My horse is loosing weight rapidly but eating well. she is like a skeleton. please help?

Question

She is 8 yrs old and had a bad cough which was making her eyes red as she coughed so much. The vet gave her antibiotics and said after that there was no infection. On odd days she has trouble breathing and her nostrils are flared. The vet has it could be an allergy. She is loosing weight badly. she is happy in herself though. She has always had this problem since we got her. She has been wormed and is fed regularly in small amounts. What can we do??

Answer 1

This is not good. She needs to be seen by another Vet. Try giving her sweet feed, along with hay or hay pellets. Adding molasses into her feed will help too. Her weight is a big concern and should be addressed. While we don't want obese horses, you should not be able to see her spine or ridges of her ribs. Coughing could be from the hay, the hay dust did this to my gelding too. Hay pellets help, and making sure he was fed hay out in the open, after I shook it for a while. See another Vet, and for sure get a second opinion.

Answer 2

I've raised Arabs for years, my two daughters raise them also and, a sister raises "standard breads" to give you my experience in the business.

I don't want to be the barer of bad news but, first, get yourself another vet, one that works with horses and, tell him the problem first, before you pay to have him come out.
If sounds like worms and a vitamin deficiency, along with a bad habit of coughing, like a person with a nervous tic. You really should have never bought her, sorry.

Sometimes a horse has more common sense then you think. If they don't want to ride that day, they can come up with a lot of symptoms that make you think they're ill. Their not that stupid. It's a matter of retraining and, sometimes, they get to old for this and it's best to sell them.

Answer 3

definitely see another vet and try feeding her regularly larger amounts than you are at the moment

Answer 4

Take her to a different vet.