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Need a miracle, putting on Lbs (Help)!!!!!!!

5K views 20 replies 15 participants last post by  Blkjimni 
#1 ·
My 2 year old PB Arabian filly is way to thin.
She is a picky eater and I am at a loss on what to feed her to pack on the lbs.....
I feed her growth, sweet feed and hay which she doesn't like hay by the way.
I have fed her corn oil for months with no results, weight builder for 4 months with no results. I sware I feed it two her twice a day for 4 months and nothing..That stuff has 40 grams of fat in every serving.
She eats all her feed but eats slow.
She is very doscile, doesn't pase or sway, she is gentle and doesn't worrie. I worm her ever due date. I am going to put her on envision which I heard that does wonders, Will see.
Any thing else I can try?
I can't see her ribs but her hip bone sticks out. She needs to fill out before the next show season.
Help Me.......................................PPPPPleassse
 
#2 ·
My very first concern here would be "she doesn't like hay" -- that's all not good. Call a vet if you need to, but she needs hay... maybe it's the quality of the hay? Maybe it's her teeth? Does she have her new teeth coming in and they are hurting her? Also, despite that you are worming regularly, have you ever had a feces count done? It's usually very inexpensive and may tell you something you are not aware of.
 
#3 ·
WOW I didn't think about having her poop tested..... thats a good idea. Oh she eats hay but not very much, she is so picky. I have round bails and I have square bails. she nit picks at them. My other mare eats the hay with no problem. I will also have her teeth checked.
Is their a type of oil to add to her feed that will help her coat and weight?
I have tried corn oil is there something better?
 
#4 ·
do you have any pics of her?? Have you tried beet pulp?? looked into the possiblity of ulcers?? De worming is covered above...teeth are covered.. have you tried different feeds?? what are you feeding her now??
 
#5 ·
Well she is on growth and sweetfeed. I am going to start her on envision again. I had her on oil and weight builder with no luck.
Yes I have tried many feeds., Safe choice, extreme, xtn, different pellets,
Extreme was great but its about 23 dollars a bag, I have got to stick with a less cost feed. what about flax seed oil?
 
#6 ·
i would also suggest beet pulp. it has only recently become available in australia and ive been using it for about a month now. i have a large warmblood and tb who is a hard keeper and i have noticed the biggest improvement after just a month of feeding it. the other 2 dont have weight issues so they need very little to keep them round and happy :) lucerne chaffe, millrun/bran, senior pellets and good quality hay should help

rice bran is another good bulk feed.

i also agree that she should be eating her hay. does she eat grass? what kind of hay do you feed her?

if you are having trouble with her eating certain things try adding mollasses to the feed. there arent many horses who can refuse mollasses :)

as said i would get her teeth checked and maybe some tests eg; poop/bloodwork. there may be some other underlying factor that is hard to diagnose in any way other than by testing
 
#7 ·
It may be that she is just growing since she is just 2.....alot of horses that age don't tend to be very bulky.

If she doesn't like the hay you are feeding, you should consider trying a different hay. Horses often will not eat certain types or poor quality hay. So I would try buying hay from a different place and see if her appetite improves.

As for what to feed her, you don't want to be feeding a diet that isn't balanced. I would find a good quality hay that she will eat as your first priority, then feed her a ration balancer on top of adequate amoutns of hay.
 
#8 ·
Progressives Envision will do wonders on her in about a month as long as there is nothing physically wrong with her. How much of it do you plan on feeding her? Also I would switch her from her sweet feed to progressives Grass formula (if she is on mostly grass hay, or Alfalfa formula if she is on mostly alfalfa hay)it will giver her all the nutrion she needs to build up muscle and along with great coat and stronger feet.
JMO I love the feed!!
 
#10 ·
The type of hay might be the trick. I get two different types of hay. The winter hay which consists mainly of timothy and tall thick red clover which is coarse and the pasture hay, which might have a variety of soft hays, including couch grass, barn hay, white clover, early goldenrod, fireweed and several other grasses that have medicinal qualities. My filly prefers the pasture hay which is harvested early and keeps the seed and grains longer in the hay. My gelding prefers the coarse winter hay. My mare doesn't care and remains roly-poly at all times.

But the true cause for hips showing is the lack of water. She sounds like she is dehydrated. During the winter I try to get my horses to drink 10 gallons of water a day. But this summer, my three horses were going through at least 60 gallons of water a day, for the three of them. During the winter, I usually fail at the ten gallons and they, the filly and the gelding were hippy, but the mare was fat. This summer they were all rounded out. I though for sure there was a leak in the large trough. But there wasn't. It could have been a lot more because someone would run when they saw the horses at the trough and turn on the hose. I only watered them twice a day but apparently they were given fresh cool water, up to 6 times a day.

Have you tried giving her salt?
 
#11 ·
If you can get ENvision

try the Progrssive ProAdvangtage Grass Frmula 1lb a day
Beet pulp 2 lbs a day

You need to get her to eat hay if that means getting different hay for her you need tooo....

Please be careful mising and matching feeds ... it is veryvery hard to get a good balance that way especially with the cheaper feeds
 
#14 ·
Not to say this is what is wrong with your horse, but this sounds a lot like what my stallion was doing. He was not much on eating all of his feed and he picked at hay. Would not hold a pound of weight and was eating...6 pounds of omolene 200 a day along with 1 ounce of cococsoya, 4 ounces of weight builder, and 2 scoops of super 14! This is a 220lb miniature horse! He should not eat that much! Yet, not a pound of improvement and he did not get this way slowly it was a very very very fast decline in weight and condition. I found out he had ulcers and then knew I needed to get him away from grain. I found a good ration balancer and feed hay and now he will gain weight like nothing else, and the ulcer is healed! I am feeding Tribute Essential K (I do not know how available this stuff is outside of Ohio) and good hay 2x a day and have had no problems.
Not saying this is the problem, but something to take into considerations if a vet visit is made...
 
#15 ·
i live in the uk, and we use mollichop, sugar beet, cod liver oil (for coat and weight), also baileys the website is below:
Home

that website explains all about the feeds they do but i dont know if they send bags of food over to where you are. you might be able to find something out on it though.

good luck and i hope you find something that will put her weight on :)
 
#17 ·
All the advice is great. I do plan on feeding her envision. She isn't wormy! I feed a good praire hay. She eats Alfalfa pellets in her feed. She is eating her hay better now so I may have that beat. I do however know she needs muscle. I have a walker that is being delivered soon so that will help. I can't pony her so I am just gong to have to lunge and use walker. Anything else I can ad to her feed to help? I have tried corn oil and she didn't like it much.............
 
#19 ·
Is their a type of oil to add to her feed that will help her coat and weight?
I would try adding cocosoya oil to maintain her weight and to keep her coat nice and shiny. This is what I used on my TB last winter when he lost some weight along with some alfalfa cubes and it helped back on the weight very nicely. Also, once the weight had been gained the continuous use of cocosoya oil will help maintain the weight and improves her coat.

I also agree with having her teeth done and trying different types of hay because she might just simply not like the type she has now.

Sorry if I repeated anything I just kinda scanned over the previous posts.
 
#20 ·
i would try beet pulp but basically all that adds is water weight which comes right back off. try a high carb senior sweet feed my friend tried some on her 23 yr old mare who was about 200 pounds underweight (due to neglectful owners b4 my friend) and she picked up the weight fast.
 
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