Always had this question..

lauren123

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2007
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Nos this might be silly as i am pretty tired. But do you find with medical conditions or when a horse is in pain that they drop weight?
The reason i ask is because i was going through some old photos. That were taken 2 weeks before sox had lami or was diagnosed with it (years ago) and he was looking fab before. Then he was on 4 days worth of box rest or him doing laps for 4 days before a stable size field and adlib soaked hay with two large feed until.. We could increase the size of how pen. By the first of sept he has already lost Alot of weight and by the middle of sept you could see alot of his ribs and the bones on his withers . That with zero muscle and high withers... (He looked not far off rspca case though was seen weekly by vets). By the end of sept he was putting the weight back on but still low but did make improvements as he won his fight with lami in nov.

Sox is clearly extreme and a worrier. But i guess... the box rest... the 4 day box walking,the lami,the pen rest and that he is a worrier... would that be enough for him to drop a huge amount.of weight in 2 months?
 
Yes horses will lose weight with pain, Raf certainly does. I would imagine that box walking burns up calories too and stress is a big factor. Plus on box rest Sox will probably have lost muscle too. Glad he's feeling better now :)
 
I think so yes. As Bodshi says a lot of muscle will also be lost.
A horse I loaned last summer lost serious weight in a month due to several things but turned out all stemmed from tooth pain (he was able to eat!)
 
When we moved the girls up here I swear both dropped weight within a few days. I've never seen madam look so lean! It was the stress of course. Prior to that when she had Lyme's one summer, she dropped a lot of weight - she looked in a sort of dull pain with it.
 
Very easily, and in fact weight loss for no apparent reason is a warning that there is pain somewhere. It's completely normal.
 
@Bodshi he doesn't look too thin though, more fighting fit and not carrying any excess weight on a lean frame. Beautiful!
No he doesn't look thin - just young
Beautiful!
Thanks guys. He was just 4 years old and looks like a racing greyhound in that pic doesn't he. He also looks really bum high too but maybe he's standing on a slope. He didn't look so slight when I tried him, or I wouldn't have dared get on him :p Wish he could have stayed that colour, it was so practical!
 
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Thanks guys. He was just 4 years old and looks like a racing greyhound in that pic doesn't he. He also looks really bum high too but maybe he's standing on a slope. He didn't look so slight when I tried him, or I wouldn't have dared get on him :p Wish he could have stayed that colour, it was so practical!
Same with Ramsey - long black stockings black mane and tail, and dark dapples. Pure white by the time he was 8!,
 
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