We have a quarter horse mare that is about 24 y/o. She has been steadily losing weight since last Spring. That is when we moved from Southern Colorado to Texas. We thought at first it was stress and heat. But, even this winter she is losing weight. We had two different horseyVets look at her and one did blood work. Everything in the blood test checked out fine. We were told be each Vet they can not find anything physically wrong with her. She has 24/7 access :no:to coastal. And, twice a day she gets senior feed and alfalfa pellets soaked in water, molasses and wheat germ oil. And, still no weight gain. Any suggestions to get her to gain weight would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.
What brand of senior feed are you feeding? How much in pounds per day? What is your hay like? Has your hay been tested? How much hay in pounds per day is your mare getting? Is she being worked at all?
She might never re-gain the kind of weight she had as a younger horse. But 24 isn’t all that old. My elderly mare didn’t start to lose weight until she was 29-30 – and my 22 year old gelding is still holding his weight nicely. Without knowing more about your feeding program – I can only suggest feeding her 3xday (if you’re only feeding 2xday) and up the quality of your hay by including timothy/alfalfa.
You could also include beet pulp (soaked shreds are my favorite) in your feed and perhaps a high fat supplement like Amplify.
To add more fat into the diet you could top-dress the two grain meals with oil.
It would be really helpful if Cutter’s questions could be answered. I had an ASB who passed at the age of 29 and he also had a period of time where he lost condition and couldn’t get it back. Part of it was my fault, because I thought I was feeding him enough and in fact I was not. I had to get out a scale and weigh out what each scoop I was using contained and get an eyeball for how many pounds of my feed it took to fill a bucket, etc. I also switched to Triple Crown Senior because my old guy did have Cushings which was being treated, and it is quite low in NSC’s and high in fat so high in calories per pound while being lower sugar.
He ended up eating between 9 and 11 pounds of concentrates, about 3 pounds of soaked and fluffed alfalfa cubes and grass hay. I top dressed one bucket worth with half a cup of canola oil. We split the concentrates into two muck tubs and let him eat all night in his stall as he fussed if confined in daylight and needed to be kept segregated to eat.
I think they can get less efficient at digesting and metabolizing their feed, so what, when and how they are fed starts to be more critical.
If Buckeye Ultimate Finish or any flax containing product won’t put weight on the mare, then you need vet intervention. My horses, all easy keepers all my life, could not eat the Ultimate Finish for the omega 3 benefits for in a short time they got fatter.
So try that, and give the mare the Seminole grain which is 14% protein. I forget the current name, as I gave it to mine when it was Spillers and my 2 were in daily work and showing years ago. Then they had to switch to safe and lite due to weight gain when they quit showing.
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Sometimes I think you just have to keep trying different things until you find what works. My mid-20’s Lusitano mare is a royal PIA when it comes to keeping weight on her. All of the typical things you would want to put her on to keep weight on did nothing- TC Senior, Purina Senior, adding beet pulp, adding alfalfa, adding oil… nope nada. Finally a friend was borrowing her as a companion and she fed crap Purina Country Acres Sweet and my mare finally gained weight. She’s on a combo of high fiber sweet feed, hay replacer and flax- all soaked in hot water. Plus 3 lbs alfalfa and free choice pasture or orchard grass round bales
Have the vets checked her teeth? My 23 yo TB was only two months late getting his annual dental check (which was good in Dec 2015), and he had developed a fairly severe wave mouth, as well as a cracked tooth and a low-grade oral infection. He had recently dropped at least 100 lbs and was not enthusiastically eating hay. Like someone above, he was getting what seemed like a lot of feed (TC senior, Legends Omega, beep, and alfalfa cubes) and more than he’d gotten last, harder winter and was losing weight. It just wasn’t enough.
He got his teeth done, antibiotics for the infection, dewormed with Quest in case of encysted strongyles (his fecal in November was good, and dewormed then with Equimax), and orders to up his senior feed. After just five days he’s already more energetic and appears to be happier munching hay. We’ll probably be investing in chopped hay next winter though.
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What brand of senior feed are you feeding? How much in pounds per day? What is your hay like? Has your hay been tested? How much hay in pounds per day is your mare getting? Is she being worked at all?[/QUOTE]
These are important questions, as are the condition of the teeth. 24/7 access to hay is tough to measure. Any chance you could separate her for a day or two and see what she actually finishes in hay?
It’s possible that she doesn’t find the hay palatable, can’t chew it properly, is being bullied away from it, etc. etc.
I would not hesitate to increase the senior feed for an older horse that needed weight - it is typically designed to be eaten even a horse can’t consume any forage at all.
But I’d probably want a better measure of how much hay/grain she’s eating before doing much else.
Mom of a 21 year old TB who lives outside in a herd 24/7 (fed in a stall so I know he gets all his food). Winter has been especially challenging for me, so I feel your pain. I only have access to coastal, so I feel you on that front too. Nutritionally, not the best, but all of my horses have always done just fine on it. Great that you feed free choice! That is half the battle around here, trying to convince people that amount is not excessive.
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To echo what everyone else has said, make sure teeth are in good working condition. You may have done this already as you mention vet visit, but specifically as vet/dentist to look and feel for hooks or problem areas.
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Same vein as above, make sure worms aren’t the issue. I’m sure vet covered this as well, but due diligence.
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That aside, something that has been my lifesaver this year has been rice bran. Rice bran is an excellent source of fat and affordable. You can buy stabilized or unstabilized in powder or pellet form. I’ve gotten a bag of unstabilized powder from my local feed store, but Tractor Supply sells stabilized for appx $25 for a huge bag.
From what I understand (and I have fed both), stabilized is the way to go as it keeps longer (unstabilized can go rancid) and helps with a potential imbalance of nutrients (unstabilized can lead to an imbalance in minerals…potentially…from my own amateur research). This stuff has been great. Since it’s powder, I can mix it in with his 2 scoops of Nutrena pro force senior feed (Normal plastic, squarish, colored scoops- sorry I haven’t weighed it), add water to mix it all into a mush, and it doesn’t take him longer to consume it with the food he normally eats. I’ve worked up to a scoop of the stuff each meal, and he seems to handle it well. I’m seeing a noticeable difference with his topline and coverage over his ribs. We’ve had a drastic up/down temperature winter preceded by a horrible drought, so he was becoming thinner than I like to see. Anywho, there’s my primer on rice bran, good luck!
Could be something else going on, infection (from a bad tooth?) is a likely culprit.
But, typically, if they don’t thrive, they are not getting enough calories. Older horses sometimes don’t digest as well to pull the nutrients out of the calories they take in. We need to be sure to offer more nutrient rich food to them in an easily digestible firm.
Coastal is pretty much just filler, not much nutrition there so it really does not matter if she has free access or not. It’s not enough to sustain her. And its tough to get to the 20-25 lbs a day of forage (hay) generally seen as a dietary basic, not much to it compared to more robust hays.
How much Senior feed (in pounds) is she getting and how much of the alfalfa cubes (that weight is mostly water, how much dry?). Most Seniors need at least 6lbs of Sr split into at least 2 feedings and it’s OK to go up a little on that. Woukd guess the equivalent of 5 pounds of alfalfa cubes twice a day to total 10…pellets might be easier here.
You don’t mention how she is being fed? Out in a shared field or alone-she might be fighting off others.
Anyway, look to calories first here. She’s not getting enough calories/nutrition from them for whatever reason so start there. More often then not, it is as simple as that when you have one that’s just not holding weight. Increase calories in easily digestible form.
Would also like to know what to do…25 yr old paint mare…dumor senior 2xdaily hay and alfalfa cubes hav3s a dental program
but age has taken some teeth she chews everything very sociable and is out everyday but can’t seem to get weight back on …
How much hay and grain is actually being fed?
The answer might simply be “give her more.”
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My senior gelding is on envision by progressive nutrition, it is a life saver (quite literally in his case 
) He holds his weight beautifully especially seeing he has health problems that limit the forage he can have.
The supplement is pelleted and highly palatable. It comes in large bags like traditional feed so it is cost effective!
Envision by progressive nutrition!
My friend’s 17 year old lost a huge amount of weight at the boarding barn where he lived happily for years. The vet found nothing, but thought he might have cancer. In desperation, she brought him to my house in June, to live next to my quiet Irish Draughts. I gave him a free choice buffet of Purina Ultium, Purina Equine Senior, Mccauley’s Legend/Senior feed, McCauley’s flax based feed, and McCauley’s M10. He had free choice alfalfa and Lucerne Farms Dengie, as well as good pasture and free access to good shelter.Within a month, he gained substantial weight. He now just gets Purina Ultium and a pound of McCauley M10 with his free choice alfalfa. Today, the vet pronounced him as normal weight. Her comments included that he should not gain any more weight.
Sometimes, experimenting with the diet works. High fat food, alfalfa, and variety seem to be what works for this guy.
As horses age, they also don’t digest long stem fibre as well as when they were younger. Is your horse’s manure showing poorly digested hay?
I would not expect to see age-related digestion problems in horses 20-25 years old unless they had other health issues. Or teeth problems. Or both.
