Pony losing weight, please help

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Hoshi

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My pony is just over 14hh, medium cob. I've had her a year and as she entered the colder months I noticed that she has already slimmed down a lot. Her winter coat is coming through, but I can already see her ribs slightly.

She has ad lib haylege day and night, is in during the day and out at night. She has 2 feeds a day consisting of 1/2 scoop calm and condition and 1/4 scoop barley rings each feed. She's in a 180 turnout rug overnight.

I took some photos of her today and compared them to when she was fully clipped in June and I could cry. She should be all fat and ready for winter, and instead she looks like she needs some good spring grass!

If she was your pony, what would you do?

(Worming is up to date, I think her teeth are fine, but am getting them checked)
 
We are in the winter not getting ready for winter. I wouldn't be worried at all, in fact I would be chuffed as won't be panicking come the spring with the spring grass coming through as it won't matter if she puts on a few extra pounds. Horses should naturally drop a little weight in the winter.
 
I know you said the worming is up to date but do you worm count and test for tapeworm. My pony got very thin last winter and despite having the recommended number of tape wormers and having clear worm counts it turned out he had a tapeworm infestation and once he was treated for that he started putting on weight again. In this case quite a few of his herd mates also got the tapeworm and were being fed huge amounts and still loosing weight. We had never had this problem before but had a couple of new horses in to the herd who came in with very high worm counts.

If she has a full clip she could need a warmer rug.

I would be surprised at the weight loss with the regime she is on unless she is in heavy work such as hunting as normally cobs are good doers.
 
I would be putting her out during the day to start with, the poor animal never sees any daylight or feels the sun on her back under your regime.
If you don't want her out 24/7 bring her in at night and give her good quality hay, haylage doesn't do for all horses. Monitor her weight weekly with a weight-tape and if you feel that she drops too much, give her a fibre based bucket feed, either soaked grassnuts and dried grass chaff, or Speedibeet should help to maintain her weight.
Bear in mind that in 8 weeks, many people, including you possibly, OP will be bemoaning the fact that the grass is starting to grow,
 
Thank you for your help!

She was this thin early nov, which is why I mentioned the start of winter, although I do think that we still have a few months to go and so far it's been very mild here (I believe today was our first temp that dipped below zero!)
Her feed has been upped since then, but although she has maintained, she hasn't gained I don't think.
I am currently looking at rugs, but don't want to go too heavy as she suffers from mild COPD so I don't want her to overheat as her breathing may become laboured!
The "poor animal" does see daylight because I either ride her or we go out walking everyday. She can't be in at night as all the other horses are out and she can't be left alone as she gets very distressed. She also can't have hay because it exacerbates her COPD, she has to either have haylege or in the height of summer she has 24 hr soaked hay (this is under vet advice).
Thank you for your advice on feeds, I will look into them all. I can assure you that I cannot wait for the spring grass cos whilst it turns her into a moody cow, I'd rather a healthy grumpy pony with bags of energy, who's teeth I need to avoid, than the skinny placid little lady that I'm reluctant to ask to work ��
 
Hoshi said:
Thank you for your help!

She was this thin early nov, which is why I mentioned the start of winter, although I do think that we still have a few months to go and so far it's been very mild here (I believe today was our first temp that dipped below zero!)
Her feed has been upped since then, but although she has maintained, she hasn't gained I don't think.
I am currently looking at rugs, but don't want to go too heavy as she suffers from mild COPD so I don't want her to overheat as her breathing may become laboured!
The "poor animal" does see daylight because I either ride her or we go out walking everyday. She can't be in at night as all the other horses are out and she can't be left alone as she gets very distressed. She also can't have hay because it exacerbates her COPD, she has to either have haylege or in the height of summer she has 24 hr soaked hay (this is under vet advice).
Thank you for your advice on feeds, I will look into them all. I can assure you that I cannot wait for the spring grass cos whilst it turns her into a moody cow, I'd rather a healthy grumpy pony with bags of energy, who's teeth I need to avoid, than the skinny placid little lady that I'm reluctant to ask to work ��
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soak hay for 40mins and mix 50/50 with haylage.
If she has lost weight and is quiet I would be calling vet to run bloods
 
The most common reason for weight loss is lack of calories so although you give her adlib haylage how much in weight is she actually eating and the same with her feed. She is only getting 3/4 of a scoop of feed and barley rings will not weight very much as their shape increases their volume where a pelleted feed is more dense. So as other people have said weight tape her, send off a poo sample and then if you haven't already done it use Equest paramox. If you think she's under weight look at feeding the feed rates for the weight you want her to be. Linseed is great for adding extra calories, its relatively cheap and if they are start to drop quickly I give a mug full twice a day.
I have two who are gawpers, they stand around in the field and whilst not actually bullied by the time they have got around to eating the hay put out someone else has scoffed the lot, so the only way they maintain their weight in winter is to come in and stand with as much hay as they can eat and two large feeds.
Over the years I have had a couple that seemed to be lean despite what I have thought was having enough to eat, had worm counts, bloods, teeth done but it all came down to lack of calories and finding a food that is energy dense that they will eat enough of. I have a welsh A that needs as much hay as a 14.2 pony and hard feed to maintain his bodyweight and will start to lose weight from the end of August if he does not have supplementary feeding
 
How old is she? Have you thought about Cushings and Insulin Resistance? If she is, treatment is straightforward and successful so it may be worth a blood test for ACTH levels.
 
JillA said:
How old is she? Have you thought about Cushings and Insulin Resistance? If she is, treatment is straightforward and successful so it may be worth a blood test for ACTH levels.
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My first thought, especially as I was wondering why she was fully clipped in June when most ponies would have just got a nice summer coat.
 
My first question is why everyone is turned out at night when the temperature is lower and more calories are burned keeping warm. I can understand her not being happy left in alone, could you arrange for another to stay in at night with her and go out during the day, then you can feed plenty of hay in the field.

Whenever I've had problems with weight loss and the horse is on a suitable diet I have bomb drenched the horse - vets advice - worm weekly for three weeks with a broad spectrum wormer, one that contains Ivermectin and Praziquontal. this will get rid of any backlog of worms.
 
180 is not a heavy rug. Also, how old is it? This year I am ignoring the togs on my older rugs. My older PE HW needs an under rug, the newer one doesn't.
 
Check teeth, review food (calm and condition isn't great), put a warmer rug on, swap to out in the day.

How are the horses 'hayed' in the field.
 
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