Rescued a horse in Jan, things not getting any better. WWYD? (Long)

[hickerybobp]

Hi all, I rescued a horse back in January, and posted for advice here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_tack_room/1378076-Advice-needed-on-extremely-thin-horse-I-have-rescued-please-help

Things don't seem to be going to plan at all! If I'm honest it has been one problem after another with her.
She is eating larger amounts now at meal times but is still not putting on any weight. She has been wormed so that shouldn't be an issue. I have stayed with feeding chaff, speedibeet, but have changed from calm and condition to Allen and Page weight gain. She also has veteran cubes now.

I live on a hill farm and as such the weather here gets pretty bad even when it's ok in the village. She really struggled in the field when it was cold or snowy, and was actually struggling to get around and was yawning etc. At this point I decided to bring her in until the weather improved. The weaving stopped thankfully, and she seemed grateful to be in.

One of the biggest issues at the moment is her feet. We had some problems with lameness in her back leg, but this went with lots of walking and cold hosing. The farrier also told me she has the start of navicular in one of her fronts and slight ringbone in the other... and now she has developed thrush. The foot affected with thrush has a very deep frog and has never been in good condition but my farrier did his best with what he had to work with.

My vet is a typical farm vet, he took one look at her and said "oh dear" in a way that implied that it was going to cost me a small fortune and probably not do that much to benefit her. His advice has actually been to carry on as I am and then have her put down after giving her some time turned out in the summer as he doesn't think she will cope with another winter.

I just feel that I'm trying so hard with her but every time I start making some progress with one problem another one comes along to replace it. There are more issues that I haven't even listed here and at the moment it's getting harder and harder to go out and see her as I find it so depressing. I've really tried so hard and I've spent a lot money I didn't even really have and it seems there's no light at the end of the tunnel. :(

I suppose I'm just looking to see what other people's advice/opinions would be if it was you in my situation. I've never had to face having a horse put down before and as much as I know it's getting more and more likely, I still want to see her make a miraculous recovery and be the happy healthy horse I had in mind when I started what I thought was the road to recovery with her.

I've spent a lot of sleepless nights worrying about her and have often found myself quite upset at the idea that she might have to be put down. I would appreciate any input at all and apologies for my long, miserable rant but I just needed to get it all out and I don't have many horsey friends to empathise with me.

Thank you all again.

Hi, i just came across your post, i had a similar battle last year keeping weight on my 26y.o, the best feed i found for her was soft and soak, and you can feed a lot of it too as it can be a forage replacer, she became really fussy but she loved that, and also have you thought about she might have cushings, my old girl had a lot of vet treatment, and they never bothered for years before that she had cushings as it never effected her, but when she went downhill a bit they sayed that cushings stops the body healing as well, and that would explain her drinking a lot more?

Hope that might help :)

meant to say she got put on a tablet for cushings that really helped worked out at about £1 a day?

and i started leaving her stable open so she could wonder in and out as she pleased because she prefered grass to hay but liked her shelter too, i just made her a little paddock and path from electric fencing and she seemed to enjoy wondering on and out at her leisure

Nothing to add in terms of feeding but just wanted to say thank goodness there are people like you in the world.

Where abouts are you?

Thanks everybody for all the replies.
elastamum, that sounds awful! :(

My old mare has been turned out in the day this week and she is really enjoying it. I havnt given up on her just yet as the warm weather seems to have given her a new lease of life! I've also started her on a lysine supplement that somebody recommended to help her put the muscle back on. Her thrush has now cleared up, i've started using NAF hoof and sole stuff on her feet and for some reason she has started eating a little better.

smiles, I have thought it could be cushings, but the drinking has actually slowed down now. It might be worth looking into but I dont know much about the longterm prognosis for cushings. Her coat is not curled or unusual in any way but I did read they dont always have that symptom.

ExitPersuedByABear, I'm based in Wales on a farm, Powys area.