My Horse Is Losing Weight Fast And Is Also Losing Muscle. It Is Not Worms, And He Is Eating Normally So I Cant Understand It. Any Idea What It Might Be?

Maintaining the weight of your horse must be of primary importance, especially if he is a sports horse, or an older horse. Does your horse have all his teeth in perfect order; at times, the lack of a few teeth, or the excessive wearing down of a few others may cause your horse a difficulty in eating, and this may cause him to start losing weight.

He may also have an impaired digestive system, and may find it difficult to digest whatever you feed him. This may have led to some sort of nutritional deficiency in him, which caused him to lose weight and muscle. He may also be tired and weary most of the time, if he is suffering from nutritional deficiency.

Your horse may also have worms in his stomach and intestines, without your being aware of the fact. The roundworm is not easily destroyed, and these worms lay their eggs and reproduce in large numbers within the digestive tract, leading to weariness and weight loss.

Please have a vet check out the animal as soon as possible, so that your horse can live a longer and a healthier life.

There are different kinds of worms that require different treatment, so you have to alternate between them to ensure maximum protection. Try a different wormer, but do act promptly on this and seek the advice of your local veterinary surgeon for advice.    Since your horse is eating normally but apparently not getting the appropriate level of nourishment from it, he is either not getting enough food and shelter, or, more likely, has a type of worms that is not included in your normal worm treatment.    If a new wormer does not work and your horse is losing condition more so than you would expect during the winter, then you must seek veterinary advice in case there is some other underlying medical problem causing your horse to lose weight and muscle tone.    Certainly, as your question indicates, this is not something you can ignore. It would not take long before animal cruelty officers were paying you an unwelcome visit.

My paint mare is losing weight like crazy also, she was nice and plumped when I bought her and now she is losing weight now you can see her hips and ribs pretty bad! I got her about a month ago
I got her checked out by a vet for a disease  called "equine infectious anemia" caused by mosquitos it can be harmful for other horses also if he is around them so I would get that checked out  when I get my test results back I will write to you again to tell you if it was positive or negative. And also there is a bunch of different kinds of worms different treatments for it too. And surprisingly vets arent too too expensive!

This can also be caused by a parasite which the horse would need to have a stool sample and blood sample done by a vet.   I have a gelding that did this a couple of years ago and he went from fat and sassy to a near skeleton in just a week.   I am now having a yearling colt doing the same thing but he did this in 3 days.   He is going to vet in the morning to have all the labs done and vet is sure its another parasite problem.

He might not have enough vitamin c or d

Thanks for the advice my horse was on the wrong worming treatment. He is now in excellent condition and back to his happy normal self.

Have you been exercising him/her regularly. If so they might be losing it fast because his/her breed. Look into it.

Dear scholls
I would have your horse checked immeadetly by a vet as this can be a serious problem.