Aww... You can really see it in her rear end. Poor girl, we need to fatten her up! *hugs you*

Well she came here to retire years ago. As I understand her history and have seen from the xrays someone tried to jump her at some point and it blew her hips out which you can see evidence of from the hump in her lower back. She also has hoof problems too so she requires constant farrier visits and has to wear shoes. Its sad because she is the sweetest horse you would ever meet. I would not hesitate and have before put a toddler on her back without worry. She is highly trained in dressage and loves to ride though no one has done so in years because of her health. She gets so excited when she sees me bring out the riding tack hoping its for her. I am also doing a lot of earth moving projects one of which is going to be a level round pen. If her health improves I will do what I used to do: put the full tack on her and at least walk her. If she wants to put her on the lounge line and let her go through the gaits but I do not think she would ever be able to support a rider again unless I could find a youngster who wanted to ride her.

Aww... She looks like a sweet mare. Poor girl. I bet in her day she was probably absolutely gorgeous. *hugs*

She still is. She has her moments when shes feeling good that she will still run around and play with me or the other horses. Her gaits are so perfect its like art in motion. Years ago when I could ride her it was like a finely tuned sports car. I would trade my health and years off my life to give her her more years and her health back so that she could perform like she used to.

Horses really are just beautiful creatures.

Its truely sad to see such a beautiful creature in such a sad state. I hope you can help her out.

Shes not in any discomfort give or take a little stiffness from what I can observe but she is not in the physical condition I want her to be. Others have been doing the day to day care as I have been so busy and hardly ever home but work has slowed down and my schedule is leveling out so I am doing more hands on work around here. Ive decided I am going to directly take care of her and do it my way. If I have to make the sad decision this winter it wont be without knowing I did everything possible for her. It all depends on if her body can still process nutrients properly. Its appearent that it can no longer do so with the feed and hay she is currently on so I am going to ease her over to something different geared for senior horses. I am going to put her back on the glucosimine too. I am going to get her a hanging feed bucket and hay net so she does not have to lean down as far to eat. Im thinking the authritis is in her neck as well as she is not grazing like she did so bringing the food to her instead of her having to lean down to get it will help. As the weather changes I will see how she tolerates being stall kept. If she does not mind I will build her a stall with soft bedding and if nessary a heat source.

I can see the hip problems, which are contributing to a back issue, and perhaps the stifle joints too - I think the change in feed might help, and if you can find a flax oil supplement, that might help with the joints.

Also, either you or someone you know who is skilled in horse massage (look up T-Touch on the internet) might be able to give her a hand.

She looks to be what, mid 20s? I can tell she is in pain, but she doesn't have the "give up" look on her face. That's one determined old dame right there.

From the look of her teeth I would say late teens. Im checking my records on that now because she may need her teeth floated again too. Ive had someone else recomend the flax oil. I am also going to try beet pulp too. I have heard of the massage therapy too. I do not know the officicial massage practices but I will massage her back, rump and legs which she seems to like... usually she falls asleep when I do. From time to time I check her range of motion today I flexed her legs and did not see any discomfort.

the whole thing is no she is not ready to give up so I am going to do everything I can.

Money is tight but noone here is neglected. We do without if we have to. Hell when times are tough and work is slow I do odd jobs, electrical work, welding, tractor repair whatever to "put food on the table" Same with the roomies. The vaccinations are current, the worming is current, the grain bin is full, the barn has ample hay in it though some is curing. A roomie is bucking bales for the hay dealer in return for stocking the barn. some find me obsessive but i have a rule even with the water tanks. I want to at any time be able to walk out to them and them be clean enough that I will drink from them. We have regular vet and farrier visits. Nobody is in bad shape (give or take my barn cat who just lost another fight. when he recovers from that I think he will have another date with the vet for a little snip snip) some are even on the chubby side. My vet lives down the road and I see him often. He is very blunt and if he sees something wrong or a problem developing wont hesitate to tell me. Same with friends I go riding with. The pastures are a constant uphill battle but improving slowly. Its just now I have had time to spend at home and observe her and I think that I can make her quality of life better so I am going to do my damnedest to try. If she does not want to graze and is having trouble eating then I need to modify what and how she eats.

Ive been there before in the end. I know when they are ready to give up and want to. If it comes to that then I will do what has to be done as much as it hurts me.

I hope the next pictures I post of her you will see improvements. Its going to be trial and error and with horses you cant make drastic changes you have to ease them into a new diet, see if it works and if not ease them in to something else.

You've got a great hold on things. Once my aunt's mare moved to the barn where we keep our boy, she was worried for a while and a bit thin, but now she's really settled in and is starting to gain - she's about 18 or so, her registered name is rustbucket. We have a 28-year-old there and she's starting to show her age - getting thin, but my horse guides her to the good grass and then lets her eat. He's a gentleman with older mares. I worry about her, but she's not my horse - I can only express my concerns.

Shes already gaining weight with the new feed. Its soft and chewy.. and is moving around better. I am also going to start adding in a handfull of beat pulp as a weight builder.

Mmm - did you taste the feed? LOL I did that once with a peppermint horse treat and got sick - and stopped giving those treats to Pest - anything that I can't eat without getting sick, he won't be eating either!

Yeah it tastes like salty oatmeal cookies.

Sounds delicious. Shared apple fries with the "Legacy's wing gang" today.

I think you are on the right track. giving her the care she need and the attention you can provide will help her along either way you look at it she's in loving hands. My thoughts are out to her.

Like I just commented above... the worst you can do is drastic changes. Im going to make little changes and try different things hopefully find something that works for her.

I may not have met you but I feel I know you somewhat, I am confident you will do the right thing and it also sounds like you've got a good "family" Dr. to help if the need arises. Keep us posted :)

Ive got her some "senior feed" This stuff is a lot softer if not a bit chewy compared to the pellets she had been eating and has a fair ammount more nutrients. All in all fairly tasty so I am sure she will like it. Expensive as hell though. Got a nice hanging bucket for her too. This one will allow me to mix up the feed in the house, bring it out and clip it on the rails in the barn.

Also got more grass seed for the new paddock and some fly spray. I think I will wait on that as they hate it but they like the results.

A 100 dollar bill spent at the feed store

I can refer to many people with joint problems like arthritis or arthrosis, as a physical therapist I can say there are not so many possibilities to get to those problems well... for humans we use Glucosamin - Sulfate, which is one basic component to recreate cartilage, besides Chondroitin and Water, to cure arthrosis and arthritis. It helps the body to recover lost cartilage in joints and spine, which almost every time helps to lessen pain.

My girlfriend, who is an horsefanatic and had many horses with similar problems commends slow walks and light work to retain lost movement and condition.

In generel, movement is extremely essentiell to cure problems in the movement apparatus.

Same with me as much as I hate it getting up and moving helps with the pain. And there is an equine glucosimine that I am going to start her on again. It helps. I take it too. Its the same as the human stuff just a higher concentration and does not have the flavoring.

I see you're a professional!
Good luck with the treadment, I hope it'll help cure your horses pain and symptomes.

Professional but no expert but I am learning every day and I seek advise from the best.

maybe she needs her teeth floated

I need to check her teeth but according to the records she is due for it.

i used to have a mare looks like her. she too lost a lot of weight cause her teeth hadn't been floated.

My vet is a little swamped right now but I am going to make her an appointment to get her teeth done.

Whey is strongly anabolic. You also might try to make her diet more alkaline, too - perhaps a calcium carbonate supplement.

wouldnt that basically be antacid tablets?

That is an expensive source. Powdered limestone (not lime) is cheap and should work so long as it is finely enough powdered. Powdered chalk is a higher purity form of calcium carbonate.

So basically a calcium suplement. I will have to check the bag to see what the levels are. Does make me wonder if mares go through menopause and if like older women suffer from bone loss due to it (osteoporosis) If so you would not be able to tell her age by her *clears throat* sexual appetite

It isn't just calcium - it is also because carbonate is alkaline. You'll probably be feeding her a protein enriched diet to help counteract the muscle wasting. In the absence of enough alkalinity in her diet, she will burn some of those proteins to produce ammonia to counteract the acidic sulfate metabolites from methonine and cysteine in the protein. This can be prevented by feeding her alkaline calcium carbonate.

Intresting. She most likely needs it as she was on pasture grass before and I think what amounted to cattle cubes which were hard for her to eat. Im not exactly sure as I have not seen the bags.

How much calcium carbonate per body weight should she be getting?

Check the net for equine calcium requirement, then give her about 200% of that as calcium carbonate (total from all supplements). Calcium carbonate (chalk, limestone) is 40% calcium by weight. For each gram of supplemental calcium you want to give her, give her 2.5 grams of calcium carbonate.

And Ive got her up to 1lb a day of food and slowly climbing You can find the breakdowns here under the senior feed

http://www.mfa-inc.com/web/guest/equine/feeds/legends#sr

I am also thinking about adding beet pulp. Ive had quite a few tell me its a good addition if your wanting to put on weight on an older horse as its easily absorbed.

I can already see a difference now that I took over. She is more active now.

Those look like well designed formulas, but the web page doesn't give vitamin D content. Vitamin D is needed for protection against viruses as well as bone health. Black animals need two or three times as much D as white ones because so little UV gets to their skin. I have found that the notorious proclivity of Black Angus cattle to infections can be eliminated by simply boosting the D content of their supplements to about 300% of normal. Worse yet, old animals (including humans) have only about 20% of the vitamin synthesis activity as young animals. Fortunately, D is very cheap, and 3X normal is safe.

Beet pulp is good stuff! She can ferment it to short chain fatty acids like butyric acid which feeds the cells lining the gut, hence improving her ability to absorb nutrients.

Vitamin D 400UI/lb whatever that means.

That is way way low. The FDA's RDA for an adult human is 400 IU per day, and all experts agree that that is about 10 times too low. Search the web to find out what horses need - but it has to be higher than humans. There might be some data here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/

Hmm. You know we could come up with a business making vitamin suplements for horses. Having to track all this down, figure out the ammounts and find a form she would eat is a lot of guesswork. I know if we could come up with it I know a company that will sell it.

If you are interested, I'll snail mail you a bag tag for the winter cattle feed supplement that I designed for my herd's use.

I would.

OK! I spent a few years developing it, and it works - and tastes - great!

one of my friends here in texas is a horse owner and has gone through this before i will ask her what she fed jessi to get waight back on her and shes holding it well. ill let you know *hugs for you and the horsie ^.^*

cool. She always loses some weight in the winter but usually gets it back in the spring. This time she hasnt. She is loving the new feed.