Training Tips

QUESTION: Hello. My daughter and I are somewhat new at horse keeping. We are very passionate about the health of all our animals. We agree that if you can't feed 'em, don't have 'em!! Anyway, about a year ago we had some bad wildfires come through our area. In the process of fighting and escaping these fires, we came across a very, very skinny and sickly mare. I let the owner know that we would give her a home or call animal control. He relinquished the horse to us. Well, after all the vet care, she still is not gaining weight like she should. Only 400 pounds or so in a year or more. Is this a normal weight gain? We feed Purina Equine Senior, along with a scoop of trace minerals; a round bale of good coastal hay is available for her and our other horse and donkey at all times, and a bit of alfalfa every day or two. She has had her teeth floated and has no back teeth whatsoever so her feed is watered down. I wormed her once with combo-care and almost killed her by doing so. She is about 25 years old. She is sweet as pie and was once extremely neglected. What can I do to make her feel better? I can look into her eyes and see that she is not well. Her condition is now out of the hands of vets. Please help if you can. This girl is a real sweetheart! Thanks.

REPLY: I have had very, very good (excellent!) luck using the supplement called "Weight Builder" for such hard keepers - here it is online at Valley Vet, but you can also usually find it in tack/feed stores - CLICK HERE FOR WEIGHT BUILDER

That Weight Builder supplement in particular works wonders in very underweight horses if you use it magnanimously, like....two scoops/per feeding (comes with its own scooper in the container), even a couple of times a day, added to their equine sr. feed. Going that route, they usually gain all the weight needed really fast, sometimes in just 4-8 weeks. Goes fast!

Now....that said....if the horse has lots of worms, there's just no way the horse is going to gain weight easily. Horses should be dewormed every-other month (when paste deworming), year round, or I guarantee you, they probably have worms. Maybe try a gentle dewormer from here on, and don't give as much if the horse has a hard time with that (though check with your vet first on that).

But definitely try the Weight Builder. It's in fine powder form, so easily dissolves into the mash you're giving there. You should see very quick results using that supplement religiously.

Also...I wanted to say...at 25, this horse may also just be on her way out simply due to old age. You didn't say what breed this horse is (or if you even know), but, say, if she's a quarter horse breed, the average lifespan of even the healthiest of quarter horses is: 24-26 years. Might be the case there, that she's just on her "last life lap" so to speak. But couldn't hurt to give her weight builder (double dose each feeding) every time you supplement her Equine Sr., just to keep her most comfortable.

By the way...if you do decide/realize that she indeed is on her way out...I learned something the hard way (as have many others), and I wanted to pass this along to you: do NOT stall her, but keep her in an open area. Like: pasture, or paddock, or arena, etc. The reason for this is: if she dies in a stall, it's incredibly difficult to get their bodies out of the stall. Keep her in an open enough area that will allow you to easily get to her body (like with a tractor) to bury her, nonstressfully to you. I know that's an uncomfortable thing to bring up, but it's something we learn in these trenches with older horses who are on their way out, or when you suspect they are on their way out, even if you've put all great efforts into them. Just something I wanted to pass along, "just in case." That "look in her eyes" that you described is indeed how they look not too long before they die/at the end of their days (days/weeks/few months?), so, just wanted to prepare you as best I can there to ease the stress on you if it comes to that.

She's lucky to have you in her life to try to help her, by the way, even if she's potentially on her way out! Even old, sickly horses appreciate lots of love and care in their last months! It matters!

Note From Sylvia: After posting the above reply, I received the following helpful tips from a reader and wanted to share it here:

I saw your article and response about the girl that had questions about how to put weight on her 25-year-old mare. I have a 36-year-old Quarter Horse Mare (no that's not a type-o). She has very little teeth, so I make her up a mash of Senior feed (6lbs), beet pulp (4lbs) and corn oil (2 cups) 2 times a day. Her ideal weight is about 800lbs, she is at about 700lbs now. Previous to this combo, I have tried every combination of grain and weight builder product with no results. The above combination does work and I continue to see her gain weight. During the winter, I soak alfalfa cubes for her as well as she cannot eat hay and needs the extra heat. Anyway, thought I would pass this along in case weight builder doesn't work for her horse.