Fattening up a pony!

[Patterdale]

Not to eat it

One of our ponies who is very precious to us, needs lots of fat and condition. She is 13 and a section A, and was diagnosed with Cushings last year.
She also has allergies which developed after a severe case of double pneumonia a few years ago. These give her breathing trouble at times but not too bad in winter.
This pony has had EVERY investigation bar an autopsy and apart from the Cushings we can’t really find much up with her. Haven’t scoped her as I don’t agree with it but she’s having a course of omeprazole just in case.

She’s never been a good doer but since the Cushings she’s like an unloved racehorse. Prascend has helped a lot and has taken her from sad and depressed, to back to her old self, bright eyed and bushy tailed, but she’s still thin.

What can I feed her to fatten her up? Current regime:

Out on 10 acres with a pile of haylage each day.
Blue chip, micronised linseed and sugar beet once a day (can’t up feed from once a day).

Any ideas welcome please! She’s never been fat or had laminitis so no concerns there.
Thank you!

 

[meleeka]

How’s her teeth? Is she warm enough? I rate Cushcare for weight gain, but there’s also A&P Care and Gain, which I’ve heard good things about.

 

[Maryann]

Not to eat it

One of our ponies who is very precious to us, needs lots of fat and condition. She is 13 and a section A, and was diagnosed with Cushings last year.
She also has allergies which developed after a severe case of double pneumonia a few years ago. These give her breathing trouble at times but not too bad in winter.
This pony has had EVERY investigation bar an autopsy and apart from the Cushings we can’t really find much up with her. Haven’t scoped her as I don’t agree with it but she’s having a course of omeprazole just in case.

She’s never been a good doer but since the Cushings she’s like an unloved racehorse. Prascend has helped a lot and has taken her from sad and depressed, to back to her old self, bright eyed and bushy tailed, but she’s still thin.

What can I feed her to fatten her up? Current regime:

Out on 10 acres with a pile of haylage each day.
Blue chip, micronised linseed and sugar beet once a day (can’t up feed from once a day).

Any ideas welcome please! She’s never been fat or had laminitis so no concerns there.
Thank you!

Oats? - allergies permitting.

 

[Patterdale]

How’s her teeth? Is she warm enough? I rate Cushcare for weight gain, but there’s also A&P Care and Gain, which I’ve heard good things about.

Teeth are fine, last check 3 months ago.
She’s unclipped in a 200g rug so nice and warm

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Have a good look at the veteran feeds, I've used some on young models which have given them more cover.

We actually trialled some in the late 80s on request of the company I was sponsored by at the time on a v light 6yr old section B, over 2 months he did get more coverage than in the preceding 6 months. Obs teeth, worming, bloods all checked 1st.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I’ve got both of my PPID ladies on Forageplus Topline Plus - it’s a mix of pea and potato protein. It really helps, and I noticed the change in them when I stopped it in the summer to save pennies. I soon put them back on it.

It does what it says on the tin (or rather the bag).

Also Charnwoods micronised linseed.

 

[Squeak]

Is she finishing the haylage as in could you give her more? Also if she's out with others is she definitely getting her share?

 

[marmalade76]

I've got mine on A&P Care & Gain, very low starch & sugar, about 4.5% of each.

 

[dorsetladette]

I really rate linseed lozenges as a weight gain feed. you only need a handful in existing feed. But I see you are feeding linseed already.

I had good results from A&P calm and condition with my poor doer of a welsh cob. Also used D&H build up and baileys out shine with success on an older pony previously.

could she benefit from a balancer? I'm not good with knowing which would be best.

Is she definitely getting her feed, not being pushed off by others? Does she also get all her share of the haylage?

 

[holeymoley]

My ems guy is looking a bit tucked up this year. He’s rising 22 and has always been a good doer until he came down with laminitis 5 years ago. Since then I’ve been incredibly strict with his diet, meaning everything is under 10% sugar & starch combined, soaked hay, etc only gets beet in the winter. I would always steer away from mashes as 9 times out of 10 they are cereal based with high starch content but I seen that Rowan Barbery have a few mashes out now, two which would probably be suitable for mine and probably your cushings pony.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Currently having good results with soaked sugar beet mixed through damp Graze On or something similar. My old boy gets a full trug daily in addition to his net. If he needs to come in earlier because of the weather, he also gets a ration of veteran haylage to pick through. He is borderline EMS, and rising 29.

 

[tda]

Maybe swap the sugar beet for fibrebeet.

 

[Breather]

Not to eat it

One of our ponies who is very precious to us, needs lots of fat and condition. She is 13 and a section A, and was diagnosed with Cushings last year.
She also has allergies which developed after a severe case of double pneumonia a few years ago. These give her breathing trouble at times but not too bad in winter.
This pony has had EVERY investigation bar an autopsy and apart from the Cushings we can’t really find much up with her. Haven’t scoped her as I don’t agree with it but she’s having a course of omeprazole just in case.

She’s never been a good doer but since the Cushings she’s like an unloved racehorse. Prascend has helped a lot and has taken her from sad and depressed, to back to her old self, bright eyed and bushy tailed, but she’s still thin.

What can I feed her to fatten her up? Current regime:

Out on 10 acres with a pile of haylage each day.
Blue chip, micronised linseed and sugar beet once a day (can’t up feed from once a day).

Any ideas welcome please! She’s never been fat or had laminitis so no concerns there.
Thank you!

Not to eat it

One of our ponies who is very precious to us, needs lots of fat and condition. She is 13 and a section A, and was diagnosed with Cushings last year.
She also has allergies which developed after a severe case of double pneumonia a few years ago. These give her breathing trouble at times but not too bad in winter.
This pony has had EVERY investigation bar an autopsy and apart from the Cushings we can’t really find much up with her. Haven’t scoped her as I don’t agree with it but she’s having a course of omeprazole just in case.

She’s never been a good doer but since the Cushings she’s like an unloved racehorse. Prascend has helped a lot and has taken her from sad and depressed, to back to her old self, bright eyed and bushy tailed, but she’s still thin.

What can I feed her to fatten her up? Current regime:

Out on 10 acres with a pile of haylage each day.
Blue chip, micronised linseed and sugar beet once a day (can’t up feed from once a day).

Any ideas welcome please! She’s never been fat or had laminitis so no concerns there.
Thank you!

Hi! Sounds like you're trying hard to help her. Do you know how much haylage she is eating in a day? Is she sharing the haylage with others? Or has she got her own pile that you monitor?

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Ad lib hay or haylage and Equijewel added to the feed you are currently feeding you don't need to feed loads.

 

[I'm Dun]

I’ve got both of my PPID ladies on Forageplus Topline Plus - it’s a mix of pea and potato protein. It really helps, and I noticed the change in them when I stopped it in the summer to save pennies. I soon put them back on it.

It does what it says on the tin (or rather the bag).

Also Charnwoods micronised linseed.

This. Most with cushings do well on extra protein and some sort of oil. I like rice bran as its nutrient dense so doesnt over face them. I'd add vitamin e as well, just at a normal dose. It also seems to help with weight gain.

 

[Not_so_brave_anymore]

Cushcare mash. It's not cheap, but my elderly, ribby PPID ponies are looking fantastic on it.

 

[gallopingby]

How many ponies / horses is she out with? Haylage doesn’t suit all ponies some do better on soaked hay. I know you’ve said you can only feed once a day but realistically if you’re trying to put weight on splitting the feed into 2 or 3 throughout the day is likely to get better results. Could you get someone to help put an extra feed in?

 

[Highflinger]

Not sure if you can still get them but 20 years ago I used to feed by elderly pony Super barley rings - soaked to a mash and really helped his weight. The other thing is grass. My current elderly chap is holding weight well this year as I still have a lot of grass which still is very green and thick.

 

[maya2008]

Once a day is your problem. Any time I have had a poor doer or needed to add condition I have had to feed more than the usual once. Could you feed something fibre based before riding (the rich readygrass type feeds maybe) and then grain/fat based after? Dodson and Harrell ERS nuts or Top Spec Ulcer ones are lower sugar but conditioning.

I once had a TB, who liked to lose weight for fun. When we were on grass livery and going up multiple times a day/giving more hay wasn’t an option, I tried the alfalfa based feeds. A big bucket because, technically, it’s forage so you can feed more. She went down with laminitis (in midwinter, which was baffling at the time!) and was forever sensitive to alfalfa afterwards. So just putting this out there because I never conceived that that could happen, but then it did - I now know you can overload on the protein in the alfalfa and it does funky things.

 

[Patterdale]

Thank you, lots to research on!

Re the forage, they are on nearly 10 acres of green mountain grass, so they are not lacking. I just give a bit of tasty haylage and carrots (and feed for the cushings one) so that I see them once a day. If I visited again they wouldn’t entertain me twice, hence not being able to feed twice a day. V established herd behaviour.
And if I put more haylage out the thin one and friends leave it in favour of grass, and the fat one stands and eats it
I’m absolutely in the ‘more good forage camp’ but I don’t think she could really have more. I could stable her overnight with haylage but she’d be sad and stressed away from her friends then, and be off the grass. Or I could put her in with the big horses on ad-lib haylage, but they have far less grass and also might bully her.

She def always gets her feed because I bring her out for it, I don’t feed any of the others.

Thank you very much for all the suggestions!

 

[P.forpony]

Just to add another vote for cushcare, have seen it work wonders on a couple of elderly ponies, with and without cushings

 

[MidChristmasCrisis]

I’m another who honestly thinks you have to up the feeds per day…stomachs are too small to load with necessary nutrition in one meal…three feeds minimum..sorry not easy to arrange.

 

[Mfh999]

Another vote for soaked Barley Rings; I've never known anything like it for increasing weight without loading with protein otherwise I would have suggested Baileys' Stud Nuts. You could also look at soaked grass nuts but make sure they're not alfalfa based, just plain grass.
Equerry Conditioning Mash is good too.
I have an old livery here (horse not owner!) that was recently given (by owner) conditioning cubes to increase her weight and they went right through her and made her drop weight after a couple of days which we think was due to too much protein.