anyone help?

[claudia]

Im worried about my friends horse. Hes 16.2hh cleveland bay x tb, 14 years old.
Shes has had him 2 years and hasnt been feeding him very well. Me and my friend plucked up the courage to tackle her about it as he really was too thin.
She was feeding him a tiny net of haylage on a night, out at grass during the day and one scoop of alfa a twice a day,and top spec balancer. He was been worked hard and he just wasnt getting the feed that he needed.
Now hes a big horse and the lady who had him before competed him in show jumping and he had amongst other things 2 large nets of haylage a night and oats and when he came he was a big strapping horse.
I think my friend just didnt have the knowledge of what she should be feeding him and what he should actually look like which is why we stepped in.
Anyway hes on rest now as the saddle she had for him didnt fit so he has muscle wastage and is having physio.
She is feeding him top spec, alfa a, build up and speedi beet three times a day. We thought he was doing ok and in a month had put about 15 - 20 kgs on. But in the last week its just dropping off him again, hes under 500kgs which id 100kgs less than claudia and shes 14.2hh! (dont worry shes on a severe diet!)
Hes clear of worms, vaccinated, teeth up to date.
I think she is taking him to be blood tested as we think there is something wrong.
Any ideas anyone?

[ponydreamersmum]

We had a bit of a cold spell didnt we last week, could simply be that and he has not had enough to keep his weight up and keep warm. I really hope it is something as simple as that for the poor guy.

[harleydales]

Apollo has problems putting on weight and muscle, and he's just been blood tested - turns out his liver isn't working properly at the moment. He's getting a liver tonic thing to sort it out though.

If a horse is lean and his body goes into stress, his liver could stop working, which might explain this boy's weight loss??? If he isn't carrying any fat to protect him from the cold, that could be enough to stress his body.

You could phone Dodson and Horrell advise line, they are really helpful. If you tell them his breed, age, weight and work he's doing, they will tell you what to feed. Their number is 0870 442 3322

[julie]

How much of each feed is she feeding. If he is fairly solid he sould be about 600kg at least so she should be feeding 12kg of feed minimum!

[claudia]

I give up. She took him to the vets yesterday and he said he didnt need any weight on and that he was looking well. They said blood testing him was a waste of time as there was no need. He said if he was going into training he would be skinnier than he is, but as i pointed out he is not a tb and my friend who told her to start feeding him more works on a big tb stud and she said if they sent one in for training looking like he does it would get sent back. The vet has even told her to cut him down to 2 feeds!
He is on roughly 2kgs of build up, 2 scoops of speedi beet, 500gms of top spec and 2 scoops of alfa a. I spoke to top spec and dodson and horrell yesterday and they said he should be on 600gms of top spec, 4kgs of build up and 1.5kgs of alfa a. I told her this but shes not having any of it, she thinks hes getting to much as it is.
Shes sooo lovely but i just wish she would listen.
The physio is coming to sort his back today then hes having a new saddle fitted so he could be back working soon and im sooo worried because hes looking crap now on rest so imagine what it will be like if he starts to burn off calories.
Oh and the vet said he doesnt need to be 600kgs. Im at a loss.

edited to say, jane he sounds exactly like your apollo. We told her to take no c**p yesterday and tell them she wanted blood tests but obviously with the vet saying that she didnt.

[Daftmare]

If he was mine I would be tempted to give him a global herbs restore to clear any toxins from his system and support his liver function. I would maybe switch him to the alfa oil if it suits him just to get some extra calories in there and make sure he has ad lib haylage. A vet told me Purdie was OK bodywise but she wasnt I insisted on bloods and she had a raised white blood cell count which meant she was recovering from an infection. I think I would ask dodson and horrell to ring her on her phone and give her their advice. I would think a Cleveland Bay x Tb would be somewhere between 550 and 600 kg depending on their build. Also just a thought the baileys no 4 is higher in calories than the build up too weight for weight. Ive researched all the conditioning feeds in depth for Henry.