, thank you
 
I think he looks fine considering he's had a stressful time. I've had 3 TBs & know how tricky it can be getting them to hold condition. I expect you'd like a little more on him going in towards winter.

I've had great success with Alpha Beet also & Alpha A Oil. Didn't send mine loopy.
 
My mare was very poor when I bought her, and not doing much work either at this point.
I put her on Wynergy Conditioning to begin with and was really impressed with the improvement. She's part Arab so I definitely didn't want to feed anything that would make her any more 'special' so it had to be non heating.
I'm also a fan of Pink powder. She looks great now, so is on Wynergy Low energy.
I know what a worry it is when they lose weight and wish you lots of luck.
 
legaldancer said:
I expect you'd like a little more on him going in towards winter.
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this is what im most worried about. he is tricky to keep weight on in the winter and eats a hell of alot of food but last winter was one of his best winters yet but he went into it with a nice coverage so when he los abit he didnt look to bad.
 
How bout trying a supplement such as brewer's yeast or pink powder, as they will make sure the gut will get as much goodness from the food being digested and are good sources of vital vits (B vits) etc. I have used them on both my tb's, one being an ex racer and have been brill. However if u wana get a bit of weight on him, bailey's number 1 is fab too!
 
He doesnt look that bad really just lacking muscle like you said. My boy lost weight and became ribby a couple of years ago when i was away for 2 weeks and person meant to be feeding and rugging decided not to as hers didnt need it. A friend reccommended him to have powdered foals milk in his tea but he just drank it! He covered his ribs up and didnt get unhandleable which he does on oats etc. Or try calm + conditioner as that also shouldnt fizz him up!
 
He looks FANTASTIC in the first picture, thats probably why your feeling he doesnt look quite so good now......But he stil looks great !! I always use Baileys Stud Balancer on my tb's that need that extra helping hand it doesnt fizz them up at all and works wonders for top line and condition price ranges from 18 to 20 quid a 20kg sack and i normally feed two cups a day one per feed.
 
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