Slightly worried about his condition

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Voy_Por

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Jun 5, 2008
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Nottingham
Hi everyone - i tried to take some photos earlier but the batteries on the camera were flat so didnt work.

In February we took over a TB that hadn't Wintered well - seemed to be lacking muscle. He is a nervous and edgey horse in temperment (you can tell this in the time we have had him) so i dont think that has helped.

However - he doesnt seem to be picking up - he is getting ample food - lots of hay (ad lib) and has been rugged when it has been cold.

He has had his teeth checked and they are fine.

The only thing that is outstanding is his worming. The people we got him from stated that they had wormed him - however - without sounding bad - i dont know if they have.

It is the one thing that there is still a question mark against as obviously if they have wormed him - i dont want him to have another wormer too soon.

Obviously i know about worming and worms but i have never seen the effect they can have - is it possible that they could cause the horse not to put any weight on? even when he is eating a lot more than the other TBs we have?

Thanks.
 
Yes it is, and if he's a nervy sort, they he'll quickly worry food value away.


Get as much hay into him as you can as well as his extra feeds & light excerise (walking, light trot work on the lunge) to promote some muscle to start building. Probiotics (natural yog is good) to ensure his gut flora is ample so that he has the ability to extract as much feed value as possible from his feeds.

Speak with your vet, i'd never take anyones word re worming.
 
definately! And if your worried about him being wormy but think you will be worming to soon then get a worm count first.
 
he sounds very wormy to me and my vet said you cant really overworm a horse unless you shove 4-5 downs its throat at the same time

I would suggest a 5 day worming programme, Pancur or the like, and go from there - then i would give him a good ad lib fibre diet and things should hopefully pick up - i'd avoid cereals on a whizzy / nervy TB type if i could
 
Thank you so much for the quick replies - that's great.

I will have a look at the wormers.

For the other TBs we generally rotate Noromectin and Eqvalan Duo.
 
Unfortunately, you can never trust a seller when it comes to worming history and you should always worm a new horse immediately. As he is a nervy sort, he will probably never be chubby, but you can help by feeding ad lib forage, haylage would be best but hay is fine. You could also feed something like Alfa A oil. barley rings, sugarbeet, oil (not all of them, obviously)
Get him wormed and hopefully he will pick up soon, especially if he has plenty of access to the new gras coming through.:D
 
Voy_Por said:
For the other TBs we generally rotate Noromectin and Eqvalan Duo.
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I have always been told to rotate more than 2 wormers because each of those 2 are for different types of worms and so they would be having the same taperwormer twice in a row and the same roundwormer twice (for example).
 
Carry out a FEC, worm him accordingly and then look at a high fibre diet, as much turnout as poss, loads of routine and hopefully he will end up less stressed and fatter. :) He will always find it hard to hold weight if he is stressy. Keeping him off cereals and in a natural state as poss will go along way towards weight gain.
 
I would worm count and blood test. Spring grass is now coming through which tends to help put lost condition back but two months is not a lot of time to replace lost condition, particularly as the horse probably hasn't settled with you yet.

How old is the horse? Older TBs often need work to help hold condition, they seem to stress more if just turned away particularly if they are used to being in regular work.
 
He hasnt been in work for a few months now anyway - so i would imagine that some of the weight he has lost has been muscle - however - he seems to have lost weight in general.

Thanks again for the quick and helpful replies - i will get him wormed asap.
 
Fizz on here, has a TB something who didnt do very well one winter..she introduced sunflower seeds into hm and he began to pick up..

i'll send her the link, and maybe she will advise...

also, could try a 5 day wormer rather than another full syringe... incase he has been wormed and just has a worm burden.. might also be as well getting a worm count done too.
 
I would:
a) get a worm count done to check if and what worms he has;
b) give him a calming supplement like magic to keep the nervous energy down;
c) give him a feed balancer like pink powder (which is excellent for building up a poorly/stressed horse;
d) start building up the sunflower oil in his diet (start with 1/4 cup and work it up to at least 2 cups per day as oil is very fattening and great for joints and skin/hair condition);
e) make sure he gets plenty of muscle building exercise in conjunction with plenty of hay/good grass & turnout.

Good luck. :)
 
eml said:
Be very careful with sunflower seeds..we used them a couple of years ago and TB made a lot of visits to the vets with choke, minor colics and tying up. They all stopped when we stopped the Sunflower seeds.
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But surely this doesnt include every horse that has sunflower seeds.. maybe they just werent right for him?

In any case, choke can be brought on in any horse for whatever reason. same goes for colic
 
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