HELP!! Weight is making me nervous!!!

Okay so (please don't bite my head off) When we got Phantom's teeth done they were about three/four months overdo (i know I know but at the time no money for it because there was an emergency with one of the other horses at the barn Equine Metabolic Disease which was setting off laminitis.) Well, anyway, his teeth grow fast and apparently they had gotten too long during that time period and he dropped weight and now I can sort of see his ribs a bit. Now we got his teeth done about 3 weeks ago and he hasn't been gaining any weight back. My friend says not to be worried because since I work him at the shows he should gain it back as muscle. Well I really have not seen him put on anything in the past 3 weeks. He gets senior sweet feed one can in the morning and one can in the evening. He also gets all day hay and grass. I was wondering if I should put him on Weight Builder or if there is anything else I can give him that might help him gain alittle more weight cause it really makes me nervous. His appetite is normal and he is acting like himself. It just makes me nervous because he dropped so much so fast and the vet said other than his teeth (at the time) he was healthy and I don't like to see my old boy so thin. By the way he is 19yrs.

You can try putting veg.oil in his feed. I have a 18 yr.old that I'm trying to put weight on that's what I'm doing.I also have tryed Amplify weight gain and it worked really good. Good Luck

Need to know what he is eating now :)

Take him off the sweet feed and find a high fiber high fat feed...

Triple Crown COmplete is a good one so is Triple Crown Senior, Kent's Omegatin(sp)

Some older horses can't digest the sugars in senior/sweet feeds, so basically it goes right through them. Rice bran & beet pulp will help him pick up weight, and try and find grain that is high in fat, low in sugar.

Senior feed is geared for senior horses.

We have had very good results with Safe Choice, Nutrena Senior and Empower for weight gain.

It takes horses a lot longer to put the weight back on than it did to lose it.

It also depends on WHAT senior feed you are using Purina is GRAIN based ... regardless of marketing the companies don't alway do what is best for the horse!!!

Did you mention to the dentist that he was having difficulty chewing his food when he had his teeth done? I recently had my horse's teeth done, and when I mentioned that he was dropping food, the dentist said "oh, I'm glad you told me that because that means I have to file them a different way". If you didn't mention it to him, he may not have filed the teeth for better chewing. Now my horse doesn't drop anything, but he's also a senior and it's been hard putting weight back on him. Right now I'm looking at Blue Seal Performance LS. It's especially made for hard keepers and "metabolically challenged senior horses".

I would add to your senior feed 2 lbs of alfalfa pellets and 1 cup of either rice bran or milled flax. That is a simple and inexpensive way to put weight on. Once he's up to a good weight, cut out the alfalfa and cut the flax or rice bran down to 1/2 cup, as it's good for skin/coat/hooves and keeping weight on.

If your senior food is grain based, then I agree on switching him. (check the label and look for corn, barely, etc.) If it is grain based, then just replace it with Alfalfa pellets (3 lbs Am and 3 lbs Pm for weight gain), and add SmartVite Senior vitamins along with the flax or rice bran. Use some water to make it all stick. Once he's up to a good weight, cut the Alfalfa pellets in half and the bran or flax to 1/2 cup.

Thanks for the responses. My friend owns and trains racehorses and he said to give him straight oats mixed with veggie oil. I thought this would make him go crazy so I'm not doing that until I get some suggestions about it. We have him on Triple Crown Senior now. He still is a bit much underweight for me. And we told the dentist about him dropping food and he fixed that. And the vet checked him for everything under the sun and everything came back negative. Any ideas about the straight oats?

Yeah that's the part I don't like