If your horse is consuming ample high-quality forage and feed, yet continues to lose weight and look unthrifty, a small intestinal disease might be affecting nutrient delivery within his body. | Photo: Alexandra Beckstett/The Horse

Watch for these conditions that impact nutrient absorption and lead to weight loss

In some situations no matter how much a horse consumes, he still loses weight and appears unthrifty. Because most nutrient absorption occurs in the small intestine, any disease syndrome that impacts that area is likely to affect nutrient delivery within the body.

In this article we’ll describe six conditions veterinarians would suspect if your horse isn’t absorbing nutrients properly.

What’s Going on Inside?

When a horse eats, food moves from the stomach to the small intestines into the cecum, before passing into the large colon. Anything that doesn’t get absorbed passes as feces. Here, however, we’ll focus on the part of the gastrointestinal tract chiefly responsible for nutrient absorption: the small intestine