underweight thoroghbred

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tinkby

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Hi, please be gentle first post!!!!

I recently bought a 3/4 thoroughbred :) (end Oct) who is quite underweight. :( We had a 5 stage vetting and all blood tests etc came back ok, we have had his teeth done and wormed him but despite feeding him well cant seem to get much weight on him. he is on 2 feeds a day of top spec feed balancer, top spec cool conditioner and dengie alpha oil. had some stuff from the vet called equitop myoplast but was very expensive and didn't seem to have any affect, also he has about 1/2 mug oil a day. Any ideas or do i just have to persevere until spring!!!! would be grateful of any experience/advise! ~ Thanks
 
I'm not an expert but micronised linseed does the trick with a lot of thoroughbreds. Will be keeping an eye on this thread myself :)
 
Lots of haylege (constant supply is ideal, if he's not ulcery), Omega Rice, linseed oil, alpha beet (if he'll eat it, one of ours won't) or readi-mash, alpha-a oil... Those are what the 3 TBs my sister has are fed and it keeps them looking pretty awesome.
 
Definitely ad lib haylage is key! Feed wise I found that speedi beet is good for weight (I give 1 1/2 mugs). I like the linseed as well for just overall well being and condition so would definitely recommend!
 
Fibre fibre fibre, my TB is notoriously poor over the winter although ive found this does the trick with him ad-lib hay, Alfa a hi Fi and speedi beet fed 3x per day plus a trug full of readi grass he's also on Feedmark balancer powder, I can't feed any thing heating as he's a nut job if not!
( he's in medium work and looks fab )
 
I find this works

1 round scoop of flaked barley (not rings etc)
1 round scoop cool mix
1 splash of oil
pink powder or general pupose supplement

Twice per day (not the supplement)

And adlib hayledge and grass if they can get any

Then when got a decent amount of weight then drop the flaked barley to once a day.

Also the obvious wormer and teeth :D

(also I have put a thread on with pictures about projects you can see the results there)
 
Have you had a blood test done to see if there is anything untowards going off? Have you done a worm count done, even though you've had him wormed.

Could be worth getting a second opinion on the teeth.

As much hay/haylage as he will eat. I have tried linseed on a couple if horses and found it didn't do much. baileys outshine however is fantastic
 
I have same thing with my ex racer and currently got the vet out to him. I have heard of the following good feeds:

Simple Systems (my boy was on this but he's lost weight drastically this winter)
Pure feeds (which I have just changed him too)
Copra meal (heard very good things about this)

A lot of people seem to recommend fast fibre or speedibeet (unmollassed) with linseed upto 500g per day with a good balancer such as pro hoof or pro balance +

Good luck x
 
Don't do big feeds.
I find lots will lose weight on too big a hard feed as don't eat as much forage. So split hard feeds up as much as possible into two or three smaller feeds.
A couple dropped off badly last year and convinced owners to stop huge feeds and just do a scoop of sugarbeet and chaff, both started eating their haylage properly and gained weight quicjlyr
 
Best thing for my Guy and I tried everything is keeping it simple.

Lots of fibre

Lucerne chaff (and hay over winter)
Oats
Yeast
Supplement which balances the diet the one I use I don't think is avaliable in the Uk, it does pay to do your homework as not all complete products are actually complete.
Salt

Balanced diet and high fibre is the key to a healthy horse as minerals interact with each other so need to be in blance to work. I wont feed processed feeds again.

This made my guy glossy and round he only needed 2kg max over winter which allowed me to get away with one feed (golden rule: don't feed more than .5% of body weight in hard feed, feed between 1.5 and 3% of body weight in fibre (dry weight))

This summer he is such a chilled horse and has been fine on grass and a feed of chaff and supplement.
 
I had this problem when I bought my TB. It takes ages for him to gain weight and drops weight far too quickly.
I used the following: Dodson and Horrell Build up mix 1.5 scoops twice a day with one heaped scoop of Chaff. I added Linseed oil and apples/carrots to his food.
I also changed him over from Hay to Haylage (he prefers it) and would stable him each night (making sure he was nice and toasty so wouldn't lose weight being too cold). He has as much haylage as he could eat.

I now have a nice round TB and he is much happier and more responsive because of it.

It takes a good while but keep perservering and you'll get there. :)
 
I have one that we're been struggling to put weight and keep weight, shine and condition on. We're finding this is helping -

ad lib hay

hickstead conditioning cubes
hickstead economy coarse mix (quite high in fibre)
chaff
oil
plus bits of veg if theres any going

Good luck, hopefully summer will be easier :eek::D
 
Thank you guys some really good advice!! He is on adlib hay and always has a small amount left in his stable in the morning so i presume he has enough!! :) we make our own hay so has that so i know it's good stuff but thinking of buying in a bale of haylage to try. As i said teeth, worming blood tests all good! :D my intructor said may have to wait for Dr Green to do his stuff in the spring!!!:cool:

Also want to keep him calm don't want anything that will 'hot' him up!
 
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I would look to feeding 4 small feeds a day, rather than the two larger ones. And definately give haylage instead of hay.

I'd also ring Topspec for a chat. You shouldn't need to feed a balancer alongside hardfeed, if it's being fed in the right quantities.
 
Thanks :) i did speak to top spec who were really helpful and even did a menu for him!!! but they said the balancer is the most important as it is the 'basic' feed and then add the conditioner etc to that, started breaking into 3 feeds now and seems a shame to buy haylage when we have hay but happy to try anything, i long for the day i can't see his ribs :D
 
I feed mine add lib haylage and two scoops of speedibeet ( soaked ) two kilos oats 400 grammes micronised linseed I kilo alfalfa ( molasses free ) and farriers formula .
Haylage wise he is eating a bale and a half of small bale haylage daily.
The first thing you need to do is to wiegh everything and work how much in wieght the horse is eating daily , some TB,s just don't have enough appetite to eat enough that's why at first you need to know exactly how much forage they eat in a day.
Mine although a skinny child at one time looks like a grey seal with legs ATM.
 
My TB is on chop, high fibre cubes, speedi-beet and a splash of veg oil - doing well. BUT she's also in at the moment keeping my other mare on box rest company so she has 24/7 access to haylage. :D

Another thing - is he warm enough? Keep him toasty warm - the minute he starts getting cold, he'll drop condition :)
 
Have to say, the thing I've got from this post and all similar is that to get condition on a TB requires just large volumes of decent quality (not necessarily the most well-known brands) feed rather than the specific type of feed.

I mean, obviously some feeds are more appropriate than others and horses can react to feeds differently (EquiJewel was like rocket fuel to Reg but works well on loads of horses, 16+ feed sent my old TB into orbit as did Calm and Condition but it comes highly recommended and has worked for other horses we've cared for), but the constant seems to be how much you can actually persuade them to eat...
 
If TopSpec recommended Super Conditioning flakes I'd strongly recommend you don't feed them! My TB foundered after being fed these. A year later and I'm steal dealing with the fall-out.
 
No hes not on the flakes but the cool conditioning cubes seems fine on these but did get a bit more bolshy on speedi beet! so cut that out! :o
 
tinkby said:
No hes not on the flakes but the cool conditioning cubes seems fine on these but did get a bit more bolshy on speedi beet! so cut that out! :o
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Ah few. The cubes should be fine! Just thought I'd mention it as I was recommended the flakes when I called, and tbf they're just oats and soya, so I thought they'd be alright :eek:.
 
Lol :D It's hard as the things that are the best for condition also contain the most energy!! i just want the right kind of energy ;)
 
I think if the horse is not putting on condition now, then you may need to think about another feeding regime.

I love Dodson & Horrell feeds, and the Build up Cubes would be my no. 1 choice for putting on condition, alongside Alpha A oil.
 
Hi Tinkby,

The regime I followed for getting condition and weight on my TB was trying to ensure the dinners I gave him were broken down into as many smaller feeds as possible - obviously this isn't always practical! but if you can manage to break it down into at least two feeds, their digestive system will work much more effectively at processing the nutrients in the dinner than putting everything into one big dinner!

I feed my boy the following split into two feeds, three, where possible:

2 x scoops of alphabeet
2 x scoops of alpha a oil
2 x cups of micronised linseed
2 x cups of baileys stud balancer

and good old adlib forage consisting of hay or haylage.

I did try for a while baileys no.4 conditioning cubes and I didnt see much luck with that and i saw more progress with the linseed over a month then the cubes did over 3 months.

He's currently on boxrest at the moment so I have cut back on the alphabeet and alpha a oil and his coat is still gleaming and he's in great condition which I'm putting down to the micronised linseed and has definitely proved to be one of the more effective feed supplements I've tried to gain good weight and condition.
 
Copra meal, it's oil and fibre and good for digestion. Plus pink powder. Pile in oil and fibre and forget cereals!
 
tinkby said:
Lol :D It's hard as the things that are the best for condition also contain the most energy!! i just want the right kind of energy ;)
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Omega Rice is great for that we've found- doesn't fizz any of ours up at all, yet in the time we've had her one has gone from being very poor to being in good condition. Al got her at the start of December so no good grass to help!
 
Agree with Dizzle re avoiding cereals, have found Copra to be very good plus linseed, alfalfa molasses free as a base and speedi beet.
3 days per week I'm out during the day so mine gets 2 feeds (he lives out with ad lib hay) but on the days I'm home he also gets a small lunch which helps a lot
 
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