Easy keeper losing weight

[StormyDay]

Some background: my horse is the easiest keeper ever. He used to get one five pound flake of hay, 12 hr turnout on grass ( the grass here has no nutritional value) and a pound of beet pulp, soaked.

But in the past month he has lost a lot of weight. I can see all of his ribs. His hips are starting to show. He looks racehorse fit. I upped his hay to 20 pounds a day, but still no weight gain. Besides this, his diet has not changed. He was floated six months ago, recently dewormed. I sent out for a fecal sample but have not gotten results yet.
He acts completely fine. His energy level is great, his muscle seems to still be good, his coat/hooves look good. He is eating well. He is 15.
I have no idea what is wrong with him. At first i thought cushings, but he has none of the symptoms.
I am having the vet come out, but she is pregnant and a very busy lady right now. It might be a week until she can come.
Any ideas?

[maunder]

I think blood work and a physical exam will be your best bet, once your vet is able to come out.

I had a normally easy keeping Morgan lose weight when he had a heart condition. Lots of things could be going on.

Hope you find out what this is soon.

[brody]

I’m sorry. And glad you noticed quickly.

Has his wOrk load changed? His energy staying good is a good sign.

I’ll think best thoughts for something simple and hope you and he transition to fairly easy keeper.

[Texarkana]

Does he get any source of vit/min besides just hay, grass, and BP? If his hay is his main source of nutrition, he may not be getting enough of a nutrient that he was previously getting. Hay can be variable, even within the same cutting. Increasing the amount of hay may not help if is lacking in a vital nutrient.

It’s not uncommon for horses to lose weight this time of year. They often stop eating as much hay in lieu of spraining their lips for little shoots of new grass, which doesn’t offer near as many calories yet. Shedding makes the weight loss look more pronounced. But I think both of those things would be a non-issue in Florida…

[Flash44]

Not sure how grass can have no nutritional value, and your horse was doing just fine with only 5 lbs of hay.

I’d guess that the grass had some nutritional value, and it’s the end of the season for whatever is/was growing in Florida over the winter. Maybe the pasture needs to be tested, possibly limed and/or fertilized to help bump up the nutritional value of what is growing.

I have great luck with senior feed for horses that need to put on weight safely. The first thing I suspect when a horse stops eating is ulcers, but your horse is eating fine?

[JB]

Does your vet not have a backup? I would not be waiting another week to have someone out to draw blood and get that looked at asap. That’s a dramatic weight loss.

I too am VERY confused about 12 hours of Winter grass turnout (even in Wellington) and only 5lb of hay for the other 12 hours. If he was truly only getting that at night, then you might have brought on ulcers and now he’s not getting enough nutrition and calories digested.

With what, and when, have you dewormed him in the last year?

[SportingSun]

A fairly drastic drop in weight like this is grounds for a vet visit with blood pulled. It could be a lot of things but it is not something to sit on and wait/see. My TB used to be an easy keeper (well by TB standards) but after he developed a heart murmur it became harder to keep him at a good weight (although he’s still a fairly easy keeper by TB standards lol).

Anyway, it could be something simple, could be something more difficult to treat.
Also fwiw, they can have cushings and not show the traditional symptoms.

ETA: I’m not sure why 5 lb of hay at night is unreasonable? My easy keeper QH gets about that much in a slow feeder. Yes he is finished by the morning but he also doesn’t act like he’s starving, so I’m fairly sure it lasts him most of the night.

[merrygoround]

In the meantime I’d increase his hay, and perhaps add some alfalfa cubes.

It sounds from here that, baring any significant changes in blood chemistry, he just isn’t getting enough groceries, and that sort of thing can sneak up on you

[StormyDay]

The grass here is hard to explain to anyone who has not dealt with it. It’s very, very low in caloric value and is not very easily digestible by horses. It kinda just goes right through. We have a lot of ASPCA cases of people turning their horses out on lush fields of grass and thinking that will be enough. The horses become emancipated and they don’t know what they are doing wrong.

You can grow cool weather grass during he winter, but we don’t in our pasture. The grass was dormant for the past 3 months, it is growing back now.

He eats out of a haynet, so it lasts quite a while. He was dewormed 2 months ago. I believe it was ivermectin but I would have to check.

The vet will be out tomorrow
Thanks for the ideas. I have a TB with a resting heart murmur, but he came to me that way so I never experienced a difference between before vs after.

[JB]

What kinds of grass is that?

5lb of hay is nothing. Even in a hay net it just can’t last very long. Combined with dormant Winter grass and that’s simply not enough forage by far.

[StormyDay]

A mix between St Augustine and argentine, I believe.

I know 5 lbs seems like nothing, but that was the diet he was on for years without a problem.

[sabinomare]

I would try a vitamin/mineral supplement and deworm again.

[Texarkana]

My understanding with the grass in sandy areas with high rainfall, like Florida, is that the grass has very little nutrients as a function of the poor nutrient levels in the soil. The grass is pretty much carbs and fiber only. It is similar to what you see in other “tropical” regions, like the islands.

Growing the same species of grasses in a region with richer soil will result in richer grasses.

[Paddys_Mom]

Also, who did his teeth?
I have had a vet do my horses’ teeth and then a different vet, who specialized in dentistry, show me the points left behind by the first vet.

[LawsofMurph]

Having just gone through a similar circumstance I can offer a little of my own experience.
Same basic symptom of weight loss and at first I thought it was just him adjusting to his new home/winter time, but as it became obvious his weight wasn’t stabilizing he started becoming very subdued and unhappy. Turned out he had a low-grade infection in his guttural pouches.
The only way I found out was through bloodwork and a physical with the vet. I would recommend getting the vet out as soon as possible, because my guy didn’t even start thinking about gaining weight until he was on antibiotics.

[StormyDay]

He is on a vitamin/mineral supplement. He also gets salt, a joint supplement, and an anti-ulcer/calcium supplement. I just didn’t think that mattered for weight gain so i didn’t mention it.
texarkana: That makes sense. All I know is I have a pony who would be seriously overweight if he was on a pasture like this up north anywhere!

[Eventer13]

I agree with physical and blood work. I’d check his teeth again, not necessarily for points but for anything else that may make eating painful. It wouldn’t hurt to deworm again, and then retest the fecal in a few weeks to make sure there is no resistance.

I might also start giving free-choice hay, and adding in some grain, to try to get ahead of the weight loss.

I assume manure is normal?

[Cindyg]

I want to hear what you learn from the vet when she comes out.

ETA: I assume this isn’t your first winter with this horse? Does she normally get through the winter OK, or is it possible that the cold weather burned a lot of calories? I have noticed several horses in my neighborhood dropped some weight when we had an unusual-for-our-climate ice storm.

[StormyDay]

I forgot to say, my dentist is an equine dentist only. He flies all over the country doing teeth. He’s amazing.
Should I do ivermectin or something more specified?
Manure is normal.
I have had this horse 8 years the coldest it got here was 45 one night. Most days it stays above 80.

[JB]

2 months ago, ivermectin. Double check that to be sure. Plain ivermectin? With Praziquantel? If not, when was the last time you dewormed for tapeworms? You should be doing that Spring and Fall.

A FEC should be done 12 weeks after giving ivermectin for the best results. But, if you want to rule out a current worm load for whatever reasons, then do one now.