This is my Quarter Horse Dixie, after a 2-month stay at a friend of a friend's boarding place(ie: a field with no cover). She is 18 years old and supposed to be over 1200lbs(she's 15.3). Before I moved her there, she was holding her weight just fine. I moved her in January to this new place so she would be closer, and would be paying the same amount in board. I also gave the woman over $40 in various paste wormers(good quality ones) so she could worm Dixie every 6-8 weeks on a rotating schedule.

So.. This woman(who is nuts BTW and breeds HYPP positive horses only for a profit) proceeds to tell me that Dixie isn't eating her hay and is a very slow eater in general. I already knew she was a slow eater as she's been that way every since I got her 10 years ago. She tells me she's put Dixie on a hay-based pellet plus oats/complete pellet mixture, which equals up to 10lbs twice a day, because she's losing weight. She tells me the problem is her teeth as she's been worming her. She's dosed her twice with plain ivermectin. I say.. DUH lady.. Ivomec doesn't get rid of tapeworms, now does it.. Dumb, dumb people.. Horses who don't drop food out of their mouth don't have teeth problems..

I went and picked Dixie up with the help of a friend of the new stable she is being boarded at now. This was the 29th. When my mom saw her, she almost cried. Dixie didn't look like my horse.. You could see her spine, her ribs had no fat cover, her hindquarters were sunken in, you could see her pelvis and every bone in the sacrum. A previously healthy horse does not get that way in 2 months time from teeth problems.

As it stands now, the new stable actually cares about their horses. Dixie is getting 8lbs total(twice daily feedings equaling 8lbs) of a high quality senior feed(they feed Strategy normally). Brent, the owner/barn manager says she is grazing, eating her hay and eating all of her grain. She's not dropping food on the ground and is doing fine.

I've also talked to her vet when I was buying a full round of vaccinations from him(he was one of my teachers in RVT school). He said it's very unlikely her teeth are the problem and to just deworm her with Equimax and a 30-day round of Strongid C2x, the daily dewormer, just to clean her out all the way.

Anywho, here are pictures. They don't look as bad as she actually is.






I'll keep posting as she gains weight and starts looking like her normal self.