[*BaRrEL_BaBE*]

As you know, my TB mare, Cali, is a bit on the thin side. However, in the past week she has dramatically dropped weight. I know this sounds odd but it's true: when my horses start looking a like they could use a lil' weight, I start giving them extra food. But all of the sudden Cali's ribs are sticking out and her topline thin once more. Now, a few weeks after I bought her, she hurt her leg and had to be kept in a seperate paddock. During that time alone, she dropped a lot of weight. And in these past two weeks, her best friend, Arizona, was injured and had to be stalled for a few days. After they were 'reuinted' she was kicked and I stalled her for a couple days as well.

Someone once mentioned to me that a depressed horse will loose weight....could seperation be causing her to dramatically lose weight such as these cases?

[Dawn]

Anxiety will cause a horse to "worry" weight off. Weight loss related to depression will be because they're off of their food.

What are you feeding her, how much, etc...When were her teeth done, worming, all that good stuff.

[SammyDoodle]

Horses can lose condition through stress. Our old horse Denver really went downhill when our 28 year old TB died - it took us a long time to get weight back on him - and he is a good doer under normal circumstances.

We fed him several little feeds daily - this is better than one or two big ones - in addition to his turnout and his hay

[*BaRrEL_BaBE*]

Originally Posted by Dawn

Anxiety will cause a horse to "worry" weight off. Weight loss related to depression will be because they're off of their food.

What are you feeding her, how much, etc...When were her teeth done, worming, all that good stuff.

She was just on grass because there's so much of it. But since her dramatic weight loss, we've been bringing her in a couple times a day to give her a total of two half-full buckets of beet pulp and 4 flakes of alfalafa. The thing is, I'm seeing a correlation of her weight loss and her seperation from Zone: even if she was on more food than usual, if she was seperated from Arizona, she would seem to just drop weight like crazy. As far as teeth goes & worming and all that, she's UPD. And she just had her shots done(almost kicked the vet *sigh* ).

It's just that one week she was fine on the grass and then the next looking like he**. It doesn't make sense. I always monitor my horse's weight and I'm telling you that this girl just dropped it like that.

[Dawn]

They can. Reno can easily drop 25+ lbs from a trailer ride, and she only weighs about 600 to begin with.

How much is half a bucket?

[*BaRrEL_BaBE*]

A half a bucket is 2 small cans(small Folgers coffee cans) of Beet Pulp plus water.

[Dawn]

Is the water there before you measure it? Or after? If the small cans are the same as I'm thinking about, that's a lot of beet pulp (if you're talking about before water). But there might be a size smaller than what I've seen. Have you thought about putting her on some type of hard feed?

[*BaRrEL_BaBE*]

No, I add the two cans and then put in the water so it ends up being about half a bucket full. I attached a pic of about how big the can is(it's like the smaller one on the left; maybe even smaller). I am going to put her on different feed soon(I had another thread going earlier about which to give; thanks for your advice there as well). My mom was thinking about getting a really, fatty more expensive grain and we're also considering 'Weight Builder,' but in the meantime, I'm trying to see if I can pinpoint the cause.

[SirCharles]

You may want to think about putting your horse on a daily wormer even if you are worming already each time she/he is moved they are being re -infested. A daily wormer will rid any parasite problems to make sure that's not the issuse. The beet pulp is great does sound like a lot of beet pulp. I have 4 horses that all are on a diet that contains corn oil they have about 2 1/2 cups a day. I used it for my draft horses to prevent EPSM and had such wonderful result with it I put all my horses on it one of which is a TB. TB are considered hard keepers at the best of times. If you use the corn oil start with small amounts and increase a little at a time, the weight builder is good but the corn oil has given my horses enery and beautiful coats and will help increase your horses weight. I swear by it. Oh yeah you know you can feed the beet pulp without soaking it. I do and it's just fine. If you plug beet pulp for horses into google you will find a vet who will give you some great infor on beet pulp. or go to www.ruralheritage.com But as some one mentioned that is a real lot of beet pulp. My yearling drafts who are about 16.2 only gets half a scoop a day with his stratagy. I'd check that amount out. Good luck

[Dawn]

You're giving your horses over 2 cups of oil a day? That is way over recommended guidelines.