Underweight horse...

grhands

grhands

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Hi everyone. We have a bit of a concern over my mothers 17.2hh 20yr old ID. He's a lovely sort. Still very happy with life. He hacks up and down the road still quite happily with mum and he has a huge appetite, yet he has lost weight. Usually at this time of the year he is quite rotund ready to go in to the winter. However we lost my horse in May and since this happened he has begun to lose the weight. They had been companions for 12 years. We have put him on a conditioning feed / mix for older horses and also put him on a supplement. He's on spillers conditioning mix (senior), herb & fibre chaff, a scoop of bran mash (occasionally) and small pieces of chopped carrot.

Anyway through stress or whatever something isn't working here, I'm worried he's not going to make the winter. It would be such a shame if we had to pts due to this weight loss when he has up until now enjoyed his hack a week and time trotting round the field with my five year old.

Any constructive advice or helpful tips would be appreciated.
 
Is he eating lots of grass and hay and haylage? If he's on hay try switching to haylage. Probably telling you to suck eggs but make sure he has some all of the time.

Try adding equijewel by Saracen to his feed it's brilliant stuff really really calorific. Make sure he's getting the recommended amount of mix it will probably work out at 3-4 scoops per day, split it into 3 or 4 feeds and mix it with the equijewel and a scoop of Alfa which is a calorific chaff. You could also try a prebiotic supplement as digestive system may need help.

If that doesn't work you may need to get the vet to check him. Poor boy sounds like he is grieving. When my mums horse died a few years ago his stable mate who was 23/24 at the time dropped off and was generally stressy poor chap. He did pick up though and we were lucky to have him for another couple of years :).
 
Is he warm enough?
It has gone cold recently with a cold northerly wind. Mine has lost a little weight in the last couple of weeks - so have rugged him up more & this is helping.
Just a thought...
 
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