Worried about elderly WB

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Zemmie

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I have a 22 year old retired warm blood. Last spring he came out of winter very well so despite his advanced years he has remained on the same diet as the other horses on the yard.Good quality hay, happy hoof, lo-cal balancer and speedibeet.

However this year he has come out of winter very poor. He is not ridden and this last winter his turnout has been very restricted due to the fields being water logged. He is well in himself eats all his hay and feed with no problems and is massively shedding his coat. The vet was not concerned when he came to vaccinate one of the other yard horses in early April and reckoned he would regain condition when he was back out on the grass.

All the horses are now out 24/7 just on grass however when i look at my old boy I could cry. This time last year he looked just like all the other horses. Now he looks awful, he has prominent withers, he has lost all his muscle and his hip bones are also prominent and as he is shedding his coat you can see his ribs. What can I give him to help get some condition back on without blowing his brain ( he is a big boy and has always been tricky to handle)
 
Micronised linseed would be a good option as it is similar nutritionally to really good grass but without the high sugars, if you can risk the high sugars then molassed sugar beet (soaked) too.
 
Thanks LandM I have ordered some today and will start introducing it as soon as possible. It's gone a lot cooler here again so am going to rug him up tonight too as don't want him wasting any energy keeping warm.
 
I really hope it works, fingers crossed. If it doesn't, (it should this time of year), I would get the vet to run the range of blood tests, horse could have a virus or something similar which is making them so poor looking (am speaking as someone whose oldie was poorly and looked awful and tho vets didn't expect anything on them it turned out he had an ME like recurring virus and his white cell count was really low). An iron and vitamin tonic helped him, they don't make the one we used (visorbin) any more but anything like Propell plus or there's a naf one too, might be worTh considering.

PS the final pick me up was taking the still rather bony creature hunting (he was a hunter before I got him), amazing how his recovery came on when he heard the hounds, he bolted with me from the lorries to the meet, bless him :-DDD
 
Poor hay quality and a long winter have meant a lot of horses look 'poor' this spring. The grass will do magic, and poss a chsnge in feed from balancer to compound. a balanced diet with quality protein is needed. I'd say get some professional advice from a feed help line.
 
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