Too thin!

[Nailed]

I stand corrected. You came across as a troll.. that many rugs is WAY to much, Scrap the stable rug, and turn her out in a medium weight turnout.

I suggest Top spec feed balencer or Blue chip, With horsehad Cherry chaff (only thing that got any weight on Ted) and Cand Condition.

Lou x

 

[yhearia]

Thank you all, I will go down there as soon as I can and remove the stable rug, I do have cherry chaff which I will resume using. Thanks again

 

[3Beasties]

I didn't 'slag' you off and if you look at my responses I have recommended upping her feed.

It would also be a good idea to take the rugs of her as she will be sweating the weight off.

 

[MontyandZoom]

Firstly, I agree with the others that she will be far too hot in those rugs. Zoom is a hunter clipped full TB and she is out in a LW turnout.

You need to feed plenty of forage. Monty is a 29yo TB and loses weight easily, he is currently unclipped and in a lightweight TO day and night. He is currently fed:

Scoop of high fibre cubes and half scoop barley rings for breakfast AM
Scoop of Alfa-A oil, half scoop barley rings, half scoop high fibre cubes, mug of feed balancer, half scoop sugarbeet PM
Ad-lib hay

His feed will increase over the winter as it gets colder. Don't assume that there is goodness in the grass, we have grass left but it is not good quality. If she is in at night, she needs to have access to good quality hay.

Check teeth and worm too.....hope this helps.

 

[Spudlet]

Just remember to compare her to herself, not to the other horses in the field. A TB is ALWAYS going to look skinnier than a cob so it's easy to fall into the trap of looking at horses in the field and think 'cob, good... cob, god... TB ARGH STARVING TO DEATH!' when actually it's not

So keep tabs on their condition scores then you will have an idea of their progress!

 

[yhearia]

Is it possible to close the post? Thanks to everyone aswell

 

[FeatherPower]

Hi there, Please don't take it personally - I think pretty much everyone new on here is viewed as a suspect troll, I know I was!! Once you have 'contributed' to the site I think you get your potential troll status lifted but until then keep smiling sweetly and carry on as normal!

x

EDITED to add something useful! P.S I think my old mare is now on pink powder, which has been said to do wonders for condition and helps them digest their food better from what I understand.

 

[Puppy]

[ QUOTE ]
She has on a 425g stable rug and a rhino full neck medium weight turnout over it!

[/ QUOTE ]

I should think that your horse is losing weight because she is FAR too hot!

NO horse needs 625gm of rug, especially not in during a mild October

She must be incredibly uncomfortable

Reduce the rugs, and give her a scoop of senior conditioning mix twice a day with sugar beet.

 

[teddyt]

For those people who are saying too many rugs i would just like to say that although this is possible, it really depends on the location and type of shelter available in the field. I have to rug my horses more than some yards just a mile down the road because my fields are high up and we get the wind very strongly (even with thick hedges for shelter). A mile down the road and there is several degrees different. I even hav to rug my horses in the higher field differently to the one below! I am anti rugging unless you have to but a thin horse has no self insulation, this combined with an exposed field in a cold part of the country and she may not actually be over rugging. i dont think this can be answered from what we know on this post.

In terms of feed, unmollassed sugar beet is excellent for gut function. Cherry chaff is not particularly suitable for a thin horse as its of low nutritional value. So added to the sugar beet i would add something like alfalfa, and a conditioning feed if required as well. There are loads of options for this so i would advise phoning a feed company and going through everything with them so they can advise a good diet specifically for your horse.

And definately get the teeth looked at by a BEVA rgistered dentist or your vet asap. If the teeth are bad she may not be able to eat even grass, so you will hve to look for alternatives.

 

[3Beasties]

Sorry but she is over rugging, no doubt about it in my mind.

My TB will wear two or even 3 rugs in the very depths of winter (and I mean when we have a thick frost that stays around for days) but he is fully clipped and is also prone to loosing weight. I am not against rugging up in the slightest and I am sure I will be told I am over rugging later on in the winter BUT it's still October and is pretty warm outside during the day.

IMO No horse regardless of weather it is clipped or thin needs that many rugs at this time of year! Over rugging will cause the horse to sweat which will cause the horse to loose more weight.

 

[Stinkywellies]

Hi

Just to add, once you have tried increasing her feed and if that doesnt work you may want to speak to your vet and poss get her scoped for ulcers.

I couldnt put weight on my mare and i tried everything. I got her scoped and it turns out she had ulcers. Once they were treated she put on weight well.

Good luck i am sure she will be fine.

x

 

[teddyt]

My point was that you dont know if its mild where she is and you dont know how exposed her field is, so it might not be that warm, especially if windy and wet. I agree it does seem alot but with old thin horses sometimes you have to rug more, although mainly at night with less during the day. I have done my horses in my sheepskin hat, thick coat and over trousers already this year and im not thin!

I totally agree about over rugging, which can cause problems and is regularly seen. But i have also seen horses struggle due to lack of rugs. It really depends on location and individual circumstances, which i dont feel we know enough about just from this post.

OP- do consider your rugging though and if it is needed to this extent at the moment. Remember there is colder weather to come.

 

[hackedoff]

Hi

I am rugging my welsh cob type as he is kept on hilly ground and it is very windy and he is a wuss! it doesnt do to generalise about types. Can I suggest that the OP emails or calls one of the feed companies for advice? A lady on our yard did this and spillers have given her loads of really helpful advice for free specificlaly tailored to her horses type, condition and area kept.

 

[hussar]

Taylamaid - I haven't read all the posts and you've probably got far too much advice now but I used to have a toast-rack TB that I struggled to put and keep weight on. What worked best for him was Bailey's No1 cooked cereal meal, oil, and Spillers Body Builder, which is basically milk pellets for weight gain and also it adds palatability. He also got chaff but what make I can't now remember, and plenty of sugarbeet. It was tempting to pile rugs on him as he always looked as though he needed cosseting but in fact he sweated up really easily, and coped best in a medium turnout with neck cover.

 

[AmyMay]

Haven't read all of the replies, so sorry if I repeat.

Re-think the rugs. One good quality breathable rug will be far more beneficial
than the added physical weight of several. Horseware do exellent rugs. And something like a Duo will enable you to change the warmth factor very quickly and easily.

I'm assuming your vet is involved - and that bloods have been taken, to ensure that there are no underlying factors contributing to the lack of condition. But if not, then it would be top of my list.

Look at feeding a conditioning feed 3 to 4 times a day, on top of the good quality grazing you're offering. Smaller feeds, fed more often, will be much more beneficial.

And make sure that there is adequate shelter in the field - but I would certainly bring in in wet and windy weather. Offering plenty of good quality haylage.

 

[amandaco2]

get her teeth done and get her wormed with promax.
what sort of grass does she get?
its about 18degrees in the uk at the mo so watch over-rugging isnt an issue.

 

[Sparklet]

No criticism here, the only issue with the rugging is that when the weather turns colder you will need extra rugs and it wont be easy to increase from the rug you have with it being heavy weight already.

Your feed is a bit low, particulary if she is underweight and you really dont want underweight going into winter because TB's alwasy drop a bit during the colder months.

My 7/8 TB gets as much hay as she can eat overnight in the stable. She gets two feeds a day consisting of (in each feed):

1/2 scoop competition mix
1/2 scoop horse and pony cubes
1/2 scoop alfa oil
1 scoop speedibeet

That is considerably more than you are feeding your horse so personally I think you need to increase her feed and make sure she has constant access to fibre. Her grass supply might be plentiful but it isnt as good at this time of year so she needs to eat an awful lot more of it to get the same amount of nutrients and weight gain as she would earlier in the year.

I think you need to play about a bit with feeds, basically give her as much as you can..you will know when it is too much because she will get fizzy in a silly way....lacking concentration etc when you ride.

I hope you sort it out, some TB's are notoriously difficult to keep weight on during the winter months....oh and take care with clipping, stick with clips which leave more hair or dont clip if she doesnt sweat when worked.

 

[wizzi901]

"Weight Gain" does what it says on the tin and didnt hot our TB up!!! xx

 

[Donkeymad]

QR

Can you say how thin she is now in relation to the photo in your siggy? It's possible as you are used to cobs, that she may seem thin to you when she isn't.
You say that teeth being done is in the pipe line, don't delay, get it donw, it may make all the difference, as I have seen very recently, and not for the first time.

 

[kellyeaton]

Allen page calm and condition,alpha a oil, alpha beet,ready fibre mash extra, oil, d&d barley conditioning rings all of these are good at putting weight on!

 

[jessandthegirls]

I havent read all the replies, so sorry if i'm repeating others advice. I did read that you were only 18 and this was your first TB. Well done for asking for advice and your in the right place. Its sad that this forum can sometimes become a firing ground. Ok, so, can i ask if you keep your horses at home? or on a livery yard? I have a 17yr old tb mare, who drops weight at the drop of a hat, something i have always been very jealous of her for!

well done for booking teeth.

Here's what i would do. Loose the stable rug underneath, thats a heavy rug she's got on there! mine are our in MW 200g's and the babies are naked. Hopefully you've got some good grass, if not i would offer adlib hay in the field. I appreciate being younger, money may be a little tighter, but i assure you good quality hay is a saving in the long run. With mine, i buy a £5 bag of haylage and mix it in with her hay over 3 days(be careful not to leave it longer)- if she's looking a bit poor. Does your horse stress at all? mine is a total stress head and a lot of her weight issues relate directly to this.

Now the pricey bit, unfortunately your little guy isn't getting nearly enough grub... i would feed that to one of mine, just to give them something to nibble on before bed. if possible, introduce a feed balancer- again pricey, but very effective. When i was your age, instead of an allowance, i asked for a bag of blue chip. That stuff works wonders on maintaining condition. Also, try Alfa Oil, it will add coat condition help with the weight. I tried all sorts of expensive weight supplements and topline cubes etc etc but these were the only two that worked.

Try and take photos to help you monitor your success. You see the horse daily, so it will be hard for you to tell.

If you would like to chat, PM me, i've been there and will help if i can. try not to take the comments as critism i know it can be hard, but this forum is a useful resource for learning good luck

 

[brighteyes]

Could we have a really good and representative photo and a very approximate location?

You are fighting a losing battle if she is a picky eater; I'd go for roughage and oil if she is willing to chomp non-stop. A decent balancer and good old fibre-beet or sugarbeet with a good Dengie-type chop would always be my first choice before resorting to cereal-based conditioning stuff. Unless she is picky, and even that could be due to discomfort from teeth or, as others have said, ulcers, which would need investigating first.

 

[Lexie81]

My mare struggled over the summer to keep weight on, she is a 16h WB. By October she was looking awful and had started to really bolt her feed, causing 3 episodes of choke in 10 days, 1 badly so called the vet out who agreed that she looked quite surprisingly poor. Vet came back the following week, sedated her and did her teeth, although he said her teeth were not bad and shouldnt be causing her to lose condition. He took bloods and gave her a Hemo 15 jab (sp?) which he said should give her a boost and help her to pick up. He also reccomended she be stabled at night.

I then arranged to move yards so she could be in at night and upped her feed so is having a large stubbs scoop of high fibre cubes, same of sugar beet and 2 double handfuls of alfa a oil twice a day. She also has the most huge pile of hay, about 6 sections from a small bale, and i kept giving her more each night til she started to have a little left each morning and i figured that must be the right amount as she hadnt finished it all up. I held off clipping her, just put a rain sheet on in the day and fleece at night to ward off the chill and turn her out from 7.30 am til 5 ish every day. I also stopped working her. Bloods eventually came back and showed she was aneamic and vet said the hemo 15 should have already started to combat this but to try red cell if no improvement in 2 weeks. This was all at the start of October and by end of october she looked like a different horse, it was amazing how quickly she picked up. vet came to see another horse on the yard last week and came over to comment on how great she looks. She is looking just how she should and has stopped choking ( although i do still make her feed like soup!!) She is now back being ridden, just at weekends due to my lack of time, but really does look 100 % better.
Not saying this is the way to do it, just giving you my experience. My vet was very helpful and i would suggest you seek your vets advice as they will be able to tell you if she really is too thin or not. I kept thinking i was just being paranoid but when the vet told me they also thought she was too thin i was quite relieved that i wasnt just being OTT. Good luck

 

[Louby]

I bought a very underweight TB a good few years ago. I felt so sorry for her. No amount of food or haylage put weight on her, she just ended up a stress head and began leaving most of her net each night. Probably why she was so poor in the first place, to make her sane to sell!! It was like a vicious circle but the turning point was when I moved her to a farm with very good grass, after the summer there she looked great.
I did continue to feed her though but cut out the conditionoing cubes, baileys no 1 etc etc that Id been desperatly feeding to try to get some weight on her.

Alfa A is a great as a base instead of the cherry chop you are feeding. Lasts much longer too.

 

[thatsmygirl]

I think a pic is needed first as I know the pic in sig is not good angal etc but doesn't look to thin.

 

[Umbongo]

Wow, definitely take that stable rug off!!! Over heating IMO is worse than a cold horse, and could also lead to her dropping weight. We have quite lean clipped TB's here that are only in medium weights at the moment, maybe a fleece underneath when the wind here REALLY picks up.

Forage, forage, forage!!! Grass, hay, haylage etc. Also that amount of feed doesn't sound like a lot of she is thin so I would up it but gradually.

Definitely get her teeth done ASAP if she hasn't had them done recently.

 

[HollyWoozle]

This topic is from last year!

 

[Umbongo]

This topic is from last year!

Ha didn't even notice!!!

 

[Louby]

Me neither!

 

[Lurky McLurker]

Zombie thread is back from the grave!