Mini gelding losing weight........please help

[Oakbrooke Farm]

My 16 yr old gelding recently was diagnosed with ulcers. I had been feeding him enrich 32 for years, but he started walking away from it after a couple bites. I had the vet out to check his teeth which turned out to be fine. A fecal was done and came up clean and the vet said he had ulcers and sold me a liquid to give him once a day. I switched his feed over to the Purina Mini Horse and Pony feed which he willing eats all of. I add a powder to his food for ulcers and another powder for weight gain as he is losing weight. I also give him beet pulp with his food and have added Coco Soya oil, but he is still losing weight. He is eating his meals, grazing and eating hay. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks so much!

 

[ohmt]

I would have an equine dentist check him out. We have a sr stallion that we had a very hard time keeping weight on for years. Multiple vet visits ruled out teeth. Then an equine dentist took a look and voila! It was his teeth.

Has he had blood work done? There are various things it could, but a vet would need to do bloodwork to be sure. All of those thi gs could result in ulcers if it stresses the horse.

Otherwise, if it is just ulcers, they can be difficult to treat. A senior feed is best if 24/7 pasture is not available (or both!). I would not give any grain at all, but supplement with alfalfa which is good for ulcers. I would rinse the beet pulp to get rid of excess sugar.

I have heard aloe and oat flour work wonders for ulcers and are cost friendly. Is he on ulcergaurd?

 

[kay56649]

hey ohmt please pm me as soon as you can!!

 

[targetsmom]

Just wondering how the vet diagnosed ulcers? Usually that is done via a scope of the stomach to detect the lesions or sometimes ulcers are assumed if the problem clears up with at least a month of Gastrogard. Was it either of these? I know other people have posted that ulcers have cleared up with other treatments (e.g. Aloe vera juice) but the standard ulcer treatment is about a month of daily Gastrogard or Ulcergard. They are the same thing but labelled differently so you can get Ulcergard without a prescription. You need to TREAT using the instructions on the Gastroguard, which is a full tube for a 1,000 -1,250 pound horse. I give about 4 "ticks" on the tube to treat a 160 lb mini..

I agree with Amanda on not giving grain and using alfalfa - here we use soaked alfalfa cubes because they are easier to get than hay. And they can be fed in the same dish as grain so they think they are getting grain with everyone else. A product called Stomach Soother can help with appetite and ulcers. Another treatment for ulcers you have to get from a vet is Sucralfate, which acts to heal the mucosal lining. If he is eating and still losing weight, as Amanda said, a bllod test might help figure things out. Or perhaps he needs a pre- or probiotic to aid in nutrient absorption??

Good luck - I know how frustrating cases like this can be and how bad the outcome can turn out, even with the best of care.

 

[Matthijs]

First of all, I am no vet or expert on this matter but I can share what little I know and recently discovered. Our 14 year old mare Ripley has been cranky all her life (she is the horse in my avatar). That is how we met her and accepted her. We recently visited a trainer who claimed she has a problem in her hind gut which is highly acidic and that this can result in the development of ulcers..

As a remedy (in her situation) she advised to stop all store bought and prepared grain products as they actually contain stuff horses cannot digest, these product stay behind in the hind gut and become acidic and result in a so called hay gut... nothing to do with hay yes.

Her recommendation was to feed soy hull pellets, they contain virtually no sugars, an other one contributing to this acidic environment. Also add whole flax seed, not ground, it is digested to early in the system, they need to travel to the hind first. And add a table spoon of brewers yeast.

The other thing is your hay, alfalfa helps the digestion, I would not feed it on its own but you can buy good quality alfalfa/orchard grass mixes or alfalfa/timothy mixes. Find a supplier that has tested his hay, find one that is below 10% sugars.

Then the last thing is turnout, fall grass can have high sugar levels, specially in the morning hours after a cool night. I would limit turnout to about an hour and only in the afternoon when things have warmed up.

I swear in the two weeks we have been on the diet Ripley is feeling better. And Oh yes an other thing to test things by is the smell of a fresh turd, use a glove and break one open en take a good whiff, you can actually sense the sharpness being worse from one animal to the next.

Ripley diet as we feed her now:

1 cup soy hull pellets after turnout (pref before),

at 8 pm: 1 cup soy hull pellets, 3/4 cup alfalfa pellets, 2 tbsp whole flax seeds, 3/4 tbsp brewers yeast, vitamins and minerals, salt/ mineral block in stall.

Turnout 9/11 am, one pound orchard grass for lunch at 3 pm, One pound alfalfa plus one pound of orchard grass when put to bed at 8 pm

I hope this helps you and gives you something to start working with,

Matthijs.

 

[HGFarm]

My friend had a vet check her horses teeth and was told they were just fine. The equine dentist took one look- the entire mouth was FULL of hooks and the inside of her mouth looked like hamburger! It was horrible. Please have a second opinion on the teeth. Also, I know of someone who used the Mini Feed and didnt have good luck with it at all- horses also lost weight. After switching back to hay, they were fine.

 

[Carolyn R]

Yes, I second the bloodwork, an equine dentist (unless your vet is extremely well versed and well trained in equine dentistry), and possibly even a second opinion from anothere vet. Some vets work with what they have and are very good, others need to be honest if it is beyond their abilities, beyond their facilities capabilities (old outdated equipment, no lab, no team to bounce ideas off of.......). Please don't feel like you are stepping on toes if you get another opinion, if it was your kid and the doctor couldn't come up with answers, would you hesitate going to another ?

I have two recent examples, one involving a friend's horse and who they chose to use, and the other that involved my mini Aussie that is only1.5 yrs old. In each case if another vet was not sought out the horse would probably have severely foundered, and we would still be contemplating if our Aussie would have to be put down in the near future, both due to the same local facility not doing enough or directing us to a better equipped facility. I am thankful the facility for my horses is competent and I am also thankful that they have a small animal facility as well. They are 45 minutes away, but well worth it!

 

[mydaddysjag]

The mini horse and pony food GAVE my horse ulcer symptoms last year, Im not a fan of that stuff. I do know from treating ulcers in the past that your best bet is to go off of grain completely for 30-60 days. I switched my guy from the mini feed over to alfalfa pellets, beet pulp, and his loose hay was alfalfa hay. Worked good for me because he thought the pellets were his pelleted feed, so he didnt get stressed over not being grained. I also added corn oil for fat content. He was treated with ulcergard and carafate.