Advice on how to put weight back on pony who has lost a lot of weight

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Field04

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I need some advice on how to get some weight back on my pony. It is my first winter with her, and when I bought her was told she was only fed hay, lived out all year with no cover.

So the summer was fine, she had a good amount of weight to go into the winter. It started off fine but during December and January she has lost a lot of weight. She was being fed hay (where she was being kept and they assured me she was getting enough hay). I have now taken her to another stables where she is in at night and being fed only hay again. However I have seen no improvement.

I did not want to go down the route of hard feed as she has not been fed it before. I am thinking of either having to give her hard feed or trying a mineral feed, which is a bucket you can buy full of minerals and they eat it when they want.

With regards to her weight, she is very ribby. You can really see them and I just do not want it to get any worse and get some fat back on her.

I am in France and we do not have the choice in feed as in the uk.

Any advice would be great. Thanks
 
When we bought my son's pony last feb he was also quite underweight.

We made sure he had ad lib haylage and gave him oil in his feed, plus pink powder (Naf supplement), although don't know if you can get it over there? His hard feed was a simple mix of chaff and sugar beet, twice a day.

He was also living out so had to ensure he was always warm so also added anothe layer of rugs. We wormed him too as don't think he had been done for a while.

This winter we have kept him on the same regime and has held his weight better, although I have had to feed him as much haylage as my cob! The pony is not a 'good doer' so always have to be aware of that and keep an eye on his weight with a weigh tape.

The good news for you is that spring is just around the corner, so the grass coming through should also help.
 
The new grass will be coming through soon, unless she is extremely thin I'd be inclined to make sure she has ad lib hay and wait for her to pick up weight as the spring grass comes through.
 
chestnut cob said:
When did you last worm her?
Click to expand...

She was wormed in November. I am thinking of doing it again maybe, as we did have problems with bot flies during September and October last year. Could she have these? Surely you would see it in her droppings, and I can't see anything.
 
Could switch to haylage from hay as more calories.

If you're giving adlib hay and the pony is warm enough (well rugged so doesn't lose any weight trying to keep warm) then you probably have no choice but to give hard feed. Linseed meal is excellent for putting on condition as are barley rings, speedibeet and maybe include a good probioic (Protexin Gut Balancer is great). Feed several small feeds rather than one or two big ones as she won't digest it properly.

What about teeth - when were they last done?

RE worming. I wormed with Equimax in Nov and again with Equest in Jan. Best to speak with your vet about worming regime but yes, I'd be doing her again with the correct wormer for this time of year.
 
I've just gone through this with my boyfriends moms pony, he was quite underweight when I took him on - lost muscle, ribs visable, hippy etc.


He is now looking a nice weight, just needs a bit more muscle/topline. I've got him on vegetable oil (only a small amount - about a table sppon size max), pink powder senior, linseed, alpha beet and high fibre cubes with a small handful of healthy hooves. He has two feeds a day and has ad lib hay when stabled, he is out from 6am until 7pm most days.

He was on 3 smaller feeds a day at first to get him started on the weight gain.
 
Whereabouts are you in France and what height/breed is your pony? I'm over here too and the choice of feed is very limited and often not wonderful quality.
Haylage is not something they use over here unless you have have some english farmers local to you that make decent quality stuff.
This winter has been awful here in Brittany and I have had to rug some of my natives for the first time in years and years because of the incessant rain.
 
I know you would prefer not to give her 'hard' feed, but could you give her a bucket of chaff, or chopped alfalfa or similar, with a lot of oil poured over it? Horses do quite well on a high oil diet, and although soya or linseed oil are probably the best, i have had good results with vegetable or sunflower oil you can get from the supermarket.
 
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