Weight Loss in older horse !!!!!!!!!!!

[CAYLA]

Where to start......I have a 25+ x hunter xc, im no expert in horses, I rode a great deal when younger but dont now.... just kept as retired pets now...he is my mam horse, he ended up with my horse a low maintenance qualter horse that lives on fresh air as I have more time to care for them.

My mam rescued him some years ago, he was a severe starvation case pretty high profile at the time, he was one of the few survivors.
He has been a fatty the whole 10 years we have had him,
He has lost weight rapidly, he began loosing weight last years and I asked for advice and got some...and it as fab...thanx...esp Piebaldsparkle who helped me beef the boy up

by increasing an introducing foods.
He has now begn to loose weight again....he has had blood tests, faecal samples, dentist and there is no medical reason for the weight loss

he is rugged up has add lib haylage, goes through one a week with my horse, and 4 meals a day....I

Is this an old age thing and is it fair to keep him going, he is bright and healthy in himself?

Ps vet has mentioned scaring from previous worm burden he could have suffered in the time before we had him and poss long term effects from starvation, but nothing on tests.

 

[Hippona]

Poss an old age thing- lad on our yard similar....if all tests ok, teeth ok and he is having plenty of forage, what else is he having to eat? Do you give him hay replacer or sugar beet or something easily digestible? If you are doing all the usual veteran feeding stuff, and all tests are ok, teeth ok and he is warm enough, then i suppose it may just be an old age thing. I would let him enjoy himself, as long as he is alert/active and happy then thats ok....when loses interest and his spark,, then you will know its time to call it a day.

Sounds like he's in good hands.

 

[ladyt25]

Sounds like just an age thing really. Does he still have all his teeth? If not he is probably struggling to eat such things as grass and hay and therefore I would suggest supplementing him on such things as alfa-A and also, if he struggles to eat hard feed then try soaking things, specifically designed for elderley horses, into a porridge like consistency.

We had a couple of v older horses at one stage and soaked them high fibre cubes and stud mix along with some sugar beet and alpha-a (for the one that'd eat it).

I would advise though to go off your vets advice. We often thought our old pony needed putting down as we worried about his weight but out vet told us providing he was still eating and appeared happy in himself (his general health heart etc were fine) then to leave him be and carry on feeding as we were. Once he decided he could no longer eat / lost interest in food then we made the decision (although you could see he'd decided he'd had enough by then).

In the end it's up to you. If you have the facilities, time and money to keep him fed well then so be it but if he does appear to be suffering then he may just be coming to the end.

Oh, just forgot - have you tried pink powder to improve his digestion? (soz, just an after thought there!)

 

[Alibear]

Have you had the cushings tests done? Big horses can get it, I believe it requires blood tests done at certain times of day.

Also have you tried him on some sort of digestive suppliment? It may be his system is not getting as much out of the food that's going through him as it used to.

Mac did this and I put him on Coligone which did the trick, or there's always good old Naff Pink Powders.

Finally this time of year is the start of tapeworm season, this won't show up in worm counts but can be checked with a blood test. That would also cause him to drop weight. Or you could just worm him with a wormer that gets rid of tapeworm to rule that option out, but I have known horses who do have tapeworm to get a bit colicky when the wormer takes effect so if he's an old boy I'd probably blood test first to know what I was up against.

 

[townfieldlass]

I have a 22YO thoroughbred who was a starvation case when I got her 7 years ago. I feed her Alfa A oil, speedibeet and either a conditioning mix or cube. Either hay or haylage on tap too. She goes through stages. She will lose weight/condition within 24 hours from cold/tiredness/hunger/worming time or just the time of year. She is poor at the mo because the grass hasn't been of great condition. I tend to use supplements at various times of the year to support their diets. Either a general purpose vitamin supplement or NAF pink powder is a good pick me up for my horse. I have had my mare tested and some times of the year she tests positive for an overactive thyroid gland (rare in horses) so we just work on condition and hope that weight gain follows on from that

 

[CAYLA]

Thanx everyone...he is on sugar beet, pink powder, 16+ and added vegie oil to his feets, he eats fine and clears his bowls, he seems to show no interest in haylage for a few days, then just dives in and cleans the lot up

he is very alert and bright in himself, grazing is low at the moment so I take him out on his lead rope for a few hours a day, I just hate looking at him this way

my own horse is like a barrell and in fab condition...but then he is not high maintenane like the big lad.
His has a full set of teeth and loos to have no problems munching his food.

the feed place told meto use cattle feed

they said alot of hosey people buy it to bulk up..but im not to sure.

The cost is not a problem, I wil spend whetever needs to be spent to keep him in feed.
Im dreading the winter and the possibility he could loose more weight

 

[teabiscuit]

have you had a blood test done?

my 29 year old was not getting protein out of his food and this showed up as low albumen in his blood, most likely caused by a digestive problem.

liver enzymes were fine.

this turned out to be fatal and was most probably cancer and he died (PTS) 3 months afterwards - it was a quick degeneration and pretty devastating

on the other hand my old mare spent the last 3 winters losing weight to a state of thinness, and recovering to full fatness in summer and died of something completely unrelated

there are a number of causes that make old horses lose condition, which added together can create real problems but are not in themselves fatal.

lush grass was the only thing that put weight on my mare when she got to her 30's


good luck with your old chap, i think it's worth bearing in mind that it could be a serious catastrophic illness OR a collection of things that mean he could cope for a number of years with lean winters and fat summers

confusing i'm sorry, but these are two sides of the coin that i've experienced with old horses losing wieght.

 

[TGM]

You could swap the 16+ for a conditioning feed (such as Build Up if you want to stick with Dodson & Horrell). Most conditioning feeds contain more calories than veteran feeds - eg Build Up has 12.5 MJDE/kg against 16+'s 11.5 MJDE/kg. I would give the feed company a ring and check you are feeding the recommended amount for his weight.

How much oil do you feed? You could up the oil, or swap it for an oil-rich supplement such as Equijewel or Outshine.

Then you need to make sure he gets as much fibre as possible. If you can get to the bottom of why he sometimes leaves haylage that would help. Sometimes horses get gaps between their teeth in which food gets jammed which would make it uncomfortable to chew haylage, so that is one possibility. Otherwise, is there any pattern to his choosiness - perhaps he doesn't like it when a bale has been open a while?

In the mean time you need to give some sort of hay replacer to make up for the haylage he is not eating - put in a big tub of something like Happy Hoof or HiFi or a chopped grass product for him to munch on.

 

[ladyt25]

Try some stud cubes - they def did the trick with our oldies! We also feed our 2 oldies now on Allen & Page Old Faithful over the winter months (mixed with sugar beet). They seem to love it and they do certainly keep the weight on well and they're out 24/7.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Send him down to me!!!....................He can eat all the grass Sparks is only allowed to look at through her grazing muzzle!!!

 

[CAYLA]

Thankyou...he is the type that drops in a short space of time and then picks up, so on and so on.
Im trying my best to beef him up now before winter comes, will double check those bloods and ask for results in detail, or ask if there is anymore he can have.

 

[CAYLA]

This is where I hit a wall TGM...he seems to avoid the haylage when freshly open

even though it smalls delicious....then tucks in when it half way through

.....he gets a food scoop full of vegi oil in with his sugar beet..........will look into the happy hoof and the alternative oil

....have tried the hi-fi and he hated it, also tried bagged grass...no luck there either

 

[CAYLA]

[ QUOTE ]
Send him down to me!!!....................He can eat all the grass Sparks is only allowed to look at through her grazing muzzle!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't rub it in...why can't my mam be sensible and get a cob instead of a posh high maintenance neddi

 

[Puppy]

Top spec senior is magic stuff for older horses

I also echo TGM about feeding a hay replacement on the days that he is "off" it. For sometime I used to mix up a huge night time mixture of dengie senior and alfa oil as a hay replacement for an eldery horse who was dropping condition - worked well