I just adopted/rescued a 7 yr old THB gelding(he was a promising race horse that ran his last race in Nov 07) that is about 300 lbs underweight, you can see every bone in his body, I got his coggings took yesterday and the vet was appaled at his condition, we are holding off on any other type of treatment such as shots, foot work ect, as we don't think he can take the stress yet,the vet agrees with me to contuine feeding him as I am and we will see how he does, I am feeding him 3 scoops of MG 12-8 with 1/2 cup corn oil and a flake of hay 2 times a day, he is turned out in a 25 acre field with 3 other horses.
The lady I bought him from rode him every day (yes in this condition) and was a rather large woman, he has saddle sores and saddle rot(from leaving the saddle on him all weekend when they went for weekend rides, in the southern TX heat)the vet said he had never seen anything like it and was unsure how to treat it other than spraying it with bleach to kill the bacateria, I am uncomfortable with that, and have been grooming him with a cool wash cloth, the smaller sores I have been treating with blue wound does anyone have any ideas on how to treat this...BTW this is the first time I have been around horses in 35 yrs...yea I know I have bit off more than I can chew at this point but I just could not let this horse die. He is such a loveable horse even after all the abuse he has had, he will come up to me and give me lovin's and will let others touch him if I am there with him, I refuse to put a saddle on him until he is totally healed and has at least 250 lbs back on him any advice you have would be great.

rosemary oil or tea tree oil will kill the bacteria. no no no bleach as it will hurt him. then try some vit. e oil or a aloe mix with d,a & e . GNC has this and it is fantastic. also the vit. c lotion. also use a citronella oil instead of bug spray cause this will sting anything open. hope this helps. bless your kindness. enjoy peace and happiness.

thank you for your response~ I need all the advice I can get on this poor guy~

I thought about iodine, but wondered if I should spray him with proxcide first? I have been using Blue wound (the blue stuff) on the smaller wounds like barbwire cuts and whip wounds and it seems to be working, but the saddle rot coveres a good part of his back and sides should I dilute the Iodine and gradually make it full strenth?

LOL that was fun...sent hubby to get the stuff to bath Logan, he came back with the iodine, a bag of apples, Starbucks coffee, and 2 baby hair brushes,and a tube of triple antibotic ointment
(at least he was trying) Logan was in heaven getting the scrubbing, I thought it would burn him, but he seemed to like it...
thats a whole lot of horse to scrub with a baby brush...we went ahead and scrubbed his whole body and painted all the wounds with Blue wound, some of the areas around his withers bled which concerned me...how often should I do this?
thanks agian for the advice you have given, Logan and I appericate it.