23yo gelding not gaining any condition

[B.bees]

My horse was involved in a severe accident in June that kept him on box rest for 8 weeks. He gets very stressy when kept in normally so the 8 weeks were hell. He got a whole host of stable toys to try and keep him entertained but he lost ALOT of condition. Since then we have moved yards to somewhere with better grazing for him but we are struggling to put any condition on him. Towards the ens of his box rest he was also diagnosed with cushings. Althougj he has never been a good doer he has usually picked up once on this much feed. He is currently feed a scoop of veteran vitality by Allen and page and a scoop of alpha oil. He also has a treat ball with 3/4 a scoop of 16+cubes. He is barely work as was only hacking before accident and we haven't wanted to do too much too soon especially with his poor condition. I've been reading up on tonnes of balancers and oils and just wanted some advice from anyone with any experience of this. I don't want to keep changing his diet every week. Any advice welcome (dentist on a 6 monthly cycle and worming up to date)

 

[Pinkvboots]

I would try micronised linseed or coolstance copra and split his feeds so he can have 4 or 5 a day, will he eat quite a bit of hay? If so I would feed him as much as he will eat.

 

[be positive]

He has not had that long to get over the accident, the box rest and if he is now on prascend not that long to get his body adjusted to the medication, many lose interest in food and drop off loads of weight, great if they are the typical laminitic type but a disaster for lean ones that are not good doers especially going into the winter.

I would split his feed into as many as possible, when I have a sick or poor horse I will feed at least 4 times a day so every feed is tiny and they get the full benefit. I would not use a treatball as that will make him work for the feed, he needs it to be easy to get not hard work, if the grass is good it should help but the goodness will be going so try putting some good quality haylage out for him.
I would feed the maximum recommended amount of the VV to ensure he is getting his full mins and vits, if it is too much then you either need to top up with a supplement or a balancer, add more oil, it is easy to digest and high in calories, either veg oil or micronised linseed.
Other things you can try that may help, if he is in at night, or on individual turnout, give him a tub of soaked grass nuts to "graze on" he should learn to go back to it rather than eat it all in one go if you put it in at the same time as his last feed, give a choice of hay and haylage, some in a net some on the floor whichever he prefers to make it easy for him to eat, he may struggle to put on much weight but if he can maintain what he has until the spring you will then be able to let him build up on the spring grass, don't forget to keep him warm and that they are often better off a bit under rather than overweight on older joints.

 

[ester]

Is he on pergolide and have his acth levels stabilised?

I would certainly add micronised linseed, and consider the copra.

 

[Achinghips]

Coolstance copra works well for weight gain. I have found it superior to micronised linseed for this.

 

[southerncomfort]

I've heard great things about Copra although mine wouldn't touch it unfortunately. We've had excellent results with Rowan Barberry's Solution Mash. My 26 year old currently looks the best she's ever looked going in to Winter and a month ago she was a hat rack.

 

[B.bees]

I would try micronised linseed or coolstance copra and split his feeds so he can have 4 or 5 a day, will he eat quite a bit of hay? If so I would feed him as much as he will eat.

Hi unfortunately he has never really been a fan of hay or hayledge he does get a net at night with very wide holes to encourage eating But only eat half a net at best. Loves feed and ball. I will have a look at coolstance thank you for replying

 

[B.bees]

Is he on pergolide and have his acth levels stabilised?

I would certainly add micronised linseed, and consider the copra.

One prascend tablet a day and they seemed to have stabilised. Thank you everyone seems very positive about micronised linseed.

 

[TGM]

Hi unfortunately he has never really been a fan of hay or hayledge he does get a net at night with very wide holes to encourage eating But only eat half a net at best. Loves feed and ball. I will have a look at coolstance thank you for replying

And there lies the root of your problem - he is not eating enough forage. You need to work out why, is it teeth, is the hay/haylage not appetising enough for some reason? Could you feed some sort of partial hay replacer to boost his fibre intake? Either short chop or a mash? For a Cushings horse you'd be best to play safe and gi e something like Fast Fibre, HiFi Lite, soaked Spillers High Fibre Cubes etc. best to contact manufacturers for best amount to feed.

 

[Welly]

We have a big TB in his late 20s, who drops weight quickly and we find micronised linseed does the trick.

 

[learn2horse]

Totally agree with TGM - not getting enough forage food. Even when older horses have their teeth done regularly, forage does become more challenging. One of my older ponies thrives during sumer on the soft and easy to eat gra and finds hay much tougher to get through as her teeth become longer. She has haylage which he finds much softer to eat than hay, but chopped hay is a good alternative. She also has grass nuts and chopped dried grass such as Graze-on (although we use the local firms own alternative, which is cheaper than the brand name). I also swear by Speedi-beet which is approved by Laminitis Trust as sugars have been removed. This, some oil and the grass nuts has been her stable diet and works a treat. All the horses also have access to vitamin and mineral licks so self-administer their vitamins. Forage in whatever form should always be the first choice - it is what horses' digestive systems have been designed to eat! If you want a link to a free online feeding course, let me know.

 

[BORODIN]

havens slobbermash is amazing stuff

 

[Pinkvboots]

And there lies the root of your problem - he is not eating enough forage. You need to work out why, is it teeth, is the hay/haylage not appetising enough for some reason? Could you feed some sort of partial hay replacer to boost his fibre intake? Either short chop or a mash? For a Cushings horse you'd be best to play safe and gi e something like Fast Fibre, HiFi Lite, soaked Spillers High Fibre Cubes etc. best to contact manufacturers for best amount to feed.

I agree with this that's why I asked as often as they get older they struggle to eat hay and Hayle, there are lots of soaked high fibre and mash type feeds ideal for horses that can't eat hay, you can feed it in big quantities so he always has something to eat, the oldies we fed at work would only have a little nibble of very soaked soft hay anything else they wouldn't touch in a Hay net maybe source some very soft hay and soak and see if he will eat it.

 

[smja]

Fibrebeet - worked wonders on one of ours who wouldn't/couldn't eat his haynet thanks to tooth fracture, he had four big buckets a day plus nets to pick at. We've also used Outshine with some success.

 

[Cuddly Connemara]

Calm and condition. Used it on my old TB he gained a lot of weight and looked so much better! He also box walked from boredom because he wasn't able to be ridden at this point either and was very high strung! However , unlike other conditioners this did not increase his boredom behaviours and may have even reduced it a little.