Nothing is more worrisome than watching your horse slowly lose weight day after day without knowing why. Despite making sure they have sufficient access to good quality food and mineral / vitamin supplements, they continue to lose weight. Here are 5 tips that can help you get started on the right track in tackling unexpected horse weight loss.
Veterinary evaluation
First of all, ALWAYS have your horse evaluated by your vet if you encounter any kind of health problem. I can’t stress that enough. There are so many things that can be affecting your horse’s ability to absorb nutrients, from parasites to cancer. Your vet can rule it out and make a proper diagnosis if there is a serious medical condition contributing to a weight loss problem in your horse. I have seen too many times that people take a wait and see attitude to the detriment of the horse.
Intestinal parasites
A very common reason horses lose weight is due to a high parasite load. As parasites develop resistance to many of the commercial dewormers available on the market, your deworming protocols may no longer be effective. Your vet clinic can do a fecal egg count for you and let you know what type of intestinal parasites (if any) your horse may harbor. Using this information, you can make more specific decisions about which deworming protocols might be most effective for your situation.
There are also alternative protocols that are becoming increasingly popular with horse groomers. Many of these are safe to use in conjunction with traditional dewormers and can help increase the effectiveness of your deworming program.
Some of these include:
- Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth – Diatomaceous earth is believed to work in a similar way as it moves through the digestive tract of the animal as when applied externally to insects. Microscopic silica-based diatom fossils that make up the fine dust penetrate the exoskeleton of insects, causing them to dehydrate and die.
- Essential Oils – Animals in the wild will hunt and eat certain types of plants that are not normally in their daily diet to help eliminate parasites from their bodies. Certain medicinal grade essential oils are believed to help eliminate internal body parasites based on the historical use of these plants by both ancient cultures and wild animals. It is not clear whether these help by stimulating the host’s natural immune system or by acting directly against the parasite. The oils that can help the most are: tarragon, ocotea, di-gize and longevity.
- Immune system supplementation: An organism that has a compromised immune system will be more susceptible to all types of infections, including those from internal and external parasites. Adding supplements that are high in antioxidants can help your horse deal with these attacks naturally. Immune support is very important for the maintenance of the geriatric horse.
Equine dentistry
I have been amazed at how many people I have come across over the years who do not know that horses need routine dentistry. There are many factors that influence the function of the horse’s jaw and how the horse’s teeth continually erupt and wear out. The way a horse moves, the position in which it eats, what it eats, etc. all contribute to determining whether a horse will develop a dental imbalance. If the teeth are out of balance and the horse cannot chew its food effectively, it is less likely to be able to absorb the necessary nutrients from that food. Older horses may have used up the lifespan of their teeth or are missing teeth, which also contributes to problems properly processing their food. Having your horse seen by a reputable equine dentist at least once or twice a year can save you some pain in the future.
Adding Calories
Losing your horse’s weight may be a simple matter of math … they are burning more calories than they are taking in. It may be necessary to increase your horse’s hay and / or feed, especially for horses in heavy training or workhorses. However, adding a high-quality, high-calorie source of fat may be all it takes to get around the corner. Traditionally, people have added corn oil to their horses’ feed as a top dress. However, since corn oil is not completely digestible, you must administer large amounts to be effective and many horses do not find as much oil in their palatable feed. The most popular oils that are highly digestible, palatable, and provide additional benefits to skin and hair are flax seed, soybean, and wheat germ oils.
Alternative drilling
When it comes to geriatric horses, the ability to chew becomes increasingly problematic, not to mention that the aging digestive tract becomes less efficient and capable of extracting necessary nutrients than they can chew. It may be helpful to add some easier to chew and digestible forages. However, you will want to make sure and check with your vet before changing your horse’s diet. Certain conditions, such as liver and kidney dysfunction, require special dietary consideration.
Alfalfa – For all my older broodmares, we provide soaked alfalfa buckets once a day, in addition to having access to free-choice shore hay and light grazing. In the form of a cube, the alfalfa is already minced and the soaking helps to soften the perforation for easier chewing. It also has a higher protein and calcium content that helps maintain aging muscles and bones.
Beet pulp – Soaked beet pulp is also a very popular piercing alternative. It is high in calcium and very easy to digest. Most horses find it quite tasty and easy to eat, even toothless horses!
Whole Senior Foods – Currently, there are a number of high-quality complete senior foods on the market. Many of these can even be soaked to make it easier for horses without teeth or with chewing problems to digest. When looking for a food for seniors, I usually try to avoid those with a lot of sugars (usually molasses). I prefer alfalfa flour based foods to know exactly what my horse is getting. I avoid the ones that have "hay byproduct" as the first ingredient listed. The consistency of the feed cannot be guaranteed when they can use practically anything that is considered hay. If they list alflafa flour on the label, then I know they MUST use alfalfa, nothing else.
