A horse losing weight and cant gain

[nallassister]

I have a horse that will not gain weight. I am a little nervous with the way she looks. You can see her spine and ribes real well as well has her hip bones. We have tried everything and have taken her to the WSU vet. They gave up on her and just told us to wait and see what happens. It has been a year now. I was hoping someone out there might have the same problem or did. If you have any ideas that would be great.

[idahodearhunter]

My 15 year old gelding has lost probably 150 lbs in the last year.  We're thinking cancer is a possibility, but he's got a voracious apatite and seems fine otherwise. He just looks bony. Our vet just floated his teeth but wasn't real optimistic that that alone would turn things around. The horse paces a lot... from boredom I guess. Feeding time is what he lives for even though he gets out and is not neglected. We also have a mare with him, but she is not the dominant horse... he is. They get alfalfa and grass hay and he gets a Purina supplement. The mare is fat and he is bony. He's never been sick and has always been an easy keeper. Any ideas out there. I'm curious how the other horses in this discussion have done over time.

[secheaves]

Heres one for you all, now that I have read all these questions and comments...I'll be curious for your responses. We have a 28 year old Saddlebred x Walker gelding that we have had since he was 5. Always been pretty healthy, till about 5 years ago, and he would start dropping weight during the winter. This past winter, he never rebounded from and continued dropping weight. The vet was called out and he did NUMEROUS tests on him. He ultrasounded his abdomen, and only found that he had some thickening in the lining of his small intestines. So he drew blood and sent it all across the country to be tested for various diseases and illnesses and everything came back normal. Our vet put him on Dexamethasone, which helped some while he was on it, but once taken off, he went back down hill. He has been fed Alfalfa pellets twice a day, along with some Safe Choice grain and Smart Digest Ultra (Smart Pak) . We just recently changed the Safe Choice to Omalene 200 and instead of SmartDigest, hes on Smart Gain 4, and we added some Cool Calories (everything is wet down with water so its easy to eat). He is still perky, you could say, his "lights are still on". If he wasnt all here mentally, we would probably consider putting him down. He does better when he has great pasture to graze on, but the drought this year has burnt out most of our green grass, and he does not like to eat hay. He has good teeth, no worms, etc. So...what to do? Any suggestions. We have tried ALOT on him in the past. Beet pulp never worked, Ive never had much success with it on any of our other hard keepers either. Corn oil makes for a good coat, but not much fat. Im at a loss here, and so is my vet.

[horselover667]

I have a Paint horse that when i first got him was very healthy and didn't have any problems he is in a big open place with two other  little horses i feed him  twice a day they get  hay,sweet feed,oats, and alfalfa and make sure he has lots of water for some reason the other two horse's are fat but he his hip,ribs,tail n spine is showing some days his ribs will be covered then the next they are showing again and when i feed them he doesnt take a break when he s eating and i have tried to do everything to figure out how to get him to be fat and healthy again.

[seth415]

I have a 8 yr old mare that was losing weight real bad and we couldnt get her to gain weighjt at all so we started giving her weight gain and it worked for about 2 weeks then she started losing weigt agin then i found bots so i soaked her in diesle and then washed her very good then wormed her and she is slowly starting to gain her weight back so check your horse for eggs and if she has them then u need to soak her in diesle and wash her VERY good to make sure u get it all off then worm her and feed her horse feed every day and she should start gaining weight agin.

[HorseLover101]

Hey i have 5 horses who was loosing weight try getting round bale of hay so your horse can have all she needs this will give her hay belly. try depending one how under wieghet about 6.5 lbs of strategy when she gets close to 900 lbs go down to 2 lbs a day. this has worked for alot of horses i work with a vet right now this is what i did to my horses when i bought them they had a body score of 1 they have a body score of 6 after 6 months. You will see weight come on your horse in about month

[joanne1977]

I am having the same problem at the moment.have you tried the dentist.she may have eating issues.my horses weight is dropping off and have no idea why