TB not looking so good

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Crystalbank_stud

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I have a fourteen year old ex racer who lives out 24/7. I'm unable to ride now due to a neck injury and I honestly think that may be my boy's problem.

He's gone through the winter fine, but now seems to be loosing weight. He's on add lib hay and I've always fed whole boiled barley, sugar beet, chaff and corn oil. He has this three times a day (three scoops of each). He has access to mineral lick and a fresh supply of water. The hay seems ok, if sometimes a little dusty, but I do give it a good shake. He is turned out with two of my miniature youngsters who do not steal his feed and don'e eat much hay. My boy is literally eating all day.

He is up to date with worming and of course wears a nice, warm rug which I take off in the day when the sun is out. His teeth are also ok.

His back bone seems to protrude and his rump is not rounded at all.

Should I be increasing anything or do you all think that he needs working to muscle back up?

Any more I can do? I'm worried about changing his feed, but do you think I should add anything else in with it?
 
I think your first port of call should be to get your hay analysed (Dodson & Horrell will do it for a fiver) - no point in him scoffing tons of hay if there is no goodness in it. You could also think about giving him something like NAF Pink Powder to ensure he is making the most of his feed.

I must say, however, if he has had no history of losing weight before, I would probably be calling the vet for further investigations as he seems to be on a lot of feed, so really shouldn't be dropping the weight.
 
He's never ever looked fat and is naturally on the lean side (lucky him).

Good idea about the Dodson and Horrell testing and I'll send a sample off for checking.

Will see if I can get a pic of him today.
 
A pic would be great - would help to determine whether he has actually lost weight, or whether he is just lacking muscle. Can you see his ribs at all?
 
Yes you can see his ribs (not like a washboard), but they are there and again, always have been since the day I collected him from the races.

I also think he burns a lot of nervous energy, although he doesn't gallop round everwhere or anything like that, he is a very 'sensitive' horse.

Will get you a pic today and post here.
 
I would have the vet out out to do some checks asap if it has got the point where his back bone is protruding and his shedding weight off his rump.

If he's no being ridden the there will be a certain amount of muscle wasting away but even so, are you 100% sure he has been well covered through winter and has not been slowly dropping weight?

If not then he must of dropped it quite suddenly plus if its totally out of character (lets face it many TB's can be poor doers at the best of times due to various reasons) but ifat that age he's usually well, I'd have the vet to make sure, then discuss a way forward once you have the all clear.

I didn't notice that you mentioned it on your post but have his teeth been looked at lately? it can only take one bad tooth etc to have a knock on effect with a horses weight.

Hope everything is ok though and good luck.
 
I would give him a balancer I use Baileys Lo Cal

You do not seem to be giving him any Vit / min

You could give a chap called Roger Hatch (Trinity Consultants) a call. His number is 01243 551766

Another thing you could give him is a Liver Tonic, Roger does a very good one
 
Is he warm enough? Does he have access to a field shelter?

Can you give haylage instead?

And agree about perhaps vet having a little look see and have some bloods taken.
 
Ive just gone through this with my 29yo tb, its a worry isnt it?
She went really poor, i had a full blood count done and all was ok, her teeth checked ok, so i looked at her feed, i started her on Ready Mash Extra and baileys No4 cubes and also added pink powder, over the last month she has piled wait on, she still looks a bit ribby but we are getting there, here is a link to a pic taken on Mon.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4168556/an/0/page/0/gonew/1#UNREAD
Good luck id get the vet 1st then go from there, im sure you will find a soloution as your lad is 15yrs younger than my mare she is a stress head too.
Hope that helps
 
Mine is much the same - nothing on her neck/back/rump. In the past, her ribs have been quite obvious over the winter, especially this time of year. This year I've managed to keep the weight on her so her ribs are just about visible when she moves, but she is still lacking topline. It makes it very difficult to tell if she's underweight or just lacking in muscle.

I'd agree with having him checked by a good EDT and your vet as well. If there's nothing wrong, then perhaps swap hay for haylage (I did this for the first time this winter, and it's really helped!). I also swear by fibre only diets, as my mare is looking brilliant - this time last year she weigh taped at 490kg. This year she's up to 540kg.
 
Same with mine here too!!I was worried she was dropping weight although didn't look ribby as such. Had the vet out who was wonderful and even though I had expected bloods teeth etc he just said she had dropped muscle as I hadn't been riding as much due to the weather. He did a quick check over but said it was unneccessary to do bloods etc and advised me to start on non heating products. I am very thankful to the vet as he could have done all the tests and charge me the earth but he was very honest and she is slowly building up the muscle now the weather is improving.
I would get the vet to give him a MOT and get advice on feedng. As he isnt ridden there is a huge choice of feed that can help him build back up and I wish you the best of luck. Tb's!!!You gotta love em xx
 
I found the ideal fed to keep weight on my old 16.2 tb ex racehorse stallion, before this I he was either skinny or mad…bet you know what I mean. My friend told me to try Balanced horse feeds Showmix, she’d had a great result on her horse an it made him glow with health and he wasn’t mental. Only trouble was when I phoned them they didn’t have a stockist near me so I was stuck. The guy on the end of the phone said that this was often the case, what good is a great feed if you can’t get it, he then went on to tell me that I could buy directly from them and get it delivered to my house or to the yard. Result! He worked it out that at 9lb a day a bag would last about 5 days. All I had to do was buy 10 bags and it would be deliverd to me.
I rekon you wouldn’t go far wrong giving this a try. Good luck.
PS and he eats it all. Licks the bowl and chucks it over the door to ask me for more. Greedy Pig.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Only trouble was when I phoned them they didn’t have a stockist near me so I was stuck.

[/ QUOTE ] How odd - surely you could get it from your own feed store, whose URL is in your profile, and which stocks the whole Balanced Horse Feeds range.
confused.gif
 
I called a friend to come round today for a cuppa and to look at my boy. As said up above he's not ribby or thin but is really lacking muscle. He was in hard work up until May last year. I then got told I could no longer ride and so he's not been used.

He doesn't appear to have been lunged before so does anyone have any ideas on how to improve his muscle please?

He had a vet check about a month ago as I had a really poorly pony here.
 
To build muscle you need adequate protein in the diet and exercise. If you cant lunge then what about walking in hand? There is no such thing as a feed that builds muscle, you need exercise. If it is just lack of muscle and not weight you may just have to accept that he will always look like that unless you can somehow exercise him. At his age and being an ex racer it will b hard to make him look 'round' anyway. It is also common for ex racers to have pelvis problems so he may have an underlying long term niggle that means he doesnt use his back end very much, hence losing muscle.

If hes retired then i really wouldnt worry about it, as long as his weight is ok.
 
He is fully up to date with his worming, a programme which I follow recommneded by my vets and I also have worm counts done to. He was last wormed two weeks ago along with all the others. Teeth and worming are all very up to date as per my first post.
 
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