Horse losing weight - best ideas?

[WelshRareBit]

Ok I'll keep this to the facts so I can get as much good advice as possible.
Murphy - 17.1hh of unknown breed but pictured in my siggy.
Turned out 24/7
no stable
rugged up 300G+100G under rug
fed in the morning 2 1/2 scoops of sugarbeet and 1 scoop horse nuts
Field is poor. Chequered chance of getting hay into him as paddocks are regularly in use. No chance of hay in field as people at my yard dont do this because they are certifiable lol

He is dropping off weight steadily. Starting to get bony wither and hip bones.

I am starting to go down at night and feed him - this is sporadic as I need a lift to the yard as its dark when I get home and there's no electric down there.

Has anyone got good ideas on feed changes that could help?
A man at my yard said what i was feeding is crap and wont do him any good....

he could be right I suppose...

I am getting him some Alfa A Oil and some conditioning cubes/mix tomorrow to see how he goes. Any advice gladly recieved.

 

[TGM]

To be honest, with a horse of that size on poor grazing it is unlikely that you will be able to get weight on him unless you can get sizeable amounts of hay into him. I would suggest you look for alternative accommodation for him where you can either feed hay in the field or bring him into a stable at night so he can have access to hay there.

Otherwise I think you may find you end up having a visit from the RSPCA

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[eventergirl87]

Personally id go with....... any chance you can move yards??

 

[WelshRareBit]

I can once I pass my test

which hopefully wont be long. Its so ridiculous up my yard, at the mo Ive managed to get him into the paddock for hay - so I might just keep him in there now - if i dont take him out then other people will just have to put up with it lol

 

[wizzi901]

yep, need good grazing (even though grass has no nutrition) its all about fibre and ad lib hay!! - you can feed as much as you like in concentrates but without a high fibre intake with a horse his size you wont find he puts it on.

Our fred (in gallery - under random weekend pics last pic) is bony thing and he has fab grazing out all day, ad lib hay, can easily get through a half a bale a night, alfa A, calm and condition, cornoil, cider vinegar, he is rugged well and only being ridden a few hours a week, is STILL bony!!!

Wormed, teeth done etc. Some of them are so hard to get condition or weight on without blowing their minds with feed!!

I'd look to move yards if you can and ad lib that hay, its the best thing you can do to pump in some weight.

 

[Happytohack]

A horse his size needs ad lib good quality hay/haylage. (I have two large horses and they are eating a bale of hay per day each). I would move him asap - he needs to be in at night out of the cold/wet where he can munch as much as he likes. Without good quality forage, he would need a lot of hard feed - probably 4 feeds per day. We have still got a long way to go before the Spring, so please get him moved asap as it hard to get weight back on big horses this time of year.

 

[sunny123]

Uuum it sounds like a tricky one if you cant move yards. It sounds terrible. Sunny can get quite skinny and was starting to with us untill Alpha A Oil, i love it! It has really put alot of condition on her and she is very shiny. Also Speedi Beet is good, havnt tried Fibre Beet but that sounds even better for weight gain. As someone already said, loads and loads of fibre. If she got really bad i was going to put her on TopSpec, but it is expensive. Feed really good quality hay if you find a way of doing it as i think hay is what is going to help the most.

 

[magpiesyard]

I've just been told about a fairly new beet thats out called fibre-beet, its a slow releasing forage based beet, if you do a google search on it theres loads of info on it, I have started using it for my mare who drops weight because her teeth are poor so can't graze or eat hay well. it contains an alfalfa based fibre in a soaked beet but without the fizz! I'd highly recommend it until you can sort your grazing situation out!

 

[WelshRareBit]

Hi guys - managing to get him intot he paddock at night for hay. and now have changed his feed to baileys conditioning cubes and alfa a oil , have also got him on pink powder which should help
x

 

[TGM]

Glad to hear it - hope he picks up soon

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[glenruby]

eh... grass has nutrition! Fibre is digestable by the equine and ruminant species and is broken down to carbs which is why we feed it in such large quantities. Then of course there is an indigestible portion.