Box rest and weight

[jmd481]

My beloved tb mare is in on box rest.
She's being well behaved thank God but struggling with keeping weight on her.
She's on fast fibre and Alfa oil with some conditioning nuts twice a day.
With standard supplements garlic, codlavine and cider vinegar......
She also has 2 massive rammed haylage nets and if eaten by night time I will give her another. She's also rugged so can't be cold.
Any advice would be gratefully received

 

[Boysy]

Linseed and Copra are fabulous for putting weight on, Linseed I've found of particular benefit for mine and can feed quite large quantities of it, Allen and Page Veteran Vitality as well currently being used by a friend of mine.

Also Dengie Grass nuts/Pellets soaked.

 

[be positive]

I find they can drop weight on box rest and if they are on it with a leg injury that is no bad thing as long as it does not get too far, being a bit light can help the limb rest and recover, the last time I had one resting he dropped a bit more than ideal while he was in hospital so as well as ad lib haylage I gave him a good supply of soaked grassnuts, better than conditioning nuts as there is less starch and if they are not greedy you can allow pretty much free access which suited mine well as he would go from haylage to feed bowl as and when he wanted, I also gave him some haylage on the ground to make it easier to get at, I would not use a haylage net for a horse that is not a good doer as it slows them down and makes eating harder work. .

I am not a fan of garlic which can irritate their guts or feeding cod liver oil to horses and prefer to use linseed as an oil/ protein source, more palatable and natural.

 

[tda]

Second the linseed, it's great stuff.
I always thought Fast Fibre was for fatties, as it is based on straw? If you want a bagged feed, I'd prefer Calm and Condition

 

[jmd481]

Thank you for all the advice.... Yes I used to feed calm and condition but she got a bit plump so swapped her to fast fibre as this is the main part of her feed I didn't want to change it all of a sudden, I may put her back on c&c but introduce it gradually and the linseed.... she isn't painfully thin but dropped weight and don't want it going too far so trying to nip it in the bud now.