Vet booked, old age? Something more sinister? :(

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Em123

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A wwyd post and may be long sorry!

Bit of back ground, last October I got an 18 year old ex racer on loan, he had raced and pointed alot and then was used as a yard hack so he came to me quite fit! He had the winter off to chill and due to bad weather etc.
Was brought SLOWLY back into work around feb time and by mid march you could tell his heart wasn't in it, he looked stiff and uncomfortable and kept ditching people hacking and just looked generally miserable. Decision was made to retire and be lawn mower, all was good un till he got several abscesses in his front feet, cue a month through out April of box rest, anti biotics and enPugh vetwrap to start a surgery! He got over that and lost a bit of weight but was well fed and had 24/7 access to hay!
Fast forward to end of April and he is given the all clear to go back out 24/7. Luckily are grass is amazing and the field (10 acres, 3 tbs) had not been grazed for a year so was lush grass, still getting 1 x hard feed plus haynets if they wanted it ( they only eat hay when it rains!)
So now he is losing weight despite all this and he is well rugged, struggling to get up and looks very stiff and 'sad' he is normally the boss but a horse walked up and bit him today an he didn't even put his ears back at him.
I have booked the vet but any ideas if this could be old age or what?

Please excuse my ramble I'm no good at wording myself or spelling.

Thanks in advance for any replies!
 
Must also add he races from 2-13 and then was pretty much in training but not racing from 13-18
 
Sounds like old age related creaky and possibly arthritic joints.

I suspect the vet may suggest a Bute trial to see if he picks up.
 
Could be cushings - they don't all do the hairy thing! Possibly some arthritis as well, but if he is losing topline and looks a bit ribby, combined with foot problems and lethargy it could well be cushings.
 
Could be a mixture of things arthritis , ulcers age creeping up on him let us know how u get on with the vet x
 
How was he when he first arrived? My oldie pony went off last year and went through phases of looking really uncomfortable and then the next day he'd look ok. He dropped some weight (he is normally a very good doer) and just look, well, old whereas he's always looked so good for his age. At the same time though he fell out with a field mate so kept attacking him. Anyway, turned out he'd injured his back and, to cut a long story short we had his back treated and he was back to his normal self. He's recently started going off again so I decided to Bute him for a week to determine if he was in pain. He was. Got vet out but of course pony decided to not exhibit any awkwardness but vet suggested having his back looked at again, this was after he'd ruled out spavin/ other arthritis. He was very sore in his back again. My other horse has also gone lethargic and not himself before and this too turned out to be a back issue. I think in my pony's case he'd fallen in the field whilst attacking the other horse. With my horse I am pretty sure he hurt his when he crawled under a fence!!!
 
sounds like old age has caught up with him :-(

could you give him a daily low dose or bute?
See what vet says as there could be other reason.
May be take bloods.
Change his feed.

But like with my gelding last year, I just knew when it was time to say good bye.
 
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