Well this is a first

Jessey

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
Having to feed my horse for weight! I am used to Jess putting weight on at the drop of a hat but I am really not happy with how she looks at the moment and can't seem to get ahead of it, one day she looks ok, the next poor.
I think it was 3-4 months ago I upped her linseed from 30g to 50g as she didn't hold through this winter as well as normal.
This was a month ago (April 15th), when I also added 2 cups (dry) of sugarbeet
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And this was yesterday (May 15th)
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Baring in mind even a few hours on grass at this time of year makes her sore I can't rely on dr green sorting her out. Even hay cannot include any rye or she gets sore. She did go through that phase of not wanting hay, which we seem to have sorted by getting her teeth done, she eats 1/3 of a bale twice a day plus I put about another 3-4 sections out daily that she can share with the boys, there is always plenty left in the shared feeder.

At the mo she gets 550g spillers lite and lean balancer, 50g linseed, 2 cups speedibeet. She can't have any grains, molassed feeds or alfa (though I am tempted to reintroduce Alfa and see if she can tolerate it now). I think its this piddly weather that's getting to her, she dropped a lot off when she got wet and cold at the beach and doesn't seem to have caught up again, but if I leave her rugged when its double figures she's dripping unless its pouring down outside.

Teeth were done in April, wormed with pramox at the end of march I think.

Sorry no real point really, just musing :p
 
Yes she's dropped a bit, but I don't think she looks that bad. I can't remember, is she a PPID horse? If so it might be worth getting her levels checked again. Personally I wouldn't risk upsetting things by trying alfalfa again, but I would ring round some feed companies because there are so low starch & sugar conditioning nuts out there that don't contain alfalfa - Jim used to do well on Top Spec Cool Condition cubes or Spillers Slow Release cubes.
 
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She is ppid yes, I'm very nervous about alfa, I'm loathe to try anything new given she has been sound on her current management, but it wasn't a dramatic improvement when she came off of alfa and she has had the odd meal without terrible outcomes since. She's 15 in a few days, so not veteran yet.
I just took her up the road to see how she's moving and she's acting the demonic hormonal monster again, when I turned her loose she just stood squealing and striking at nothing, perhaps its just strong seasons from the odd spring. Last time she was like that was at the beach 19 days ago, where she also shot a load of weight.....
 
Yes the weight loss is noticeable but really she isn't too bad , i'm sure it makes a strange change though as I have a good doer and sometimes I wish he was the type that you had to feed to keep weight on..we can't win.. :rolleyes: Is she still on prascend and if so what dosage is she on ? Have you lowered her dose for this time of the year or just kept it the same as she was on in the autumn/winter ..just a thought?
 
She is still on the same dose of 1 tab a day, that's what she was on all of last year too. She is a bit of a pain in terms of know what's for the best with it, the blood tests often (but not always) came back as negative before she was on it, but once she went on it certain symptoms cleared up in days, so the vets took that as conclusive and we have just been medicating her based on symptoms, but it gets a bit fuzzy as to what is a symptom and when its something else. If I had several hundred pounds to blow I would probably run more tests, then take her off the drugs and run another batch monthly until we saw some changes to try and get a more specific idea of what meds she needs, I feel a bit like a blind person wandering occasionally.
 
To be honest the weight loss was making me wonder if she was under medicated rather than over. Maybe it's more related to her seasons though, like you say this weather is playing havoc with them.
 
To be honest the weight loss was making me wonder if she was under medicated rather than over. Maybe it's more related to her seasons though, like you say this weather is playing havoc with them.
Sorry to clarify, you said if she was under medicated, do you mean is now under medicated? or was previously which is why she stayed fat and has now lost it?
The marishness seems pretty extreme this year, back to what it was from 2yo to 12/13yo, so perhaps back to normal seasons for her means meds are working properly currently or maybe it is just this blooming weather :rolleyes:
 
I would have maybe tried dropping her to half a tab a day to see if it makes any difference, spring and early summer is the time to usually reduce the dose then up it again late summer /autumn...I keep my boy on the same dose unless i notice a change but seeing as she isn't holding her weight i would try the reduced dose .
 
I would have maybe tried dropping her to half a tab a day to see if it makes any difference, spring and early summer is the time to usually reduce the dose then up it again late summer /autumn...I keep my boy on the same dose unless i notice a change but seeing as she isn't holding her weight i would try the reduced dose .
The norma is to medicate the same year round, though I know lots of people do now alter it, I have myself in the past. Weight loss is generally a symptom of uncontrolled cushings though, so dropping the dose would feel a bit counterintuitive I think, I have no idea any more lol I'm just second guessing without facts.
 
My marley was overweight with a cresty neck before being diagnosed, once he started the medication he lost the cresty neck and some weight?? Not every horse follows the rule books as we all know :rolleyes::)
 
My marley was overweight with a cresty neck before being diagnosed, once he started the medication he lost the cresty neck and some weight?? Not every horse follows the rule books as we all know :rolleyes::)
That's common too, either excessive weight gain or excessive weight and muscle loss can be symptoms, they tend to return to 'normal' once it is controlled.
 
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Sorry to clarify, you said if she was under medicated, do you mean is now under medicated? or was previously which is why she stayed fat and has now lost it?
The marishness seems pretty extreme this year, back to what it was from 2yo to 12/13yo, so perhaps back to normal seasons for her means meds are working properly currently or maybe it is just this blooming weather :rolleyes:

Woops, sorry for not being clear. I mean I wonder if she's under medicated now since one of the symptoms of PPID can be weight loss.
 
I understand what you are saying about the symptoms being either gaining weight or losing weight and once the right dose of meds have it under control they can return to normal but I maybe should've have explained better. We had to play around with Marley's dose a bit at the start and even though we found the right dosage to bring his levels down, giving it to him in one go in the morning time was too much for him, he was like someone who had taken too much caffeine or slimming pills, he had a lot of nervous energy , which lets me believe that if they are on too high a dose this excess energy would probably mean they are burning up too many calories?? He gets his dose split into the morning and evening.
 
Hmmmmm you can fees into 400g of linseed to a 400kg horse.

Kia was at 500g daily of linseed for a month and the difference was marked. He is on half a mug of corn oil as I ran out of linseed a few weeks ago but I'm ordering a bag tomorrow so he will be back on it at a rate of 4 x 50g scoops a day and I can increase or decrease as required :)
 
Hmmmmm you can fees into 400g of linseed to a 400kg horse.

Kia was at 500g daily of linseed for a month and the difference was marked. He is on half a mug of corn oil as I ran out of linseed a few weeks ago but I'm ordering a bag tomorrow so he will be back on it at a rate of 4 x 50g scoops a day and I can increase or decrease as required :)
You can feed over that as long as you supplement vit E with it, I just haven't upped it any more yet, we went from 30g to 50g a couple of months ago and normally that's enough to make her go pop :p I like to give things plenty of time to work without too much of a dramatic change. I also started her back on speedy beet last month, she wasn't getting that before.

This is what I mean about 1 day to the next she seems to change, this was last night, it must be an optical illusion!
48 hours on from the above pic in the same position
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