starting to worry ... advice please

nixxyz

nixxyz

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My 9 yr old 17hh wb has started dropping weight. I had the vet up to her this morning as shes given herself a fat leg and i took the chance to speak to the vet about her weight. To me shes very underweight, so i stopped ridding her about 3 weeks ago and only do the very basic of ground work as shes newly backed ( ex broodmare ) and after today ive decided to turn her away for the winter as shes now on box rest.
Her teeth were done in july and checked again today, that was all fine ( my vet is an edt ). Shes up todate with her worming and is normally happy with a lovely shinney coat ( apart from today as shes now feeling very sorry for herself ) Shes unclipped and very fluffy so is out with just a l/w turnout.
Feeding wise shes on 700g of speedi beet and 1.3kg of alfa, a cup of veg oil and a scoup of pink powder, over 2 feeds a day. She gets 2 extra large haynets of good quality hay and is on medium grazing turned out 24/7 or will be after her box rest. I cant give ad lib hay as landlord doesnt want a bale put out in the field to be churned up, as its quite wet and will turn to mud easily.
Vet recommended to put her on a veteran mix and either soya or linseed oil to get the weight on. He also said if no improvement in 4 weeks to get him back or sooner if she drops more.

Sooo am i right to worry and does anyone have any advice on how to get weight on her... its not even cold yet :(

wine and choccy fudge cake if you ge this far :)
 
If she is poor in condition now you are going to struggle when it gets colder. I would up her hard feed, get some conditioning feed into her, will she have hay in the field when she is out, if not I would bring her in so she can have hay all day then go out at night.
A warmer rug may help.
 
be positive said:
If she is poor in condition now you are going to struggle when it gets colder. I would up her hard feed, get some conditioning feed into her, will she have hay in the field when she is out, if not I would bring her in so she can have hay all day then go out at night.
A warmer rug may help.
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she sweats in anything more than a l/w at the min but i religiously (sp) check the weather forcast for the temp dropping so i can put her m/w on. Theres a shelter in the field which i put her hay into so she comes and goes with her hay. As for it getting cold thats what im worrying about :(
 
She could have ad-lib hay in the field, if you put more haynets out. I don't actually like haynets in the field but if you're already putting 2 out, I don't see why you couldn't put more out.
Linseed oil is good for putting weight on but I personally wouldn't feed a 9-yr old a veteran mix as the balance of vits & mins will be wrong. I would probably increase the sugarbeet, or/and feed her a conditioning mix.
 
I'd rug her more, a lightweight turnout will stop her coat from keeping her warm by flattening the hair. She might not seem like she needs a thicker rug but it will at least help her by not using as many calories to keep warm. Maybe give a feed company a call, they'll be able to advise on a suitable feeding regime for a horse of her size needing to gain weight.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
She could have ad-lib hay in the field, if you put more haynets out. I don't actually like haynets in the field but if you're already putting 2 out, I don't see why you couldn't put more out.
Linseed oil is good for putting weight on but I personally wouldn't feed a 9-yr old a veteran mix as the balance of vits & mins will be wrong. I would probably increase the sugarbeet, or/and feed her a conditioning mix.
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Bubbles said:
I'd rug her more, a lightweight turnout will stop her coat from keeping her warm by flattening the hair. She might not seem like she needs a thicker rug but it will at least help her by not using as many calories to keep warm. Maybe give a feed company a call, they'll be able to advise on a suitable feeding regime for a horse of her size needing to gain weight.
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i thought that too about the veteran mix but can see where hes coming from, think i will go into the feed store on monday see what they say and give a feed company a ring the more advice the better. Will pop her m/w on and keep a close eye on her temp, think being hot is just as bad as being cold :/ Will see how many net i can hung up safely, but i dont like using too many as id rather her head was down now pulling up :( still, if it gets the weight on.
 
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Look on the feed bags and find out what the DE (calories) in the feed are. You can increase the amount of energy she is getting without overloading her in one meal.
She is a big girl and not getting enough energy from what you are feeding her so whilist deciding what to give her, I would ring all the feed companies and ask for advice, giving her oil is a quick cheap way to get energy in. Vegatable oil in the shops is usually soya is OK.
I would also invest in a cheap weigh scales. If she is losing weight she needs 2.5% of her body weight, so if she weighs 600k she needs 15kg a day,so if you were feeding Horsehage haylage thats almost a full pack a day, or nearly half of a good sized bale of hay.
 
If you are turning her away all weekend, I would put her on Oats, Alfa A oil and sugarbeet.
Worked wonders on my TB (who was in work) and it didn't fizz her up at all. But she looked fantastic all year round.
 
honetpot said:
Look on the feed bags and find out what the DE (calories) in the feed are. You can increase the amount of energy she is getting without overloading her in one meal.
She is a big girl and not getting enough energy from what you are feeding her so whilist deciding what to give her, I would ring all the feed companies and ask for advice, giving her oil is a quick cheap way to get energy in. Vegatable oil in the shops is usually soya is OK.
I would also invest in a cheap weigh scales. If she is losing weight she needs 2.5% of her body weight, so if she weighs 600k she needs 15kg a day,so if you were feeding Horsehage haylage thats almost a full pack a day, or nearly half of a good sized bale of hay.
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Thank you so much for this, id much rather catch things before they get bad. But a stupid question, is the 2.5% to include hay and hard feed?? or just hay?
 
Personally I would get the vet to run some bloods and do a worm test first. That way you will know there is nothing wrong and you can adjust feeding and management to help her gain weight.
 
as she is on box rest i would suggest ad-lib top quality hay, and maybe some fast fibre or alpha beet as a very small feed 2x a day, to break the day up. if you feed veteran mix/oil/ etc do expext a lunatic when finished on box rest!!!! (albeit a fat and shiiny one!!!!)
 
Rowen and Barbary Readymash Extra is amazing for putting weight on. I can't believe the difference it made to my super skinny TB.....it's put so much on that she's now on a diet
The other thing you could try, if she isn't a fussy eater, is Allen and Page fast fibre - but well in excess of the amounts on the bag...
Micronised linseed is also good for putting weight on.
 
Please please please take my advice as i do actually know nutrition!

She is loosing weight because quite simply she is not getting enough to eat. A horse of her sze requires at least 3.5kg per day. This can be increased up to 4.5kg. Speedibeet and alfa a is of very little nutrition. Speedibeet is mostly water when soaked so actually it is very low in nutritional value.

Because she is on such a low feed DO NOT jump up to a lot of high condition feed. It will be too much and she might not need it. She needs a full ration of at least 3.5kg per day of a low calorie feed, like High fibre cubes or horse and pony. Use a chaff as well and a little speedibeet to make it more interesting. On that full ration she will gain weight.
 
Feed her a high calorie diet, stable her overnight and rug adequately. A lightweight rug does not add warmth, and can actually be detrimental to keeping a horse warm.
 
Are her poohs normal?

Sugarbeet/Speedibeet (in my experience) dont actually put weight on they have just scoured mine.. I would drop Speedibeet and opt for a something like D&H high fibre nuts, A nice chaff (everday chaff is fairly cheap) chop up a couple of carrots/swede to keep it interesting. xxx
 
Trot_On_Dressage said:
Please please please take my advice as i do actually know nutrition!

She is loosing weight because quite simply she is not getting enough to eat. A horse of her sze requires at least 3.5kg per day. This can be increased up to 4.5kg. Speedibeet and alfa a is of very little nutrition. Speedibeet is mostly water when soaked so actually it is very low in nutritional value.

Because she is on such a low feed DO NOT jump up to a lot of high condition feed. It will be too much and she might not need it. She needs a full ration of at least 3.5kg per day of a low calorie feed, like High fibre cubes or horse and pony. Use a chaff as well and a little speedibeet to make it more interesting. On that full ration she will gain weight.
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I fed my mare this for a few months - didn't make any difference whatsoever, and I fed her a little more than above!! Maybe different horses respond differently to different feeds?
 
Holly Hocks what was you feeding before you changed to what i recommended?

The reason why i recommended that is becuase the OP's horse isnt getting very much feed per day at the moment. You shouldnt jump from say 1.5kg of very low calorie feed to suddenly large amounts of a really high energy feed! The OP's horse needs a full ration of a low calorie feed first. Then if it still does not gain enough weight (If will gain weight from this ration) then you can move onto something slightly higher in energy.
 
Trot_On_Dressage said:
Holly Hocks what was you feeding before you changed to what i recommended?

The reason why i recommended that is becuase the OP's horse isnt getting very much feed per day at the moment. You shouldnt jump from say 1.5kg of very low calorie feed to suddenly large amounts of a really high energy feed! The OP's horse needs a full ration of a low calorie feed first. Then if it still does not gain enough weight (If will gain weight from this ration) then you can move onto something slightly higher in energy.
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Hi
It was when she came home from two months in hospital like a cruelty case that I started giving her the above - along with adlib haylage. Like you said, it seemed the best combination for her - but after about three months on it, it had only made the minimum of difference - she still looked incredibly poor. I don't know why she didn't respond to it. She is a very fussy eater, so I put her on Readymash Extra and she blossomed. She loves high fibre cubes (the Spillers ones especially) but they don't seem to really do her much good. In fact she is now on a small amount of speedibeet with the added minerals/supplements in, adlib haylage and is a little too fat now!
 
It may just be then that she needed just more calories than the high fibre cubes have in them, especially after all the trauma she must have suffered. Glad she is sorted now. :D
 
OP[If you think she is very underweight when other horses are doing well, I'd get her worked up, she coudl have anby number of conditions causing the weight loss.
OTherwise, add in a good bit more hard feed. That is more like what a normal doer might get. So get conditioning cubes adn feed her 4x daily feeds to build her up. Obviouly change it slowly.
 
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