scrawny horse support thread!

EffyCorsten

EffyCorsten

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I Often feel like I'm alone in the battle of getting weight on my loan horse! No matter how well he is fed and no matter how much work I do trying to improve his topline he never looks good and drops weight so easily it's exhusting! After his colic a couple weeks ago he has dropped some more and looks like a neglect case!

He has a starch intolerance but vets have never found anything else sinister which although is a good thing it does make me feel like he will never improve.

I get embarrassed when taking him out and always worry that I'll have the rspca on the door step and find myself explaining frantically that it's just the way he is to people in case they think I am some horrible neglectful person.

He is sorry to say an ugly horse but I do love him to bits. :(

I would love to hear of other peoples scrawny horse stories and pictures it would be nice to have a little support thread going
 
You have my support.

I have oldies (they weren't always that way though) and as they get older so their looks have changed. Both of the real old un's could be said to be a bit scrawny at times, especially after losing weight at the end of the winter as they've lost their topline thanks to cushings. The condition is coming back, but like everything with geriatrics it's a slow process! It's all a bit nerve wracking as you say - my field has a footpath through it, and with a lot of younger, fitter horses at the bottom of the lane I'm always having to explain to walkers that my boys look as they do due to their advancing years.
 
Oil and oil. Mine has milk pellets too , don't know about the starch intem but as she is barefoot I should imagine they can't be that high in starch
 
Don't give up OP!

Mine was absolutely dire. She ate a poisonous creeper and was near-death for two weeks. After that was worse, to be honest. She just kept losing condition. It happened so quickly, after 6 weeks she just looked like a bag of bones and vet was suggesting PTS. She just didn't want to eat.

Small breakfast, added sugar beat, grated carrot and a shot of apple cider vinegar, small lunch and small dinner with brewer's yeast. Lots of grass and LOTS of hay. Then, once she picked up a bit and started developing an appetite, we cut back meals and left her out 24 hours with tons of grass and hay, took off her shoes and left her.

We went from this:

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b99c62f1-6dbd-42cc-b84f-c49b182b2d47_zps86a03312.jpg


To this...

westandstorm028_zpseb95d95e.jpg


And then back to our old self!

Storm5_zps9d2bee15.png


Took us a year to get her looking the part, 3 years to get her back to exactly the same level she was at before the poisoning.
 
He has a lot of oil in his diet, soya oil added to alfa a oil, sugarbeat and conditioning cubes ad lib hay and some grass he just doesnt gain past a certain point and drops quickly. I've managed to stop him scouring finally and his poo's are normal and he is a happy chap nicely forward going and quite fresh atm just looks bad. It's so frustrating feeling like I have to explain myself when I take him out and hate people saying oh well he should be pts. Poor ****** will never win a beauty contest he's only 8!

He's shire x tb has the structure of a shire but the weight of a light tb with MASSIVE feet
 
Thanks I'll give it ago. I have tried it before when he was quite loose and it seemed to make him scour more but now its under control I may try it again perhaps introducing it slowly with with the soya and increase the ratio until it's just the linseed oil in the hope it doesn't upset things as he's so sensitive!
 
rather than linseed oil use micronised linseed - it's way cheaper (about £20 for a 20kg sack) and has more than just the oil. My yearling is feed two mugs a day and has made a huge difference to his weight over the winter. Definately introduce it slowly.

The other thing to consider would be some sort of pre & pro biotic supplement to help him get the best out of his diet.
 
My TB was absolutely dire when I got him, he was given a body condition score of 1/2 (and that was pushing it) but we tried everything and he only got to a certain point and stopped putting anything on. We found ReadyMash Soultion Mash worked wonders for him (made for horses with starch and sugar intolerance) however apparently some can be picky with it! Really filled him out, to the extent where he can now do showing!
We also have him on Sunflower oil, a big glug in each feed. 2 of the 5L tubs for £9 at Tesco on offer atm. Really gives those extra calories. If you can afford it Linseed Oil is brill stuff.
Best of luck x
 
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Are his teeth okay, recently done, thinking of the colic episode and losing weight, maybe not chewing feed properly so not getting the right amount of nutrients from improper chewing so passing the stomach and going to the hind gut. Dont forget worming. Its doesnt hurt to worm them when they are looking dull and a vit b suppl
 
Mine has micronised linseed (and plenty of it) as much hay or grass as he can get himself outside of, added protein, grass nuts, low sugar/starch diet (he had ulcers 18 months ago) although I did try him on oats during the winter, as much as he can or will eat and still he doesn't have enough top line to carry a saddle. He was on 6 acres of hay aftermath to himself last summer and still didn't gain enough. He was a rescue case, so emaciated he nearly didn't make it and I sometimes wonder if that had a lasting effect on him. I am just trying to get him on turmeric to detox his liver but he is reluctant to eat it - does anyone else think some horses just won't recover from emaciation? (He is a rangy ex chaser BTW).

Before you ask, teeth done and wormed with Pramox in January, and my pasture is relatively worm free.
 
Florrie said:
My TB was absolutely dire when I got him, he was given a body condition score of 1/2 (and that was pushing it) but we tried everything and he only got to a certain point and stopped putting anything on. We found ReadyMash Soultion Mash worked wonders for him (made for horses with starch and sugar intolerance) however apparently some can be picky with it! Really filled him out, to the extent where he can now do showing!
We also have him on Sunflower oil, a big glug in each feed. 2 of the 5L tubs for £9 at Tesco on offer atm. Really gives those extra calories. If you can afford it Linseed Oil is brill stuff.
Best of luck x
Click to expand...

Another who used Ready Mash (we used the 'extra') with great results. My mare went from this:

IMAG0003_zps7a3a95b0.jpg


to this:

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in a month using the ready mash, alpha a oil and linseed, I added fenugreek as an appetite stimulant. She had 3 meals a day and ad lib haylage.


ETA: the sweat marks in the first photo are because she had stress related colic because she lost the weight after a bad accident where she flipped over a 5 bar gate.
 
With weight loss and colic have you had him tested for tapeworm? As my pony had this even though he had had the two recommended tapewormers a year and had been wormed for encysted redworm and his worm counts have always been low.

After his massive tapeworm infection I am really struggling to get the weight back on him too.
 
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