Any good ideas for weight gain for a very old boy

J

Joss

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 May 2008
Messages
1,874
Location
SW Scotland
Visit site
My old boy, Harley, has recently had a bit of an MOT. He is either 30 or 31 this year, depends which passport you look at. He has surprisingly good teeth for his age although I wonder if he has a slightly arthritic jaw as he cant be bothered chewing for long & hates the dentists gag more than the rasps. He is actually in quite good form at the moment but I cant get anymore weight on him. Any ideas?

He has access to very good grazing for a 9-10 hours a day, eats a limited amount of wet hay (I have tried haylage but he's not that keen on it)
He eats 1 scp of D&H 16+ mix plus a jug of sugar beet in the morning.
1 fuller scoop of of the same plus another jug of Sugar beet for tea plus Equivite Body Builder.

He really likes the Body Builder but it has not made any difference & is rather ££ I thought I might try adding more oil as he is now confirmed as not having Cushings but I need to be careful the feeds dont get too sloppy as he doesnt like that!!

What do you think I should try next?
 
I found feeding equimins pro-bio and spillars conditioning cubes to my elderly TB to work extremely well - the pro-bio saved me money as she did so well with it, I was able to change from hayledge to hay and cut back other feed by about a third and she kept the weight on. You can soak the cubes first if he finds chewing difficult.
 
If he is finding chewing hard work, then I would try giving him a big tub of some sort of hay replacer alongside his hay, so you can boost his forage intake. A dried grass product might be good, as will be quite high in calories - you could use a dried grass chaff such as Readigrass, Graze-on, etc or grassnuts soaked to a firm mash.
 
Fibrebeet
smile.gif
 
We have just had the same issue with a 35 year old!! Like yours he will eat some of the mixes etc but won't really eat hay, is on good grazing 24/7 but hasn't really gained enough weight and we wanted him to be up to weight if he is to go through the winter. We have just started giving him Mollichaff Veteran hay replacer/chaff. He gets a big handful with his 16+ mix and high fibre cubes with some speedibeet (fibrebeet would be just as good) and a trug of it in his field. The trug is topped up as needed but he gets through about a trug a day. The important thing it for him to get enough fibre so his lower gut works effectively and lets him absorb all the good stuff. The veteran chaff has linseed oil, mint, nettles etc and is lightly molassed so smells lovely - and the most important thing is that he eats it!! He has been on it since last Monday and you can already see a difference in him. He is definately starting to fillout already, his coat is looking shinier and he has a definate 'twinkle' back in his eye!! It is about £6.50 a sack - so is a good cost effective option for him. It maybe worth a try??

Good luck with him.
smile.gif
 
Thank you for your suggestions. I have tried fibre/hay replacer in a trug in the corner of his stable and he was really keen for 2 days & then the novelty wore off & he didnt touch it again - in fact I just gave the rest of the bag to my friend before it got old & yucky. Trying this in the field isnt really an option as he is out with my 2 eventers who would either guzzle it or just chuck it about.

I could try adding more fibre to his hard food but I am wary of doing this as I am worried he will only eat 'so' much & leave the higher calorie mix & end up losing weight? Is this the right thinking or not? The veteran chaff that slinkyunicorn mentions sounds lovely & palatable.........
 
Hi Joss, I dont know if this would be any help?


"As horses age their teeth can become worn and loose, a problem that is usually first noticed when a horse drops partially chewed feed from its mouth which is termed "quidding". For horses that quid, feeding long stem forage like hay and haylage can become a problem and poorly digested feed can lead to further complications including impaction colic, a common problem in older horses. As a 500kg horse can eat around 6-8kg or more of forage in the winter months alongside grazing, it is not surprising that as soon as they start to struggle with forage they may lose weight.

It is vital to remember that a horse needs fibre to maintain digestive health and fibre intake should still equate to at least 1.5% of bodyweight; a 500kg horse would therefore require 7.5kg of a fibre based feed per day. When horses can no longer manage long stem forage the next step is to try a short chop hay replacer product, like Dengie Hi-Fi Senior that combines short chop high temperature dried grasses and alfalfa in a soft and easy to chew format that makes eating fibre much easier for the older horse or pony. Often we are asked by horse owners if feeding such a large quantity of feed ina bucket is alright as the general advice for feeding horses is to keep bucket feed to a minimum. However, because Hi-Fi Senior and for that matter the other Alfa-A and Hi-Fi products are fibre sources, it is like a haynet in a bucket and therefore completely safe to feed in bulk - in fact the horse was designed to eat this way!

Soaking feed to a mash or gruel consistency can also help make it easier to consume. Adding Dengie Alfa-Beet to the ration is an ideal way of softening it as well as providing extra calories for those horses that need to gain weight. Dengie Alfa-Beet combines alfalfa and unmolassed sugar beet with a convenient 15 minute hot soak or 2 hour cold soak and is approved by the Laminitis Trust. There may come a time when an old horse cannot even manage short chop products. At this stage itis advisable to use an entirely soaked hay replacer ration that can be made up of soaked Alfa-Beet and High Fibre Cubes. It is equally important to weigh the cubes before they are soaked to ensure an appropriate quantity is fed.

Weight Management
Just because a horse is old does not necessarily mean that they are going to be thin, but many owners of older horses and ponies are often more concerned about weight loss over the winter months. If your veteran does start to lose weight it is important to ascertain the reason why and not just to put it down to "old age". Run through a checklist including a dental check, vet check and worming check to identify any problems. Also check your horse's diet; in particular, are they eating as much hay as they used to? It may be time to consider moving onto a more senior specific or higher energy feed. However proceed with caution with senior coarse mixes as most of them are unsuitable for veterans that have problems like laminitis or Cushing's disease, both of which require a low sugar and starch diet. Alfa-A Oil is Dengie's highest calorie fibre feed and has a calorie level equivalent to a conditioning mix or cube but without the high starch levels. This makes Alfa-A Oil suitable for veterans that need weight gain but require a low sugar/starch ration and can also be fed alongside Dengie Alfa-Beet if extra condition is needed."
 
Over time H has tried loads of different fibre based feeds - he was on Simple Systems for a while but he just got bored of it and wouldn't eat it. He doesn't tend to eat any of his feed up in one go anymore so he is lucky to have his own grazing so his feed just goes out with him so he can come and go eating it as it suits him. I have found over the last week that the best way to get his feed down him is to add the Veteran chaff to his feed - happily munches it!! I think its because it is lovely and smelly but is also 'soft' if that makes sense. As we have seriously upped his fibre content it makes sense that he eats it over the 24 hour period - he seems to eat enough to fill up then mooches of for a graze and a play and then just snacks during the day and night - but finishes everything over a 24 hour period.
 
I have TB's, they're not old but have trouble with weight gain.

My dentist recommended Barley Conditioning Rings (think they're Dodson & Horrell) they soak right down too. With my youngest who was a hat rack when I bought him, she suggested dried mint and nettle as they aid appetite and digestion. Worked for me
smile.gif
As did going from one feed to a couple of feeds
 
oil, good quality veg or corn or soya oil add to the feed, these are high calorie i feed my 30 yr old this through the winter and he keeps the weight on fine perhaps a bit to much
just add about 20-30 ml to the feed, start with a little bit at a time and he should be putting weight on in about 2-3 wks
 
Ditto corn oil. My boy is prone to tying up & gets fed this & soaked Hi fi cubes & looks great.

Soya oil is more calorific but mine doesn't like the taste, spoilt child!
 
Bailey's Outshine is excellent (but pricey!) for fussy feeders who won't tolerate too much oil in their feed - it is extremely calorie dense and very palatable.
A
 
I used to feed Henry, who though wasn't as old as your boy struggled to manage his hay a big trug of beet, soaked fibre cubes and readigrass/grazeon to pick at as and when he liked alongside his regular feeds...he was starting to gain weight at a steady rate that the vet was pleased with.

Actually, with it being warm, the beet etc probably isn't a good idea, I'd worry about it going a bit off.

I was reading the other day about hay cubes/pellets, two round scoops were the equivalent to 2 slices of hay....I could go and have a look if you like?
 
My now retired 25 year old chaser had an op last year and dropped condition dreadfully. He's now on Build up cubes, Alpha A lite (he was on Veteran chaff but looks better on the Alpha), speedibeet and readigrass with added soya oil, pink powers if he's having any Danilon, and a joint supplement. If he drops some weight then he gets some Fast Fibre (I've never known anything put weight on mine as fast as Fast Fibre). He's not very interested in hay, or in grass for that matter, but his condition is excellent and his weight is superb. I try to get more weight on him as head into winter, and try to get a third meal into him at lunch if I can. If he goes off his feed for some reason (sometimes it is just cos the weather gets hot) then I add some carrots, apples etc to tempt him. Good luck with yours. x
 
My old girl lived until her mid 40's. I fed her 3 times a day as she would manage about a section of haylage a night only. She wouldn't touch hay.

She had 16+, barley conditioning cubes, dodson and horrell calm and condition, apple chaff, and sugar beet. Lots of those do the same thing but I found that the fact that the feed had different things in it made it more interesting for her. She also had carrots and apple every day, grated.

On a night she had a huge bucket of feed which she would keep coming back to and by morning it would be gone.

I also hung the bucket at chest height for her as she preferred to eat like that. I don't know if her neck was arthritic.

She still grazed but not for the same length of time as the others and it was her arthritic hips that went in the end, not her weight.
 
an old recipe was oat meal or barley meal slightly cooked with hot water from the kettle and left to cool, added to the feed, it is very soft and megga high in calories,

also linseed either as cake or more liquid form.

milk powder is good if they will/can take it.

glucose powder?

soya powder/meal?

or cheat a little... feed in sight of a rival so they eat up so the other horse doesn't get any.

i am encouraged by how many fossil aged horses lived so well so long, gives me hope my rescue mare of 25y may be with us longer, she is just starting the problems of older age, & i am about to follow some of the advise given above.....

wrinklies rule OK !!! .................. (me & the mare!!) bye
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top