Horse lost weight advice needed!

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Neo_kat26

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Hi everyone, my TB recently came in from the field with a really bad cut in his leg that went to the joint. He was rushed to an equine hospital,hadthe wound flushed under anaesthetic and has spent two weeks there. He came home on Tuesday and is on box rest. I have noticed that during all this he has lost weight and his ribs are now visible even through his winter coat. I have been told that its probably did to the stress. I've now got to balance his food so that he is putting on weight but hasn't got too much energy. I have started him on Dodson and horrells alfalfa high oil and his usual leisure mix. He has access to hay throughout the day. Does this sound like the right thing to do? Any advice opinions greatly appreciated :)
 
I would try some unmolassed sugar beet a low sugar chaff and some micronised linseed, a high fibre llow sugar diet so ditch the mix he doesnt need it, that way you will be able to feed quite alot of the above without giving him excess energy and has the added bonus of longer eating time, also how much hay are you feeding hay is the best or putting weight on in my opinion, if one of mine drop off I up the hay before anything else and it works.
 
Thank you for replying. At the moment he has two hayracks full of hay a day so quite a lot as I thought it best to try and up his forage rather than hard feed.
 
So how many sections roughly do you feed in twenty four hours? Sorry but I have no idea about what hy rack you have so that gives me no idea to how much, I have a 15h Arab he gets just over half a bale of hay so say 6 to 7 sections in 24 hours this time of year and he goes on my good grazing for a few hours a day and on the winter field for the rest of the day, You dont say how big your horse is but being a TB he must be at least 15.2 so I would be looking to feed at least what I feed, I also have a 16.2 Warmblood she can eat up to a bale a day in mid winter, plus both of mine hold there weight pretty well, hope that gives you a rough idea.
 
I agree with Pinkvboots. I feed my poor doing pony on unmollased sugar beet, grass nuts and micronised linseed. He gets about 2/3 of a small bale of hay but lives out 24/7 on poor grazing.

Get as much fiber into him as possible. Try not to worry though, sounds perfectly reasonably that he would lose weight having been in a strange place and probably in some discomfort. Now he is home in familiar surroundings I am sure he will pick up his condition no problem at all x
 
He's 15'3hh yeah he has around 6-7 sections if hay a day. So maybe try him in some sugar beet then? What does the linseed do then? Thanks for your help :)
 
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