NinjaPony
Well-Known Member
This has probably been done before but never hurts to get some new suggestions!
My Welsh A is 22 coming up to 23 and this is the first winter where he has dropped off more weight than I’d like (I’ve had him 16 years).
He’s medicated for his cushings and his levels have been checked very recently and medication adjusted accordingly. He’s got a history of laminitis (one serious episode two years ago, and one almost near miss over the summer) and has EMS.
Normally, he gets soaked hay, muzzled on grass over the summer and a handful of feed and looks great on this.
This winter he’s dropped off, where I could see ribs at rest which is very unusual for him. Obviously I don’t want him to be overweight, but I also don’t want him looking poor. Teeth have been checked, he gets them done every 6 months, and he worm tested 0.
At the moment, I’ve got him on ad-lib unsoaked hay (it’s homegrown meadow hay), and two feeds a day. AM he gets a big handful of hi fi molasses free, a handful of soaked alfalfa pellets, a spoon of linseed oil, vit E and balancer powder. PM he’s getting another big handful of chaff, soaked pellets, two spoons of oil and his medication.
He’s looking better on this, ribs are less visible now and he’s very glossy. My concern is whether I ought to swap out the hi fi for something a little more useful for maintaining weight, as at the moment he’s getting quite a large amount twice a day and it doesn’t seem to be the most cost effective way of keeping his weight up, and it is creating quite large volume feeds (not that he minds…)
He’s been on hi fi molasses free for a long time now, as I’m very aware we need to keep sugar/starch as low as possible, and my thinking was is there something else I can add in alongside to help his condition so I can reduce the chaff to just a small handful. Or possibly to swap the alfalfa pellets out for something else? He gets them in a nutball to make sure he gets a good source of low sugar protein.
I’ve got no personal experience of trying to maintain weight on a laminitis/EMS/Cushings pony, and I don’t want to go too much the other way or feed him anything that might trigger off laminitis or insulin spike. So thoughts gratefully received!
My Welsh A is 22 coming up to 23 and this is the first winter where he has dropped off more weight than I’d like (I’ve had him 16 years).
He’s medicated for his cushings and his levels have been checked very recently and medication adjusted accordingly. He’s got a history of laminitis (one serious episode two years ago, and one almost near miss over the summer) and has EMS.
Normally, he gets soaked hay, muzzled on grass over the summer and a handful of feed and looks great on this.
This winter he’s dropped off, where I could see ribs at rest which is very unusual for him. Obviously I don’t want him to be overweight, but I also don’t want him looking poor. Teeth have been checked, he gets them done every 6 months, and he worm tested 0.
At the moment, I’ve got him on ad-lib unsoaked hay (it’s homegrown meadow hay), and two feeds a day. AM he gets a big handful of hi fi molasses free, a handful of soaked alfalfa pellets, a spoon of linseed oil, vit E and balancer powder. PM he’s getting another big handful of chaff, soaked pellets, two spoons of oil and his medication.
He’s looking better on this, ribs are less visible now and he’s very glossy. My concern is whether I ought to swap out the hi fi for something a little more useful for maintaining weight, as at the moment he’s getting quite a large amount twice a day and it doesn’t seem to be the most cost effective way of keeping his weight up, and it is creating quite large volume feeds (not that he minds…)
He’s been on hi fi molasses free for a long time now, as I’m very aware we need to keep sugar/starch as low as possible, and my thinking was is there something else I can add in alongside to help his condition so I can reduce the chaff to just a small handful. Or possibly to swap the alfalfa pellets out for something else? He gets them in a nutball to make sure he gets a good source of low sugar protein.
I’ve got no personal experience of trying to maintain weight on a laminitis/EMS/Cushings pony, and I don’t want to go too much the other way or feed him anything that might trigger off laminitis or insulin spike. So thoughts gratefully received!
