Hi everyone, I'd love for your opions if I could barrow them please. I rescued a 5 year old over paint gelding. His previous owners neglected him. They had three other horses, and didn't want anything to do wtih this one. He was starting to lose weight before I bought him. He likes to wind suck (i think thats what ya call it), and they thought that was why he was losing weight, that or the other three horses were keeping him out of food.

I give him a good a mount of hay twice a day, plus two coffee cans of sweet feed at night. I have dewormed him a few times. But he still wont gain weight. For awhile he was starting to look good. Then I rode him and he went back to looking skiny again. I've tried weight builder, and corn oil. I don't know if I need to just be patient and keep doing that longer, or if there is something else I can try. I'm running out of ideas.

He has great bloodlines, his parents are huge! I know he can be too, but I can't get him to fill out. My husband was wondering if we could find away to get some muscle built up on him, maybe it'd help him gain some weight, and be able to keep it even through exersise.

Please if you have any suggestions. I'd love to hear about them! Thanks

I would suggest having your vet or a equine dentist check his teeth. A horse that wind sucks or cribs has a tendency to wear their teeth abnormally and you may be feeding him all that he needs but he cant digest it properly because of his bite.. Just a suggestion.. good luck

I agree, you should have his teeth checked. To put weight on I would make sure he has plenty of good quality hay infront of him most of the time, sweet feed is ok but it can give them more energy and cause them to burn more calories. You can continue to feed the sweet feed but I would add oats to it half/half. I would also give him 10 cc's of probios paste twice a week for a month and then once a week to maintan him, the probios will ballance the stomach and allow him to uptake more nutiance from his feed.
To add muscle you must up his protien.
hope this helps.
Cathy C

As everyone stated, have the horses teeth done. He has probably never had his teeth done since he wasn't taken care of, and cribbing or sucking wind on top of that his mouth could use some work. At age 5 a horse will have his full set of adult teeth. But they will be razor sharp, after shedding off all those baby caps. You would be surprised what a good float with power tools will do. Depending on how bad he has messed up his teeth from cribbing he should be floated every 1-2 years. If he cribbs bad it will be closer to yearly. The majority of horses (who don't crib) can go about every 2 years on floating as long as power tools are used. If your vet uses hand floats still it will have to be done yearly. Horses have to chew their food completely to get all of the nutrients out of it and if they have sharp teeth (which sounds like he does) they will begin to partly chew their hay and then swallow the rest whole. By doing this they begin losing weight no matter how much you feed them. He should start putting on the weight by leaps and bounds after the floating. You could always use a complete feed (Like equine senior, even though he is young) along with the hay. The great thing with the senior is it is calorie packed yet all they have to due is swallow it. I would stay away from the high carb feeds (sweat feed)But no matter what you choose to feed make sure you weigh your food. Horses should be fed by weight not volume. A horse should eat 1-2% of its ideal body weight a day just as maintance. 1-1.5% should be in roughage if you chose to feed a grain supplement also. He probably developed the cribbing due to the lack of food and bordom. It would be great if he would give it up but I would be surprise. He would benefit greatly also from a cribbing collar, THe best on the market is the leather miricale collar. When used properly it works great, The reason people say it doesn't work I have found is because they are not fitting properly to the horse. The electric collars work really well also.

Hope this helps

Yes, do have his teeth looked @. I prefer to have my dentist do mine or at least look at them 2x year and do as little as possible instead of waiting and then doing some drastic changes. While either your dentist/vet is there ask them to age him. Unless you remember him being born his thinning may actually be due to his growing. Is he really 5, he may be much younger or possibly older. Hate to say it but if he is registered and you have his papers do they match him exactly.
Now to feed- All the good quality hay he will consume. If you are feeding hay and he's cleaning it up increase that amount by a flake or more until you reach a point where he almost cleans it all up. Or as long as its good quality give him a round bale. As far as grain a 10% protien level sweet/pellet commercial grain should be fine a high fat level won't hurt. Beet pulp is also very good at adding weight,soak it extremely well for 1hour or more, start with 1 cup dry=3 cups wet that can be increased slowly to 2lbs. Ask about senior and extruded feeds as some of the protien levels are much high which is good for seniors but not good for youngsters it taxes the kidneys to much. Small frequent[4-6] feedings also do much better than 1-2 daily meals as after an hour the feed has past through and they start to feel hungry. Also don't be afraid to work him slowly walk,walk,walk that will help his metabolism and start to increase muscle mass. But do rule out parasites[stool sample] teeth and medical problems. A small vet bill now is much better than feeding for 6 months a not being any better off.

Is he on (and been on) a regular worming schedule? I also got a neglected horse and high quality feed + a comprehensive worming plan and he's looking much better, though i'm still battling the worms. Rough coat and tail rubbing are added signs of a possible worm problem. However, there are many many many reasons a horse may not be keeping on weight, some more serious than others! Definitely have a vet do a thorough exam!

Hey! How's he doing? You've had some good replies- I would also make sure he's dewormed and teeth are checked... you can feed high-fat grains which won't hurt him BUT WILL NOT help him gain weight either.

I know I know, america has heard this for a long time...but it's not what makes the tons of fat you see on some horses... try it yourself...lol just kidding! I don't care if you eat a tub of straight lard...your body just won't absorb all the fat like that. It absorbs very little. I've studied health for eight years. Have you ever heard of Dr. Joel Wallach? DVM, MD- He has been a vet for over 25 years and is also a natropathic doctor. He did studies on animals and then to humans for several years and found alot of stuff untrue that america was pushing... carbohydrates such as wheat and white bread...sugar also...is why america has some of the most overweight people. Not too far from animals either...

I fed one of mine this winter who has weight problems...I kept him off of the fat cr*p and fed him all the hay he could eat, along with 12% mixed with wheat flour. Oats is great too. He picked up weight very fast. I've used weight-gain products and also senior feed which has alot of fat in it. That was before I knew that fat isn't absorbed into the body hardly at ALL.
Beet pulp is good for weight gain too. I've said all this because of experience, I hope you don't think I'm saying it because I just heard it from someone else lol!! I'm a critic and I like to make sure something is true before I pronounce it to the world lol!!