Help! Horse losing weight fast!

poghag · Help! Horse losing weight fast!

Pog does not seem to be thriving at all on the generous quantities of sugarbeet, alfalfa pellets, linseed and adlib hay during the day (he's out at night on sparse grazing now, unclipped ( but pretty hairy and his fields are really naturally sheltered) and hunter-trial fit so gets a little sweaty a few times a week but never dripping). I can see his ribs and he's really dropped these last few weeks.

I've been rugging him this week and bringing him in 6am-7pm so he's getting loads of hay during the day anyway (about 18lb). Can't hay up the field as it's a 20 minute hack from the yard and I only have a bicycle.

He's on about 600g dry weight purabeet, about 1 1/4 kg Dengie alfalfa pellets, and maybe 400g linseed (plus magox), over 3 feeds. Each feed already looks pretty large because of the soaked quantities of sb and alfalfa, so a little reluctant to feed huge amounts more unless I feed a 4th feed. I've got brewers yeast on the way in the post. What more should I feed to stop this weight decline?? My non-barefoot buddy has suggested straight barley (rolled, or whatever it is they do, obviously).

Please what would you suggest???

gossip28

hi poghag,

when my mare foaled she went terribly thin & then the foal took its toll on her aswell. you might consider copra meal (coolstance), I had to feed rather a lot of it as I was playing catch-up by then, but it did the trick & worked for us. they both looked really well on it. I used to feed boiled barley & boiled linsed when she was fit, for condition with no detrimental effects but I think I was lucky. with her, after hearing other's experiences.

Jo.

Jo.

cptrayes

Just be certain it's lack of food Pog's Person. If in any doubt you might consider getting a test for liver function unless you are completely and utterly certain that your hay and grazing could not possibly have contained ragwort. Weight loss is a sign of liver damage. Caught early it's easily cured. Caught late it's a killer.

Don't mean to worry you too much, but there's a lot of it about.

C

horsesfirst

Boiled linseed great for putting on weight and no issue with sugar/starch content. I am sure micronised is also good, but not had chance to prove it for myself.

Not a personal fan of barley because of horse's bad reaction to it.

Not sure how big your horse is Poghag but our little 14.1hh is on 24llb of hay plus 400g (dry weight) kwik beet, linseed and the various straight minerals (cal mag etc) and she is not working particularly hard. She is also a bit on the slim side.

Bigger girl is out on lush(ish) grass for 10 hours and eats half a regular bale of hay while she is in plus same amount of food as pony and she is not working at all and weight wise is just about perfect.

rose

My girl who weighs 430kg eats about 28lbs of hay a day although she has no grass she also has approximetly 500g dry weight of sugarbeet and 1kg of alfalfa pellets plus linseed and her additives.

The rule of thumb is 2 to 2.5% of body weight in food obviously preferrably forage based and if your horse is not maintaining their weight on that then up it to 3% of their body weight. Although I would agree that if the weight loss is sudden then a vet check would be in order just to be sure.

hobnob

You probably have already seen to this, but is worming and teeth floating up to date ?

poghag

Thanks everyone. Worming totally spot on plus poopick like an OCD case. Teeth spot on, back spot on...

Can't seem to source copra; been trying through my feed merchant... will pursue coolstance direct as copra was my first choice.

Got a couple of bags of barley ordered while I pursue the copra, and will just up everything else.

Thanks.

Will investigate the possibility of liver damage; thank you!