Help with weight gain

[bonesmom]

Alright, so my OTTB gelding is named Bones. No tricks to why his name is Bones, he's my skinny guy.
He's had an allergic reaction to something, and we think it's from the canola oil we've been adding to his feed. That is the first thing we are taking out of his feed, to see if that is the problem.
If it's not the canola oil, we are taking the Step 8 high fat out of his diet.

It sucks because he's been doing fine, then last night he had crazy itchy, oozing hives on his neck. Luckily the vet was coming out this morning anyway. Any suggestions as to what else I can feed him?
He's currently getting vitamins, regular pellets (can't remember brand), Step 8, molasses & beet pulp, and as much hay as he likes.

[animaldoc]

See what your vet says, but I don't know that I would blame it on the canola oil...how long has he been on it?

How old is he? How much food in pounds is he getting? What brand pellets are you using (what protein %)?

[Pam]

Fat would probably be the last thing I would look to for an allergic reaction except perhaps for corn oil. Corn is a common allergen. If he gets turned out, I would try putting him in a different field for a few days and see if he gets better, or maybe even a dry lot. Often at different times of year, some horses will have allergic reactions to weeds that they find to eat in the pasture. Another field might not have the same weeds.

If the vet thinks its his feed, you might try going back to a basic plain oats and hay diet. Pellets are often contraindicated for horses with allergies because it's hard to figure out what in them might be causing the trouble. Also, because whole oats are high in fiber, you can feed a lot of them safely. You could start with plain oats and hay, then add back the other stuff one at a time, a week apart to see what might be causing the reaction. Incidentally, hives will often spontaneously resolve on their own and many times you never figure out what caused them. A simple, two or three ingredient diet can sometimes help though.

What kind of hay is he getting? If he's eating only grass hay, you might think about adding some alfalfa. Legume hays have more calories per pound than grass hays and alfalfa, in particular, is a good compliment to oats. Also, sometimes mixing in a flake or two of alfalfa will entice the horse to simply eat more. You have to shake it up together or he might just eat the alfalfa and leave the rest. Usually if it's mixed up well, they will eat it all.

[bonesmom]

He gets fed morning and night. He gets 2 cups (unsoaked) of beet pulp a day with a dash of molasses, 2 pounds of grain (I don't know the protein %, will have to check), 4 pounds of Step 8 High Fat, and 3-4 flakes of local hay (grass hay?) in his stall. He also gets a tbsp. of Dr. Reid's vitamins (I am in Vancouver, BC, don't know if you would know the stuff), he also gets a tbsp. of chaste berry for his hormones (as he had really bad studdish behaviour and this helps).
He is out with other geldings in fields with grass and more flakes of hay. The field's are rotated each day, there are 3 to rotate in.

The most recent hive outbreak was this past week. We started giving him canola oil (1/4 cup) in his beet pulp about 2 weeks ago.
He also has older hives that seem to be around the age of when we started giving the Step 8 High Fat (at least that is what the vet thinks).

The grain, vitamins, beet pulp, molasses, and chaste berry have all been in his diet for over a year, and there haven't been problems. He lost a bunch of weight over the summer, the heat took a toll on him and he was running the fence line over the fillies and mares, so he dropped weight fast. We started giving him the Step 8 to put some weight on for the winter, and he has been gaining. We had been feeding him "senior feed"/Step 6 (?), but changed to the Step 8 to bulk him up.
Also, the hay is from the same fields as last year, but obviously, it's this year's hay.

To add to all this, he's been coughing more and more. I've been taking his temp. and it's fine, I am wandering if the hay is doing it, or the allergy? Doesn't sound like a sick cough, though.

I was thinking of getting alfalfa cubes for him. Anyone have any tips? Thank you.

[Einstein]

Weight loss, hives, coughing...I'd get the vet out as soon as you can to do a work up. That's where I'd start. Let us know how he is, I hope you get some answers for him.

[Pam]

Is there any possibility that he has a retained testicle? Lots of geldings act studdy, but not usually to the point of running fences. I would ask the vet to do a testosterone assay. Not that that would have anything to do with his hives and coughing, but it definitely might help with his weight issues. Stallions are routinely fed a lot more during breeding season to keep weight on them. You shouldn't have to deal with that with a gelding. Unfortunately, there are still unethical people in the world who will cut a rigeling without bothering to take out the retained testicle. There was a thread on here recently regarding exactly that: nhrexracers.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Main&thread=31323&page=1

As far as the coughing and hives, as I said before, I would simplify his diet. You mention that the hay came from the same fields as last years, but is it dusty at all? Even new hay, if not completely dried when it's baled, can have molds (dust) that can cause severe allergic reactions in some horses. Sometimes you won't even notice the dust, which is actually mold, unless you shake up the hay. If they are just throwing flakes without shaking them, the BO might not even know it's dusty. If it's not bad, it won't bother most horses, but occasionally you find one that coughs if he/she even gets a whiff of bad hay. I have an old gelding like that. I have to be REALLY careful what hay he gets. If the coughing started around the same time as they started getting the new hay, I would suspect that could be it. You could try soaking his hay and see if it helps. And as Michelle suggested, have a complete workup done on him to see if you can get to the bottom of the problem.

[animaldoc]

You can always have allergies to seasonal plants in the pasture - especially this time of year (and Spring).

I would probably simplify everything as well - my horse is on 12 lbs a day of 14% feed, and 8 flakes a day of mixed grass hay plus pasture turnout (not a ton of grass right now).

Also - where is he on the pecking order? How much of the hay is he actually getting when he's out with the other horses?

[bonesmom]

I talked to his trainer at the track and she said he had random flare ups of allergies off and on at the track.
He can't have alfalfa cubes, because too much protein seems to affect him badly too.
So, we've got him eating his all-you-can-eat flakes of hay in his stall, beet pulp and oats soaked in, and some senior feed (Step 6...can't remember which one right now). The Step 8 High Fat stuff has been eliminated from his feed.
His hives have almost completely gone down. Very strange. He doesn't seem any worse for wear.

Pecking order is funny in his turn-out group. He's definitely the biggest, strongest, fastest...but he's the newest. The boss is an old TB who's been around for years, and his 2nd in command is his TB buddy. My guy is probably the lowest in pecking order when it's just the 3 of them. But...when we turn the little Peruvian Paso gelding out with them (3-4 times a week), the Peruvian Paso is buddies with my gelding, and Peruvian is the boss, so my guy bumps up to the middle. It's strange.

My hope is to get some weight on him, not lose anymore. He's got his various blankets for varying weather. So, fingers crossed he does ok. I will be back with updates! Thanks all.