Horse not putting on weight

TheresaW

TheresaW

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Towards the end of last year, both my mare, and my friends gelding who shared a field, started dropping weight. We started bringing them in overnight about a month before we went onto winter turnout, and feeding more hay etc, plus started feeding more hard feed. Dolly started putting weight back on slowly, but Brenin was still struggling. We got the vet out and both were blood tested and worm counted. Doll's tests all came back clear, but Bren's showed he had slightly raised liver enzymes. Vet prescribed a course of AB's for him, and he was blood tested again later, and the levels had returned to normal. Vet suggested that maybe they'd both had some kind of virus, and maybe being a little older, Bren had struggled to shake it off. Dolly quickly got back to full weight, and is now 100% back to her normal self, but Bren is still really thin. He looks to put on a bit of weight, but then overnight, seems to drop it again. He is brought in daily for a few hours to get hay, has 2 large short feeds a day, but nothing seems to be making much difference. He is a 22 year old section d, and up until last year, was often muzzled to keep his weight down.

Not sure if this could be related at all, but him, Dolly and my other horse were all clipped last year. I clipped Mac October, then did all 3 at the end of November. Both Dolly and Mac changed coats as normal come spring time, but right up until about 2 months ago, we could still see the leg lines from Bren's clip, and he didn't seem to really get a summer coat. Vet didn't seem too concerned about that. He now has a lovely coat, which is shiny and healthy, he is bright eyed, and I often see him running about the field, playing silly buggers.

Vet is coming out again Tuesday to do bloods again and start deeper investigations, but wonder if anybody has any ideas/suggestions? Could it just be old age creeping up on him? There is plenty of good grass, Dolly is now living off of it, and fresh air!
 
Hi - I would personally be giving him milk thistle for his liver. Also feeding a low sugar, low protein, low fat diet, and only feeding in small feeds so the liver can cope. I had a horse with a liver malfunction on loan for a short period, and he would be fine in the summer on grass/hay/no hard feed but in the winter on haylage and hard feeds would drop weight massively because his liver couldn't deal with it. Milk thistle helped massively (be careful to feed seed and not leaf, as the leaves don't contain the right chemicals.) Not being able to put weight on is a typical sign of liver malfunction. The bad coat can also be a symptom.

I fed him ad-lib hay, unmolassed chaff, high fibre cubes and milk thistle and kept him boxed so as not to burn so many calories and try and get weight on him. (He was so ill he passed out on the yard, didn't even bend his knees and smacked down sideways onto the concrete). I think conditioning feeds can have the opposite effect on horses with bad livers...
 
Thankyou. I will mention to my friend about the milk thistle, and am off to read that post properly now.

Bren is being fed Alpha-A with oil amongst other things. Am now thinking this may not be doing him any good? The vet ran through his feed with me and Nic, and didn't say anything about changing his diet.
 
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definitely no Alpha A oil if there is a liver problem (my mare was on this too), as low protein as you can get is best.
 
To be honest, if I had blood tests come back with raised liver enzymes and my vet wasn't interested in the poor coat or getting the horse on a suitable diet for a liver problem, I would not be a happy bunny at all.
 
Thanks both of you. To be fair to the vet, once he'd finished the AB's, he had another blood test, and his liver appeared back to normal, but there is obviously still something going on, so will see what the next tests show up.
 
At age 22 and unexplained weight loss, I'd get him tested for Cushings as this is one of the classic symptoms. You can print off a voucher for money off the lab test at talkaboutcushings.com (or possibly .co.uk, can't remember).
 
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