The weight battle.

Digby had some weight issue this winter. 

Ribby in early April.

Probably mid-April.

ZERO TOPLINE/NECK. ARGH!

I've posted about his weight issues this winter and spring before here and here. After changing feeds to Triple Crown Senior, having the vet out a few times, and treating for ulcers, he finally seemed to be gaining weight. There was much rejoicing. 

Fancy trot, fairy skinny horse. Late April.

Mid May.

Late May.

As you can see, he was putting weight on and gaining muscle which was even better but still needs a few pounds. I sadly don't have any good conformation shots from the end of May but I assure you his neck is probably double the size than it was and he's adding on weight all over. Yay! The combination of hay, meds, 8 lbs of senior feed, and  a scoop of soaked alfalfa cubes seemed to be doing the trick.

We had treated him for an entire month and around mid May, started backing off his omeprazole. There's an article that (sort of) touches on the topic of "acid rebound effect" and why you should slowly back horses (and humans!) off omeprazole. He has since stopped gaining more weight while we were backed him off his normal treatment dose. His hay, alfalfa cubes and grain stayed the same. I spoke with my vet and she suggested treating him for another month. It's possible if his ulcers were bad enough that one month of treatment was not enough. We've bumped him back up to the treatment dose and we'll continue that for another month. Hopefully that does the trick!

Has anyone else had ulcer issues? What's worked for your horse? What hasn't? I'd love to get some other opinions, as it seems that there's easily 100 different opinions and options on treatment/prevention.

A wee bit skinny

As you could see from the last post, Digby is skinny coming out of winter. Sigh.

He had lost a little weight between when I moved back and before I moved him back to PA but he was probably a 4.5 on the BCS so I wasn't too worried. Enter cold winter of doom.

All in all, I guess he could look worse...? But he looks pretty bad. His coat is still pretty shiny which makes me chuckle and he is always a very enthusiastic eater. He got tons of blankets and free choice hay. Fecal was fine but I dewormed him before I moved him back to PA with equimax and again in December with a powerpac. His teeth were up to date but I did them in March anyway. They weren't great so the equine denist is coming back out in May to use some power tools. I also switched him from what the barn feeds (Blue Seal Strider) to Triple Crown Senior in January. I've fed it before and had great results. He gets an entire scoop (3 quarts) twice a day and still looks like this. According to weights on their website, that's about 6-7 lbs a day. That's a lot for a 15hh guy like him! The last time I fed TC Senior he got max 5 lbs a day and that was in the dead of winter, not March and April.

The vet is coming back out for the second round of spring shots on April 9th so she's going to run some tests then. I'm thinking we will pull blood, discuss the possibility of cushings, Lyme or ulcers and see what she has to say. I had given him Ulcergard two days before, during and for a few days after the move, but I suppose he could of gotten ulcers while in PA. Any suggestions?