Weight Gaining & Itchy Skin Remedies

[IHeartPhantom]

There is a horse at our barn named "Archie". 3 years ago, Archie was donated to the lesson program, where he remains. Shortly after his owners dumped him, with my trainer, he developed white line disease. Once his feet grew back out, the white line has not come back. Since then, it has been nearly impossible to keep weight on him, and he is the skinniest creature you will ever see .. and he keeps getting worse :[
We're not quite sure what's wrong with him - he's been checked over frequently by the vet, and farrier and neither of them can findd anything wrong! He simply will not eat his hay, but gobbles down grain and grass.

Are there any remedies, or any tricks that you can give us to get him to start eating his hay? We have tried changing his hay, but he simply doesnt have an apetite for it, or to even put about 300+ lbs on him during this winter?
Also, are there any remedies for dry skin, like mixing lotion and baby oil, or something along that line that we could try to keep him from scratching his tail, and his skin from being itchy?
Thanks in advance :]

[Freedoms_Girl]

My horse has weight problems, and so does our two year old, and we by "Weight Builder" and it comes with a scoop thingy and we give them two scoops a day with about a gallon of sweet feed, and it helps quite a bit.

[Starbuck Morgan]

I adpoted a Morgan who was 200-300 pounds to thin and had bumpy itchy skin with baold spots. Nothing seem to help, I tried serveral grains, one made him very aggressive. I finally put him on Poulin 10-12 Endurance. His is doing great. Gaining weight, hair is growing in, most of the bumps are gone and he is not as itchy.

Have you tried putting some Mollasses on his hay? Maybe it just does not taste right to him? Maybe he had a bad bale fed to him, or I have heard of some "people" putting Gas and things on the hay to Look like they feed the horses (You know as long as there is feed on the property.......)

Good Luck.

[galadriel]

Have his teeth been done? Sometimes you need to get a second opinion on teeth, too.

If he won't eat hay, then you can substitute another kind of forage. You can get alfalfa in pellets or cubes. You can get chaff (chopped hay or straw)--I think Seminole distributes to AL, and they have a chaff product. You can use beet pulp, which is mostly fiber/forage. As long as the horse gets a high quantity of forage in his diet, it should help him gain/maintain weight, and keep his gut working well. It doesn't *have* to be in hay form.

[artemis]

Seaweed powder is very good for itchy skin. I use it for my cushings pony when he casts his coat & it does help.