Totally deflated - Why is she STILL so thin :(

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Beatrice5

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Well I am at a total loss.

Elderly skinny tb mare whom I am helping her owner with despite being feb tonnes of Alfa A oil, Baileys No 4 conditioning cubes, micronised linseed, Speedibeet and equimins veteran suppliment and decent grass and hay is still painfully thin. She is eating nearly £40 feed a week!!!!

She had everything tested after her accident and came back all clear and no problems so why oh why won't she hold any condition?

She now has the company of my mare whom she adores so is more settled but still fence walks and box walks when she comes in for a few hours each day to get extra feed even though my mare is penned immediately outside her stable so they can chat over the door.

I weigh taped her today having not done it for a while and it said 414kg :( She's a 16.2 pure tb 20 yr old mare.

Her coat looks amazing I have cleared up all the rain scald and mud fever she is glossy and perky but still we have visible ribs, hips and spine and shoulders. She is going out for an hour of gentle walking hack twice a week as she really enjoys a change of scene and I am light at the moment at just over 8 stone but in winter I max at 9.

What to do ? Her owner is fed up with her costing so much and now thinking of PTS as no-one wants to loan her as she is so expensive to run. I feel so sorry for her as she is a swwet old girl and great fun to be with and ride but can see his point she eats more in a day than my 3 together in a week!!

Anyone else have any suggestions. Teeth / wormed all done too.

Just to add she has been being fed like this since her accident end of January so although she looks better she isn't anywhere as much improved as she should be for 4 months of huge amounts of feed split into 5 meals a day!
 
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Try a different feed.

I had Dizz on all the 'top' feeds. Didn't work. Then tried Saracen's Re-leve and their Equi-jewel. Worked wonders.

Only those two feeds (twice a day), constant ad lib hayalge, sugarbeet, or Spring grass will get weight on my stressy DWB mare.
 
Take out the exercise=there's no point in using up calories whether or not she's enjoying the change of scene. How good is the grass? Have you tried haylage? PResume the hay is ad lib? Can she be penned outside the stable so she's not stressing the weight off?
IT is possible she has a tumour of course-and also the grass isn't great yet this year so not much in it yet. Is she rugged?
 
No answer I am afraid, my old boy came backfrom loan a skeleton :( was fed, build up, barley rings, alfalfa, and. Speedy beet, 3 times day... He putweight on but never got back to his fat self :(
 
At her age and having been poor in mid winter suffering from rainscald she is still playing catch up and will probably pick up properly once the weather gets better. It has been cold recently as well as wet, the grass will have less in it than it will once it gets warmer.

The oldie I have dropped all his weight in a few weeks Oct 2010, he was quickly diagnosed with cushings and stabilised but did not gain the weight properly until midsummer the following year, I had stopped worrying by then as he looked ok just not good enough, this year he held his weight over winter much better with less feed and is looking fab now, he is 33.

Give her a bit longer and she should pick up.
 
Some older horses just don't keep weight on regardless and if she's well in herself then I wouldn't worry too much. If the weather ever improves then spring grass is the best for putting on weight, keep her warm and turned out and she should improve over the summer. I would still ride her if you feel she's enjoying it, an hour walking is probably doing more good than harm.
 
I know tapeworm doesn't show up on worm counts...? Just an idea giving her a wormer for tape... Sorry if you've done this.
Sounds like she has the best staff!
 
Susie T :She is well rugged yes.

I think she covers more ground in the field than she does on our hack! She is also a lot calmer after her hack and her box is much less disturbed telling me she is not box walking then.

I think a different feed may be a good place to start so will research any suggested.

The vet was very thorough when the gave her an MOT after the accident I trust his judgement. I think we have to deal with her ageing gut and worry wart nature more than anything else.

I will persevere and yes agree the grass is taking an age to come through this year which doesn't help.
 
Thank you for the suggestion but the wormer she had in Jan did tape worm then she was done as per the livery yard roat just before she came home a few weeks ago.

Maybe I should feed her blocks of lard.... ;) (that is a joke btw)
 
I think you should carry on riding her, I find that sometimes if they are doing no work the feed just goes straight through them, I know my boy was like this when I got him, skin and bone despite being fed loads and hardly doing any work, I gradually built up his work load and he built up muscle and within a few months looked great, obv a bit sifferent for your mare as she is older but same theory might still apply?

Also how many meals are you splitting all this feed into? Horses only have small stomachs so if you give more than 2-3 scoops feed in one meal it will just get pushed though the digestive system too quickly without giving them a chance to utilise it, lots of small meals are the key. I would try to chance her routine somehow to stop all the box/fence walking if you can as you don't want her stressing the weight off.
 
Ax some one said, some times these oldies just never get back to how they were :( , mine did not , wormed, and bloods -all fine, cost me £120 a month on feed just to keep him ok /(

Ic she is feeling ok, then you might have to admit defeat, and concentrate o. Maintenance :( xx
 
That was done end of Jan - the vet ran everything he could and took loads of samples.

He was sure he'd find something wrong as she looked so horrific but he was amazed to say all within normal range and to just get on and feed her up.

I am wondering if she has ulcers but know owner won't fund her being scoped but does it make them fail the thrive ?
 
Like yourself I tried loads of different feeds to get weight on one of mine. Best one for him is Calm & Condition, difference is nothing short of amazing.
 
How much roughage are you giving her? It's been so wet there isn't much goodness in the grass. I'd be giving her ad lib, good quality haylage, plus about 8 pounds of hard feed a day like D&H Build Up.
 
Constant access to either grass or excellent hay.

Haylage does go straight through her and her poo's are sloppy and stink as before I got involved her owner was giving her haylage and she was a total rake.
 
Maybe consider feeds that are all digested before they get to the hind gut. Speedi beet and linseed are good, the other feeds are not so good. You may find cutting out those feeds and increasing the linseed to recommended amounts actually puts weight even though you are feeding less. A good vit and min supplement and brewers yeast to help stabilise the gut bacteria maybe all you need.
I personally don't like haylage. It can be acidic which can unbalance the gut.

I would echo the worm count and tape worm blood test.

To be honest, if she doesn't pick up on good grass over the next couple of months, then she probably won't ever pick up. 20 year old TBs are not always easy to keep well, however hard you try.
 
Copra is easily available in the uk,trade name coolstance. I used it for my WB when he was a struggle to keep weight on. Apparently it is an acquired taste! But once he was used to it mixed in with all the other stuff he wolfed it down and held condition a little better.
He is now prone to being rather more of a good do-er. I put this down to two factors. 1) The feed. http://www.thepurefeedcompany.com/products I use Pure easy believe it or not! and 2) Being settled and not stressed. He knows forage is ad lib(at my previous yards ad lib has been hit and miss!) He has company(previously had company,but his important mates would get removed to go hacking etc)
I am guessing that your horse had has her fair share of stress and possibly hunger during her 20 years as a TB. It may take a fair while for her to realise that things are okay now she has you..... just as it may take a while longer for the bloddy grass to come through! IMO riding her will help build muscle particularly if you work her gently in a long,low frame. Then when the grass does put in an appearance everything will hang together better!
 
My mare (14 years old when I bought her) was very poor indeed. We chose to feed her Winergy Condition, after much investigation my knowledgeable friend into various brands, and Pink Powder. The results were really impressive.

I would post before and after photos but have posted them before :(

I understand how worrying it is when they are underweight, and I hope you find a solution soon:)
 
Thank you for all replies very helpful.

Hello AbiTodd I have emailed Pure and awaiting advice from them.

Can you get Copra easily at feed stores or shall I order it online.

She has me for now but I cannot afford to take her on so it's only while her owner looks to move her on one way on another which is fairly disheartening but I shall endeavour to do my best by her.
 
I'd be inclined to swap the alfa oil fr hi-fi mollasses free - less rich (the alfa could be adding to her stressiness) but still quite a high oil content, which could be topped up with a few glugs of sunflower oil... I've had good reults from that and topline conditioning cubes with spillers veteran ballancer and speedi-beet... but if those arent working for you, I agree with trying something else...

have you considered a stud cube? In the days before conditioning feeds,this is what we fed for weightgain ;)

Soaked oats?
Barley?
 
Has she had her teeth checked? I know you said she's been wormed regularly etc but my gelding had been wormed regularly along with the other horses on the livery yard and began losing weight. I tried everything for him and he was still losing weight - eventually the vet came and ran a blood test and worm test and found he had a really high tapeworm level even though he was done for tapeworm twice a year (plus other wormers throughout the year). Definitely don't rule worms out just because you've been worming her regularly. Once mine was treated he turned back to his fatty self and now lives off thin air again!
 
I wouldn't say 20 is partilcularly old. I don't know what the accident is you refer to but Ido know stressy horse can stress weight off so easily. We have a 28 yo TB we 'rescued' aged 19 as he was due to be PTS as his owner had nowhere to keep him after several failed loans. He is a light TB, pretty fine and you can always see his rubs but I think that's more to do with him being very well 'sprung' from how they are worked when racing. He has does really well over the last few years on Allen and Page Old Faithful. This last year though he was on high fibre cubes in the winter and did ok but was on paddock rest as a companion to my sister's lame horse so had constantgood hay all winter really so that helped.

He lives out 24/7 and does fine on that. I would try changing feeds. I like A&P's Old Faithful and also their weight gain feed - worked a treat when we first got my sister's horse as he was a bit underweight. If her pooes are sloppy I would maybe try some pink powder to help her gut function. I don't think at 20 she's a lost cause.
 
Try a tablespoon of plain yoghurt mixed in her feed,as her droppings are a bit sloppy, could mean the hindgut bacteria needs a hand also with it being wet a lot of horses are getting sloppy droppings as too much water in the grass,but if she's stress, like box walking and walking up and down the fence, try some Ostress for awhile.
 
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