Q: I have a 24-year-old Quarter Horse mare that was diagnosed with navicular syndrome about 11 years ago. Since we retired her from barrel racing and cut back her exercise she had gained a lot of weight. So we always worked hard to reduce how much she ate to help with the weight on her front feet and the navicular.

Fast forward to spring 2011, when we noticed she had lost a lot of weight over the winter. While she was feeling sprier (started trotting more, had less inflammation in her fetlocks from arthritis, etc.), we were worried about getting her weight back up for winter. We increased the amount of grain and forage through the summer and fall, and while she gained some weight back, she is still rather skinny–possibly a 3 (out of 9) on the Henneke body condition scale.

We’re not sure what else we can do–she is in good condition dental-wise, and she has a good appetite. We feed her an equine senior feed mixed with some sweet feed and either alfalfa pellets or cubes, along with two flakes of an alfalfa/timothy hay mix.

We’re afraid she might have cancer of some sort. We’re concerned about … getting some more weight on her