Skinny Horse, Nothing Working

[MoGal]

Is there an update available on this horse? What did you find out from the vet? Did you have the teeth floated??

Thanks

 

[mid-tn country boy]

One thing I would do is remove the mineral block and replace with a regular white salt block, the trace mineral block may be causing some problems with the horse getting the right nurtients that it needs to gain weight. Try looking on purina feeds website to get more info., I just went to a horse nuturtion clinic put on by purnia and they had a lot of info.,one of the products was to help horses gain weight, plenty of fresh water and good hay was two of the main things that they stressed. I hope this will help, I think the website will help.

 

[mid-tn country boy]

The website for purnia feeds is nutrenaworld.com

 

[dream catcher]

I have a lot of older horses in my care and have a few with cushing and just old age, the best diet I have found to work is satin finish rice bran soak beet pulp oats a dash barley and a dash corn and cool calories twice aday and I feed one flake good grass hay 4 times a day. Teeth check twice a year, wormed every 3 months. And a good vite. It is important to stick to a feeding at the same time every day. I only feed a small amount of each like 1 1/2 lb oats 1 lb rice bran 1 lb soak beet pulp 1/4 lb barley and a small palm ful crimp corn and follow instructions on cool calories 100. You also feed hay a half hour before grain I have horse in late 20s that look great shinny coats. I also put cosiquin in for leg problems. I only grain 2 times a day.

 

[dream catcher]

One other thing I use is Neigh-lox it helps the digestive track. I had a mare that had ulcers bad and colic all the time she was on ulcer guard full dose for 30 days then 1/2 dose for another thirty days. then has been on Neigh-lox for 3 years now and not one colic since and she is on the feed . But while healing ulcers I gave her no grain grass hay and pasture only. Now she is back on full feed she is now 25. So I put all horses on ranch on neigh-lox, it works

 

[persianhorse]

Hi:

Have you bottle feed this horse or the horse had the mother milk from the start?

With best wishes.

 

[VtMapleGal]

I didnt have time to read all the post, but here are my thoughts. Just because 1 or 2 horses do good on your feeding program doesnt mean every horse will. If it was my horse i would free feed a GOOD 2nd cut hay. I would also give Beet pulp, Hay cubes (both well soaked) and hay strecher 3-4 times a day. I would get a grain like strategy by purina, which is higher in fat but wont make them hot. I would feed small amounts 3 x's daily. LOTS of water. Also, just because you are deworming them doesnt mean anything. have a fecal checked at the vet (ask them to send it to a lab, much more accurate and not much more expensive). Also draw blood for a general blood profile pannel, and ask about lyme disease in your area and other tick diseases. Many cause a horse to go thin. Make sure the other horses arent pestering this one. Also look into stomach ulcers.

 

[cowgirl08]

My family has 3 Arabian Mares. One is 15 yo, the other two are 14 y.o.s. The two bays 15 and one 14 y.o are both sleek, healthy and happy. Then there is Angy, a sickly looking thing with screaming ribs and hip bones. She was the result of a neglectful breeder who fed Angie's momma "calf lick" or something like that during the pregnancy, basically no real feeding supplement. She has horrible conformation, and was going to be put down right after birth, but with the help of some friends, we rescued her, after all, she is the half sister of one of our other horses.
We feed the bays and Angy the same feed, worm regularly, and have a mineral block and water available at all times. Yet her health has deteriorated until now she is literally nothing but skin nd bones. We have been giving her Weight Builder and red Cell for several months now, and we have seen little to no results.
Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any ideas? Even though she can never be ridden, she is a great conpanion horse and I've had her since she was a weanling, I would hate to see her suffer anymore than she has too if I can do anything

Is she penned with the other horses? if i were you, i would separte her from all but one (she needs a companion) fence off a plot of grass for the two of them. Really monitor her food. if she's with a bunch of other horses, she might not be getting as much as the others. hoses have a pecking order and with her being as small as she is, she could be at the bottom. is she too old to be worked? if not, lunge her to build up muscle, energy, and appetite.

 

[Bez>]

I did not read the entire thread closely - just skimmed it - and finally - finally - someone asked if it has been seen by a veterinarian.

How the heck is a complete stranger from a 1000 miles away going to diagnose this?

Looks like the animal is well looked after so I would not suspect a feed issue - this is a sick horse.

Looks like this horse is slowly doing the terminal "dead horse disease".

Spend the money to have him looked at - or haul him to a veterinarian school - they are great.

Unless a cure is found soon - sounds like a bullet might be the merciful thing to do.

Or watch it die - pretty much your main choices.

Bez>

 

[ArrowHBrand]

If there was problems during pregnancy and could have been put down at birth, I don't think changing the diet is really going to do much. Now this is just my opinion. Being a horse owner isn't easy. Like Jake said, you have to view the situation from the horse's point of view. If the vet gives the horse a clean bill of health and you can afford to feed a hard keeper, than by all means keep her. But it sounds like a chronic problem and putting her down may be what's best for her even if it's not what's best for you.