draft horse weight loss problem?
February 5th, 2010 | by drafthorse |
sarat0 asked:
My draft cross mare has started to drop a lot of weight. We upped her feed quite a bit over the last 3 weeks and her hay too and did an extra wormer too but still shes dropping weight. I put her in a nice blanket in case she was shivering the weight off but thats not working either. She gets rode about an hour 2x a week like ususal but of course she doesnt have the energy like she used too.
So any ideas why and how to get her to recover those pounds? Every week I can see more loss instead of gain. I’m worried.
draft horse blankets
My draft cross mare has started to drop a lot of weight. We upped her feed quite a bit over the last 3 weeks and her hay too and did an extra wormer too but still shes dropping weight. I put her in a nice blanket in case she was shivering the weight off but thats not working either. She gets rode about an hour 2x a week like ususal but of course she doesnt have the energy like she used too.
So any ideas why and how to get her to recover those pounds? Every week I can see more loss instead of gain. I’m worried.
draft horse blankets
7 Responses to “draft horse weight loss problem?”
By Joanna on Feb 6, 2010 | Reply
have you had her teeth checked?
By Sarah on Feb 8, 2010 | Reply
If she’s dropping enough weight to worry you, it’s time to take her to the vet.
By horseluver on Feb 9, 2010 | Reply
If she is experiencing uncontrolled weight loss and lack of energy you need to call the vet out. Getting the weight back on is important, but even more so is finding the underlying cause and taking care of that.
By A J on Feb 12, 2010 | Reply
Has her teeth recently been floated. when she eats do you notice her dropping a lot of extra feed or even slobbering? I would have a vet. check her out to be safe and find out what is going on with her. I’d be afraid of her getting down. Good luck and I hope everything turns out ok!
By nokah1 on Feb 14, 2010 | Reply
I would definitely have her teeth checked. Good luck!
By Calamity Jane on Feb 15, 2010 | Reply
That much weight loss that fast sounds serious. You really should call the vet.
By Driver on Feb 17, 2010 | Reply
The first places to look are teeth and worms, and fix either that needs fixing. Next, you could have a vet do bloodwork to see if anything is going on. I did this with my old pony who was losing weight, and the vet found nothing specific, but did find an elevated white blood cell count, indicative of some kind of infection, so we put him on some antibiotics.
Once you work out what might be the cause, you can experiment with her feed. Switching to senior feed made a huge difference with my pony. You can also try things like added corn oil, beet pulp, rice bran, etc.