A very unusual 'What to feed?'

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cm2581

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So horse is 23. Teeth are packing in (has had diastema treatment but food still packs and has a broken molar tooth that may have to come out soon) and subsequently has a variable abilty to eat long fibre. Have tried hay, soaked, steamed and dry and haylage. Bizarrely dry hay seems to cause the least bother . It makes her cough. Hmmm.

She now has a problem with choke. There is a growth near/on (but not in) her oesophogas that in my opinion has been causing the choke and subsequently she now has a 'medium sized' diverticulum (semi paralysed pouch in the oesophogas). She chokes on even a handful of chaff ( have tried alfafa, straw, grass, coated and uncoated with various substances and various brands of different chop lengths) and anything that is soaked such as sugar beet, calm and condition (that was the worst choke!!), grass nuts sticks like bloody glue in her throat! I have successfully been managing to feed her dry pasture mix in small amounts but I'm getting paranoid about the pellet content of the mix, even tho its quite low. So question is, what the hell do I feed her?!!

Grass and hay never cause choke (so far) but in the winter months the grass will be somewhat lacking and at times she just can't eat hay! I have tried to locate a large enough field for my two (minimum 4-5 acres) in the hope with good managment I'd have green stuff available on the ground for a large portion of the year but I just can't find anything!

so any ideas? I'm reckoning maybe straight cereals but what about fibre intake?! And before you all read this and think she should prob be put down have a look at this link cos thats her now.

http://www.facebook.com/cm2581#!/photo.php?pid=1286396&id=1025905893
 
link doesnt work. have you trtied fast fibre you can make it into soup! would also suggest if feeding drier feed or staights that you scatter the feed across an area so that she hoovers as opposed to getting mouthfuls! good luck
 
I am really sorry to say this, but I do think you have to seriously consider your options. 23 is a fantastic age and I think if she is having difficulty eating anything other than grass the future does not look great - what will you do in the winter? I am sure she looks fab at the moment, but I would hope that when I am unable to eat anything without choking someone will shoot me!!!
 
I'm afraid Huntley may have a point. However, can she manage hi fibre nuts made to a soup that she drinks rather than eats? Speedibeet & Fibrebeet may also be worth looking at, ask the suppliers if they can be made into soup!
 
I'm very much aware that a horse that can't eat can't be alive for very long! Just thought I would post to see if anyone thought of anything I didn't.

I'm very wary of anything to be soaked now as everything seems to cause a problem and was very reluctant to eat wet food after the bad choke as it was calm and condition that caused it, although I haven't tried her for a while or in a 'pouring' consistency! All food experiments need to be in normal vet hours from now on as both chokes that have needed tubing have been out of hours call outs at £95+vat for call out alone! I should just provide the cheque book in a bucket!!!

ofcourseyoucan suggested scattering the feed which I hadn't thought of so will maybe get one of those snak-a-ball things to see if that helps. Maybe the decreased rate of consumption will help (she doesn't bolt her feed at all so that's not the cause!)

It's not all the time she can't eat hay - she seems to go through spells of a few days maybe once a month or so ish over winter when she struggles. It may be due to something uncomfortable trapped in her teeth so I try to clear all the gaps twice a week as I have a gag for this purpose so hopefully that will reduce that happening.

Ho hum. Will see how she goes. Maybe global warming will keep the grass growing all winter!!!

Hopefully this link will work for a pic of her!

http://s452.photobucket.com/albums/...rrent=28330_1433826198754_1025905893_1286.jpg
 
As suggested above, I think you should consider trying Allen & Page fast fibre - I know of someone who sounded in a similar situation to you, and has great results! Otherwise, I recommend you phone a few feed companies and ask them what they recommend - most employ nutritionists who are experts on available products, full of advice and free to chat to/e-mail - A&P, D&H, Saracens and Horsehage have helped me a lot in the past! Good luck
 
I quite agree with phoning around the food companies you will get the best advice and they may have come across this before. Is there no op that can be done to fix the growth in her throat!?

Also perhaps feeding her in a grazing muzzle so she can't scoff or using one of the feed balls that just disperse a few bits at a time might work??

My veteran is 31 and has about 1 tooth left. He LOVES mollychaff herbal which is soft and molassas-ey and full of lots of great herbs etc. It may still choke your girl but might be worth a try if you think it could work? Also he will be on fibre beet this winter when he will struggle to keep condition on.

Also consider maybe making her smoothies of carrot and apple and apple juice perhaps - nettle etc too really well whizzed up with water?? And/or add smoothies to her "soup" feed for extra nutrition - maybe put them through a sieve to ensure any larger bits have been well wizzed. And adding oil and supplements to her feed whenever you can to increase nutritional value and calories may help?

Also maybe consider adding a pro-biotic like pink powder which will mean that whatever she does get down she will digest as efficiently as possible, also when they've had a trauma, like choke etc this can give their system a bit of a boost too which may help her in other areas.

Really good luck with her, I hope the worst doesn't come to worst and that you can get past this as she looks so well in your pic. It seems to me that you are very sensible and aware of the possible outcomes of this situation, I would be like you, there is no point saying "that's it" until you have investigated all the avenues you can. I would be posting on here too in your situation and I kind of know how you feel as my veteran gives me a scare over various things once every so often but I'm just very lucky that he's hard as nails and a good doer.
 
I lost a mare who had a growth in her throat which we (vet and I) had thought was not big enough (at least from the outside) to have been a problem, it was less than a golf ball in size. She had not had choke at all, was able to eat whatever I put in front of her and was bright in herself, quite capable of tearing around the field with her tail up and she was a fortnight from foaling when she died, quite peacefully in the field within 10 minutes of me seeing her grazing with her friends. When she was opened up, the growth had spread inside far more than you could see or palpate from the outside and it had restricted her airways too much for her to cope with it. I still feel incredibly guilty for her. If I had known the extent of it, I would have put her down beforehand because I hate to think I caused her pain in her final moments and knowing now what I didn't then, we would have surely lost her during foaling anyway but it would have been a much more painful death for her, I was glad she went when she did.
 
I would suggest trying the Allen & Page Fast Fibre - make it really sloppy, pouring consistency. You could try adding some ready grass type stuff to the soup and see how she goes. As far as making sure she gets all she needs in a small amount of pelleted food why don't you try something like the Dodson & Horrell Ultimate Balancer? If the Fast Fibre soup is ok then you could see if the balancer will 'dissolve' into it too. That way she gets all the dietary requirements and fibre, and then top her up in winter with whatever hay / forage she is able to eat safely. If she can't cope with the soup, then just see if she'll eat the balancer - she should be able to do light work (hacking, low level comp, etc on the balancer alone), plus forage. If she loses weight on just the balancer and forage then you need to think about adding something else, but so far my 25 and 29 yr olds (admittedly retired) haven't a jot of anything else to maintain their condition.

I think she looks fab by the way!

Sorry if I've suggested something you've already tried - hope you find a solution. x
 
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