Feed advice

MrsElle

MrsElle

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I have had Ellie for about 6 weeks now and I am still concerned about her condition. She came to me a bit underweight and despite my best efforts I don't think she has improved at all, infact she might have lost a little.

She is 27 years old and is on a large scoop of Alpha A Original, large scoop of HiFi Senior and three quarters dry scoop of D&H Quick Beet - soaked obviously, but I don't know how many scoops it equates to soaked. She has these amounts twice daily, plus ad lib hay in the stable at night and hay out in the field when it is is frosty/snowy.

Here are a couple of pics taken of her at Christmas, followed by a couple of her taken this afternoon. Any help or advice gratefully recieved. Apparently this is the first year she has lost condition and is a good doer normally.

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Two things spring to my mind...

have you had her teeth checked? it's very common for older horses to have little or no molars!

does she get any 'hard feed'? try D&H ERS pellets or Baileys No4 cubes to get her some vits and mins, and a good quantity of easily digested energy.

if you suspect her teeth are poor then soak the cubes in water so they soften up and give them like porridge.

and i'm sure that some good grass in the spring will help her!
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Teeth are fine, she has no problems polishing off swedes in record time and mountains of hay every night! Her quick beet is soaked to a really sloppy consistancy with her Alpha A and Hifi Senior stirred into it.

Do you think I should just carry on as I am for the next few weeks until the grass comes through? She apparently bangs the weight on once on new grass to the extent she has previously had to be on restricted grazing.
 
Have you thought about giving her Alfa Oil instead of the Alfa A? still gets the protein but the extra oil should help will her condition - lots on here over the past couple of weeks have been singing its praises for improving condition. I would be tempted to swop to that keep up her hay as she has probably been using up lots of calories to keep warm for the last couple of weeks and see how she goes while keeping an eye on the grass.
 
Shanny: She was wormed in January.

Slinkyunicorn: Is there any oil I can add to her Alpha A until the newly opened bag is used? She's rugged up in a fleece under a MW rug but has terrible rug rubs on her high withers as she has never been rugged before this winter. I always check she's toasty warm
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top spec condition falkes /baileys number one /alfabeet or fibrebeet and pink powder from naf are all fab for putting on weight and condition in calm and controlled manner!!! winergy condition is also good but quite expensive to feed
 
6 weeks is not very long for an older horse to gain weight. Suggestions: I would maybe lower the senior and increase the alfa a, which is higher in energy. Then as your current bag runs down start introducing alfa a oil with the aim to going on to that instad of the alfa a. Alfa a oil is higher in energy again. You can then drop the senior as it is not providing anything to the diet if you already feed plenty of forage.
It takes approx ten weeks for a horse to adjust to using oil as an energy source, so there is little point adding liquid oil just until you finish your current alfa a. You need to keep changes of feed to the minimum as well to ensure the gut is working as efficiently as possible.
It is not long until the grass will start coming through. If you start adding conditioning cubes, etc, it wont be long before you have to decrease them and combined with the grass your horse will be getting alot of sugar and starch.
You could add some brewers yeast to help the digestive system work efficiently but other than that i would change the alfalfa as described above.
Hope this helps
 
Maybe try giving her a digestive enhancer. I feed my 19yr old bluechip pro and she is great. A really good tip I got off a baileys nutritioist fpor my tb was to feed the max amount of alphabeet in one bucket so she could just go to it when she felt like it and this is the 1st year she has kept her wieght on

Another thing worth considering- has there been any changes lately that could make her stressed even if you can't see any obvious signs just that was one of the worst things for my 2 for taking the weight off them.
 
I don't want to change her feed too much if I can help it so might up the Alpha A and cut down on the HiFi, gradually introducing the Alpha A Oil.

She apparently lost condition last summer following an abcess which perhaps due to her age really affected her. I have her on permanent loan and her owner says she is very settled with me and much happier than she was at her last place. Hopefully this means she will start to put the weight on soon. I know everything happens at a slower pace the older one gets, but I just want to see her looking fit and healthy.
 
My oldie is on Alfa A Oil and is doing great on it with Speedi beet and a normal leisure mix.

When C was underweight she was on Alfa A oil, conditioning cubes and sugarbeet.

Spillers do a good conditioning cubes/mix or there are also Barley rings.

Blue Chip is supposed to be good too. I did have C on it originaly but it works out quite expensive.
 
Baileys No 4 Topline cubes are very good for condition without heating. The weather has been vile, which doesn't help. How much work is she doing? She's a big girl and may well need more than just chopped fibre feed.

Triple Crown Remount is a brilliant liver tonic for oldies (I get it from the Snuggy Hoods website), and Pink Powder will help her digest her feed efficiently.
 
Have you had a look at D&H Build up? Although of course it could just be her age. But try introducing a third feed in the day or late pm if possible. I'd also ring the feed companies and perhaps get the vet to give her a once over.

How many hours a day is she turned out for? Most of us really do seem to have lost our grazing now after the snows and there is very little for horses on their winter grazing to eat (certainly that's the case in my field). And it could be that she needs to be out for less hours and in eating for more.

Does she have a good amount of hay left in the mornings?? If not - up the hay and offer her fresh before you turn her out so that she can have at least 20mins hay eating time before going out.

I think she looks terribly poor if I'm honest, and like you would be terribly concerned.

Is she well rugged up??
 
There is no need for a senior horse to be underweight if it is healthy and fed correctly - from what you are feeding it doesn't seem to be enough calories - def look at a conditioning cube/mix, my 31 year old has Spillers Senior Conditioning Mix and when he is doing well, the Maintenance one. He is still in the same condition he was in the summer.
 
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