I have a 3 year old paint stallion that is just shy of 16 hands and tape measure shows him at about 865 pounds. He looks very healthy for the most part, he has good muscle tone and shines. But I know his weight is not right for his breeding and height. He seems too narrow and his ribs show. I have struggled with this for about a year now. His teeth have been floated twice in the last 10 months, he is wormed/rotated regularly - even gave him a Panacure power pack a few months ago just to try. His current feeding is: 4 lbs of Progressive Pro Advantage Grass Formula, 4 lbs of oats, 3 lbs of Progressive Envision fat supplement, 1 lb Rice bran, 1 cup of Canola oil and Stongid C 2x and he has 24/7 access to 20 acres of Bermuda pasture shared with one other horse. In 2 months of this feeding program he has not gained a single pound per the tape measure.

It is so frustrating! All of my other horses get just a small fraction of this - only 1 to 2 lbs of the Pro Advantage and pasture and they are on the verge of being overweight!

Is there anything I am doing wrong, anything else I should try - or am I just going to have to wait for him to mature more to see what I keep looking for?

Thanks,
Tammy

Where are you from? Oklahoma

How did you locate this forum? recommeded from another board

Hi Tammy,

I took a look at the Progressive line of feeds and I am very impressed. They do not use grain in their feeds and their feeds contain fat from flaxseed meal and rice bran. So, you are doing a fine job by offering this feed.

There are a few of observations that I made while reading your message that you may find helpful. My first question would be about his history. Is there any likelihood that he has an ulcer? Have you had him since he was younger, or does he have a performance/racing history? Most race horses have ulcers, and this is a major cause of inability to gain weight.

In addition to a daily wormer, do you paste worm him twice a year with something other than pyrantel tartrate (that’s what it Strongid)? He should be wormed for tapeworms (a wormer that contains prazaquantel) at least once each year. The Panacur power pac was a good idea, but fenbendazole (the drug in Panacur) will not kill tapeworms.

The other suggest I have is to reduce the amount of oats you are feeding down to 2 lbs/day. Too much grain can be fermented by the bacterial flora in the hindgut. The result of this is an acidic environment that kills off many of these beneficial bacteria.

I would strongly recommend Ration Plus to help him gain weight. This will help the bacterial flora regain their numbers, making him derive energy from his feed. You can feed the best diet in the world, but if the bacterial flora are compromised, he will not get the energy (calories) necessary to gain weight. Another product that will he will benefit from is called SUCCEED digestive conditioning. This is a highly therapeutic digestive aid to get his system on track.

So, those are a few suggestions. Please keep me posted.

All the best,

Dr. Getty

Thank you so much for the helpful reply!

I have had this stallion since he was 3 months old. I do not think he has an ulcer, but it is worth checking into. He does not race and has only recently begun riding.

I do rotate in paste wormers as well as the Stongid feed through. The last "tape worm effective" wormer was in October when he had Zimectrin Gold. I can certainly go ahead and give him another now if there is a chance that is the problem. I will try it!

I will try the products you suggested as well. It does sound like it will help. It seems like he is getting everything he needs but he is just not USING it. I do also give him Probios every so often - last one just a few weeks ago. Is this similar to what you are suggesting as far as what it should accomplish?

Thanks again!
Tammy

Where are you from? Oklahoma

How did you locate this forum? recommeded from another board

Hi Tammy,

Good – sounds like the ulcer, and likely, the tapeworm possibilities are not the case.

Probios will not do the trick – you would have to feed large amounts of it, and it only replaces a few of the many organisms that live in the hind gut. I would give him a month treatment of SUCCEED (you can read about it on my website), and a daily treatment of Ration Plus. With these two supplements, weight gain will very likely occur because his digestive system will be functioning properly.

Dr. Getty