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Laminitic horse too thin after 4 months of Thyro-L. What to feed?

Hi all. I made a post a few months back asking what your opinion was on “Thyro-L, for life” and got a lot of helpful responses.
My horse, prior to his February laminitic episode, was not one I would categorize as an “air-fern.” However he was overweight for his height/breed when it happened, I will admit…
Well, Thyro-L worked it’s magic too much, and despite taking him off of it when he was at ideal weight, he has continued to loose weight over the past month. He was a “5” when I tapered and quit, now he is a solid “4” and I am concerned.

He is a 16 y/o Arabian gelding. At a “5”, 680#. 14.2 H.
He is out overnight without a muzzle on short grass/clover. ( I know clover is bad, and they have the slobbers terribly right now just to double down on the badness), but this is the only barn that does not have “hay field, super lush” like turnout here, or “dry lot” with mud to the knees, 365.)

He was getting: 15# grass hay in a stall during the day. 1 cup Triple Crown Lite 2X a day, supplements: Farriers Formula, Remission 1x day. Grass at night.

1 month ago he was a “5” when the vet said get rid of the Triple Crown Lite. Switch to 1 Cup Nutrina Topline Balancer 2x a day with the supplements. He continued to loose.

Today after seeing pics my vet is recommending starting at 2# Triple Crown Senior per day plus the 2 cups Nutrina Topline ration balancer. He pretty much won’t eat more than 15# grass hay in is stall during the day.

I don’t want to question my new vet after having tons of problems with the old. This one will finally answer my questions, but she is sooooooooooo busy, and far away. Love the new vet.

I cannot get alfalfa bales here. At least not horse alfalfa. I used to be able to get nice bales, but no more. Dairy quality alfalfa, maybe. But that scares me! I’m in PA if that helps visualize “Dairy alfalfa.” Lol.
So if you suggest alfalfa its probably going to be pellets. How much?

I need the power of COTH. What would you feed a now underweight horse that gets a little grass at night, won’t really eat enough extra grass hay, but is IR and recovering from laminitis?

I may have commented on the other thread that I was against the “forever thing” with Thyro-L. If I didn’t comment, that was my thought.

So now I will say, if he is not off Thyrol-L, he should be taken off, IMHO.

I did not have my horse on that stuff but rather an herbal compound from Jing Tang Herbal. He actually stabilized and has been in IR remission sInce 2015. No muzzle and enjoys daytime grazing until whenever dusk is. He comes in at night.

Meaning, your horse may possibly have stabilized and now needs to proceed without Thryro-L

My horse doesn’t eat anything out of a feed bag. I order HorseTech’s condensed vit/min supplement (soy-free) and mix it into one measuring cup of Timothy pellets, with just enough water to hold everything together.

You might look at ration balancers with beet pulp in them. I’m sure others who buy from feed stores will have better ideas.

my IR horse was formally diagnosed in 2012 with numbers so high, the university was amazed he was still alive. He foundered to where I thought he might not make it, yet he recovered, and is in remission living a quality life on his own six acres of pasture because the other horse is a bully and won’t stop picking on him. That’s a pretty serious diagnosis to have recovered from and be able to live the life of a normal horse.

He has been off the Thyro-L for over a month and is still loosing weight.
New vet says we ramped up the metabolism so much and are now “riding the coat-tails” after discontinuing.

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From the original post. Bolding mine.

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Could something other than Thyro-L be causing the weight loss? Cushing’s Disease, for example, or trouble with his teeth?

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He tested negative for both PPID/Cushing’s and lyme disease.
Teeth were floated May 6th by a pretty good dentist, so I guess it’s possible, but unlikely? He’s not dropping feed, quidding, or showing signs of tooth or mouth issues.

I do trust this new vet and am going to go with her advise, obviously. The only reason I am even asking this question is because the ECIR group does not recommend feeding TC Senior to IR horses. But, all of the discussion I can find is about overweight animals.

I’ve seen them continue to lose weight for a bit after stopping Thyro-L. Eventually, he should reset to something more normal. I think adding some TC senior to the RB (but keeping the RB and using senior for extra calories not a total switch) would be fine. You can easily drop the senior when you no longer need it. You could also add a fat source for calories and omegas.

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Did your horse have the adipose fat pads? How long until those resolved? My horse is losing weight but the fat pads persist and I get tired of saying “no, he’s not a stallion.”

If you have a scale, it’s easy to substitute pellets for hay pound for pound.

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I’ve got one like this, he lost the weight but never the fat pads. IR/Cushing’s welsh pony. Looks very “manly” :slight_smile: despite being at ideal weight.

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Yes. But they weren’t super prominent.
Mostly on the shoulders and tailhead.
This week is when I noticed they are gone, and maybe that’s why I went into “alarm mode” without really realizing what was different, now that you mention it.

See if molasses free beet pulp would be okay to feed. I use it for my mare who has restricted grass turnout due to some metabolic issues.

Maybe consider liposuction? Lol

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FWIW, my horse is prone to fat pads even when overall he’s at a decent weight. He absolutely cannot tolerate soy bean meal or they get really scary looking. On a whey based balancer, it’s much better. Most balancers have soy meal in them, and so does TC Senior. I use TC Complete at times I need more calories and fat, or a textured feed to mix meds into easier than pellets. YMMV.

Last year, one of my vets wanted him to go on Thyro-L, but I said no. He needed something else figured out so that he could perform better in work. If you trailer him somewhere, he can drop weight fast, so while IR is definitely on my radar, I didn’t want to overdo it with the Thyro-L… I wanted them to figure out what else was going on him so he could exercise. I’ve been considering trying something Chromium Yeast based this summer now that I’ve figured out that bad air = asthma = less exercise. Unless I can find a way to better control the asthma.

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