According to Succeed’s web site, it will detect the presence of stomach ulcers, colonic ulcers or other GI disease including hind gut injury. Any more input on hind gut or gastric issues? No signs of quidding, no changes to manure, full dental work up with speculum this summer. What do you mean by body work? Not sure about TMJ issues …
Only way to definitively diagnose or rule out gastric ulcers in the foregut is a gastroscopy. Hind gut ulcers are much trickier to pin down as they can’t be seen on a scope.
Bodywork as in chiropractic/massage/acupuncture etc.
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Any chance he’s been tested for insulin resistance? Most IR horses are the really easy keeping fatties. Some are hard keeping skinnies
Ever had his cortisol level checked? Elevated cortisol can be from chronic pain
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You can’t have a false positive, but you can have a false negative. Grade 1 ulcers in the stomach won’t produce whole blood, so no positive H test. Not all ulcers will be actively bleeding.
But even if you get a positive, the results could be from parasite damage, or lipomas, or a few other things, and not ulcers,
But also, there’s more to hind gut issues than actively open ulcers. Hind gut acidosis - probably a lot more common than
So it’s potentially useful as part of the bigger diagnostic picture, not a definitive diagnosis in and of itself.
No to IR, no to Cortisol. Is endoscopy the only way to diagnose ulcers and hind gut issues?
You could ultrasound to see if you can find hind gut issues, but i’m not sure it’s really worth it.
Yes to scoping as the only definitive way to diagnose gastric ulcers. This can be most useful, as 1) you know for sure, and 2) you’d know exactly what kind of ulcers, as the kind dictates the treatment.
Sometimes the only symptom of ulcers is weight loss, even in the presence of a good appetite.
And maybe, he may be at an age where 22lb hay for a (should be) 1400lb horse, just doesn’t cut it anymore. He may be QH but he looks like he has a lot of TB in him. Not that that means it’s ok for him to look like this (I’d be concerned too), but he’s not going to look like a chunky QH without being fat, especially with his amount of work
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Did you dose by weight or just give him one dewormer?
I think quest plus only does a little under 1300lb horse, that’s assuming they didn’t drop any too. Just wondering if he was potentially under dosed?
I’d be thinking ulcers or teeth as likely possible issues considering how little hay he’s eating.
I’ve had a few horses here drop a lot of weight relatively quickly, and it was due to Lyme. But they also had subtle signs of being under the weather (low energy eg). None of the horses here are ridden, which might have provided other clues.
Also, ask your vet about Purina Well Gel; my vet recommended it for the underweight Lyme horses here.
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I’ve known some TB harder keeper types that just didn’t do well on Ultium for some reason, despite it being a higher calorie feed per pound than some. Is there another feed option at your barn? Is there an option for alfalfa hay instead of the pellets? 3lb pellets is equivalent to a pretty small flake of alfalfa hay by weight. I would also try to get more hay into a horse of that size. That amount of hay is approximately what my easy keeper 1300lb WB gets in a day when there’s no grass.
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QP went up, around a year or so ago, to 1500lb 
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Calories would be about the same, and it would take less time to eat the same weight of pellets, so uuuuusually, pellets are better in terms of a higher calorie:volume ratio.
But I agree that if ANY additional hay is a possibility (doesn’t sound like it is though 
) then I would be adding alfalfa hay if possible, instead of just more grass hay
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I mean, if my alfalfa flakes weigh more like 5lbs and I could feed one or two of those and they are more interesting to the horse than the grass hay and more likely to get eaten (such as at breakfast time), at the end that’s going to be more calories.
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If hay is the issue, I’m sure I could work something out with the very accommodating barn owners. Just was trying to figure out possible reasons for such a weight drop in 4 months. Got some great thoughts here - thanks!
You are feeding him enough calories that he ought to be in good weight, barring something physical.
His photos show good weight but poor muscle condition. So I would lean to something painful is making it so he can’t put on weight. Generally, when I hear someone is feeding a horse enough and they are not gaining weight, my first suspect is the feet – then the back. His toes do look long from what I can see.
When I first read your post, I thought about the melanomas right away. He is grey, and I have always been told if you see them, they exist internally too.
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I have to disagree. He is too thin. He would have to go a long way before the OP had to worry about obesity.
If he has been accurately dewormed and had his teeth checked ( done if needed) than more hay would be my first choice. As long as he isn’t having other symptoms.
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Just curious - is there any possibility that he is not getting as much hay as you think? I don’t mean that the barn owner necessarily is skimping on purpose, but is it possible that barn staff aren’t as accurate as they should be and/or someone has made a change in the feeding schedule by accident?
Also - are you sure other horses are not losing weight? It’s not always obvious at first.
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I have a good relationship with the owners and they know I am concerned and have been very helpful, so I would be surprised if they were not being conscientious. I’m sure about the others - I board a second horse there as well. It’s a small barn.
Agree about the poor muscle condition. Even when he was in training and at the top of his game, he had a poor top line. As noted he does have neck arthritis and gets daily previcox. I wondered about the melanomas internally as well; the vet mentioned she thought if melanoma were bad enough to cause him to be losing weight he would likely be at least a little colicky and not feel well.
At the very least, you can work with what we see visually – those feet do need attention. When was the last time he was shod? Granted I can only see the front feet, but both are long and imbalanced.
My horse with neck arthritis was incredibly sensitive to unbalanced trimming. Something to keep in the back of your mind as you work through all of this.
They are long in this photo - he gets done regularly/ every 6-7 weeks, but the farrier was a week behind last time. He also worked on correcting the imbalance - good catch. I have a really good farrier. Thanks!
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