Cushings again - what hard feed?

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Lissie2

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Hi

Looking into adapting his diet as we step up his feeds for winter again. At the moment he’s on (or will be back on) Mollichaff calmer, equimins balancer, grass nuts, and a hack up supplement for his gut.

Looking at stuff more specific for Cushings as he’s just been diagnosed and starting Prascend. Thing is he’s actually doing well weight wise and has always been a good doer. All those feeds like Cushcare etc are designed to put weight on which isn’t what he needs? Unless people have experience of feeding such feeds to good doers with PPID and haven’t ended up with obese horses? He works about 3-4 times a week.

What do you feed your Cushings horses?

Thanks
 
I feed both my cushings ponies linseed with chop and speedy beet - just vary the quantities according to the weather/grass. They both look very well.
 
As he is a good doer you really need to cut down on the sugar in the feed you give him, the chaff is not ideal as it has added molasses and while I like grassnuts and feed them to mine I would avoid them for a good doer that is not in hard work that also has cushings and would be looking to change to something far lower in natural sugar, he may not require the calmer if he is getting less sugar in his diet.
I would just give good forage and a chaff with no added molasses to take the supplements or add them to speedibeet which is low energy/ low sugar, even on prascend he will beat risk of laminitis so you want to keep him as safe as you can by not over feeding and getting his weight down.

Most horses do not need any hard feed and the majority are over fed because feed companies push the feeds they develop for various conditions many of which are caused in part by over feeding in the first place, don't get caught up in their promotions which are designed to make the owner feel they are doing all they can to help their horse as for most the best thing would be to stop feeding hard feed altogether.
 
^^^ What BP says. Also, once on the Prascend he may pick up condition again, so best keep a v.close eye out for weight gain.

My dustbin Cushing's mare is doing well on a small bucket feed of plain chopped oat straw with her Prascend, Forageplus balancer, salt and micronised linseed, (plus extra vit E oil for her PSSM). The drama diva picky Cushing's mare gets the much more expensive Agrobs aspero chaff which is apparently tastier than oat straw :D
 
Generally high fibre, good quality protein (although if yours hasn't had issues with muscle loss this may be less important for him right now) and low sugar and starch. Suggestions include unmolassed sugarbeet, coolstance copra, micronised linseed, unmolassed chop / low sugar grass nuts (ideally from meadow grasses as tend to be lower sugar and than ryegrass. Agrobs, Thunderbrooks and Emerald Green all have products that fit in with this although I think Dengie and Simple Systems may also have a few). Forageplus also recommend giving horses with PPID a higher than normal dose of Vitamin E (especially in winter when it's deficient in forage)
 
Have a look at thelaminitissite for all feed recommendations though they don’t mention agrobs on there, you can also add salt..mine has had cushings for a few years now, he does well on agrobs leitchgenus or aspero (or hi fi molasses free) plus micronised linseed, salt and a good balancer, in winter he has speedibeet added, plus vit e..he is a good doer too. Always soaked hay and part of a carrot/apple gouged out for his pills every morning..
Basically low sugar starch below 10%.. steer clear of molassed feeds and garlic..
 
My cushings pony is on Topspec fibre plus cubes and Topspec anti lam supplement, and hay. She is a very picky eater but has been on this for over a year with no issues.
 
My elderly pony gets a handful of soaked grassnuts (and I mean a handful) to carry a vits and mins supplement, vit E oil and salt. She has her prascend in a piece of carrot.
She has restricted grazing all year round, out during the day in by night with ad-lib high fibre forage.

She is companion to my good-doer ridden pony and they are both on the same management so noone thinks they are 'missing out'.
 
Mine is kept relatively grass free so fed lots of hay, gets half a scoop of dengie hi fibre molasses free, half a scoop pure feed fibre plus chaff, half a cup of key flow balancer split between two feeds a day , in the winter he also gets keyflow pink mash, he is looking and feeling the best he ever has, he is on half a tablet a day.
 
I sell feed and do sell quite a bit of cushcare to people with small ponies, there are a lot of fans of it out there.
If you like the idea of it but are worried about the condition side of things they do make a cushcare supplement as an alternative

I do like the Agrobs feeds mentioned above, they do a good range and although quite expensive it does seem to last a while
 
i used to give my cushings mare baileys light chaff plus formula4feet in the summer and just added fast fibre and increased the chaff in the winter and she always looked well. its best to feed as if they are laminitic just to be on the safe side and if he is a good doer i wouldnt feed any extra sugar...
 
Thanks for the info everyone.

I think I’ll take him off Mollichaff and put him on Thunderbrooks herbal chaff as he’s already on thunderbrook meadow nuts and their herbal chaff is low sugar and starch. At the moment he’s only on a handful of nuts to put his supplements in.

Ta x
 
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