Stumped at horse losing weight – any ideas?

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Ponysquisher

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My cob (usually a very good doer to put it mildly!) has lost quite a bit of weight over winter & especially muscle tone. Vet has checked him out, blood tests normal, glucose absorption ok & no apparent leg/back issues. He’s been wormed/tested regularly so don’t think it’s worm-related. The vet’s doing more tests e.g. muscle biopsy but doesn’t seem to think that’ll show anything either.

Initially was thinking ulcers but he’s out 24/7 with hay so it doesn’t really fit. Also, he seems fine in himself, doesn’t complain when he’s tacked up & not at all grumpy. (Not riding now until we work out what’s wrong btw.)

Obviously, we’re just going to keep going until we find out what it is – in the meantime I’m just looking for inspiration/reassurance as I’m starting to get a bit rattled!

I appreciate I haven’t given you a lot to go on but just wondering if anyone has any ideas what might be wrong with him?!

Thank you :)
 
The only thing I can think of is that the weather has been so appalling!!!! even though he has hay, good rugs etc. Sometimes the weather especially wet just gets too much and they start to lose condition. I had a horse that did that one winter when the weather was particularly bad. I brought him in for a few months and turned him back out 24/7 when the weather had turned for the better and he was fine. Put on tons of weight and kept it on the next winter. This might be a load of rubbish but worked for mine :-)
 
Thanks for thoughts :) Sorry, should have said. He's had his teeth done recently & vet said they were fine. And he's eating probably more than same time last year when he was a right porker i.e. plenty of haylage, & generous amounts of balancer, oats (I'm old-fashioned!) & chaff.

PC Steele - d'you know I've been wondering if its just the weather. But the next minute I'm convinced he has something horrible!
 
Thanks again. To answer your questions - he's not been clipped this year (he is normally, just didn't get round to it!). He's eating & pooing normally. He's 9.

Crikey - cushings was another thing that came up when I was trawling the internet waiting for the vet to call today :( They've not done the test yet but he said they will call again tomorrow with the next steps.

Thanks again everyone - hopefully vet will work out what it is sooner rather than later. x
 
Did an EDT do the teeth or a vet? If it was a vet, get an EDT, vets are not dentists anymore than doctors are.

Also, what rugs have you on? Are you unknowingly underrugging? If you have a rug on the coat doesnt work so even if you think they are too fluffy for a heavy rug, with any rug they may as well have no fur. I've not rugged at all this year and my cobs not lost as much weight as i would like, whereas last year he was well ruged and lost a lot of weight (in a good way!)
 
my mare has cushings and has lost a lot of weight recently but she has 20 yrs on your boy! I doubt he has cushings at 9 but worth a check for the sake of £50, they were doing free testing last year, not sure if they still are or not!? just need to pay for the vet to come out and take the blood and post it for testing!
 
My boy had this happen to him last year. Non apparent reason although may have been his hard feed diet. Bloods etc all checked. By spring and good dose dr green he was fine again. Still a mystery!
 
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