Feed for pony with digestion issues

Ginger Bear

Ginger Bear

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Pony has been seen by vet for looking uncomfortable when schooling & having a bloated gut, vet reckons he has constant low grade colic & has told is to change his hifi to hifi lite & swap carrots for parsnips & swede, see of he improves & go from there. He's a good doer, is turned out from 8.30-5, is now fed on hifi lite, a small handful of pony cubes, speedi-beet & parsnips. Should we be cutting out the cubes too as just read ingredients to see they include mollasses, wheat, oat feed etc? Or is it more about the level of sugar that is in them? This is my first good doer, native x as have tbs so not used to not feeding a lot etc. Any suggestions? Thanks
 
Poor pony :( And stressful for you. I'm not convinced by the vet's advice to be honest. If you want to reduce starch and sugar then routinely feeding parsnips really is not going to help.

If I were in your position I'd be being completely ruthless about stripping back the sugars and starch, then add in a good quality probiotic at stress level dosage.

So no molasses, as high fibre as possible, and no feed above 10% starch. If you want a chaff, it needs to be completely molasses / coating free. Some gutty horses are better on alfalfa some are better off it, depending on whether their problem is acidity... No carrots / parsnips / swedes / mints - for omega 3 / 'freshness' if the grass needs supplementing use micronized linseed. What is the grass like?

I'd be thinking as a starting point Allen and Page fast fibre, molasses free chaff (prob alfa a molasses free initially so that you can isolate and exclude it later to see if alfalfa is a problem), micronized linseed, a really good probiotic like Protexin Gut Balancer, and a mineral balancer with no sugar / starch added plus some mint to make it tasty without upping the sugars. Soaked hay and really avoiding lush grass if possible.

You'd need to make changes slowly if he risks colicking, but I have to say that if a horse is sugar / starch sensitive then in my experience doing your best to reduce it only gets you so far, you have to be completely ruthless about it...
 
To be honest he probably doesn't 'need' feed. He's a welsh x trotter, he's not a proper chunky type. He looks lovely & shiny, has energy. We got him in October, when I saw him I knew there was some sort of problem with his stomach, but got him cheap with the idea to fix him as he's for my 11 yr old cousin & he's a great pony! I suppose it is just a case of taking different bits out if his feed to see what works best for him. The stomach has improved shape wise but still not perfect!

The field he has been in all winter is massive & although there are 13 in his winter field it's that large that the grass has not run out all winter. They swap to their summer fields today, a lot less grass out there, sort of mown lawn look if that makes sense - that's the way we do it on our yard, big fields with lots of grass for winter & small fields for summer when grass is rich. Thanks for your help
 
No worries - sounds like a candidate for a low energy, high fibre feed just to carry any supplements that would help his gut. A little bit of fast fibre to carry some probiotic and minerals should do it. Cheaper that way too! :)

He'll probably be an even nicer "person" when his gut's more comfortable.
 
Sounds as though he could be suffering from chronic low grade ulcers, I would be trying a diet geared to that. Oil, bicarb, plenty of fibre, low sugar/cereal/starch and a probiotic. I'd also suggest you try and keep his stress levels to a minimum, maybe field rest for a few weeks if you can? And don't let him have nothing in his digestive system at any time, if he is too good a doer to have grass or hay, keep him occupied with good quality straw.
 
I'm up in the ulcer control thing as my tb had them when I first got him.. Stress wise he's a very chilled little fellow.. He plays & is happy in the field & hacking.. It's his schooling it affects x
 
Oh and btw philamina, spoke to the vet & her plans are to change different things with his feed but she said changes must be very slow not to shock his system
 
Yep absolutely - you're usually safer if you're reducing starches and overall reducing food, but absolutely, esp if he risks colic as mentioned above. I'd ditch the parsnips asap though if he were mine :)
 
My horse has severe digestion issues as well but unfortunately is anything BUT a good doer!


If I were you, I would cut everything out and just feed a good probiotic and general supplement to your pony. I have to be a little more inventing with my horse or she'll loose a lot of weight.

One thing that helped a lot was to cut out beetpulp, after talking to a EGUS specialist vet. She said beet was probably upsetting her gut pH. She improved slightly after I removed it from her diet.

Another thing that really helped was to add bicarb to her diet. She always had smelly wet poo but since feeding it to her she improved dramatically in less than a weak, as did her general disposition towards work.
 
SCMSL said:
One thing that helped a lot was to cut out beetpulp, after talking to a EGUS specialist vet. She said beet was probably upsetting her gut pH. She improved slightly after I removed it from her diet.
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It made a considerable difference to my 2 gutty horses once I cut out any products with beet pulp in them. Interesting to hear your vet thought it could be gut PH>
I googled it a lot and it seemed to be that the hind gut couldn't digest the fibre in beet pulp.
No idea which is right but it worked. :D

OP I would cut back on all your feed and if you want to feed anything to get supplements, bicarb, into him use copra. Doesn't have to be much, I use only 8oz morning and he same evening. (soaked in warm water) but it seems to soothe the gut
 
SCMSL - very lucky he's a good doer, he's medium weight, looks like one if the finer type trotters that travellers drive. His symptoms were being very tetchy with the leg, teeth grinding in stable (is fed ad-lib hay) doing everything not to school which is pretty out of character & osteo & vet found hardly anything wrong with his back or any other areas really. He also has always had good poo, not sloppy or hard, just normal. He was stand hunched up though & look uncomfortable & be unhappy if you touched his belly or sides. Fine to girth though, strangely. I'm happy to try eliminating each thing at a time & see how it goes. I have my tbs on a vitamin supplement with a probiotic so think I will send the ingredients over to the vet. Thanks for your help.
 
Have you had him scoped?

His symptoms sound like ulcers to me...

I disagree with Paddy on her recommendation to use Copra. I would rather use Alfa A oil which is molasses free and being an alfalfa based product, is high on calcium oxalate so would help soothe the stomach...
 
SCMSL said:
Have you had him scoped?

His symptoms sound like ulcers to me...

I disagree with Paddy on her recommendation to use Copra. I would rather use Alfa A oil which is molasses free and being an alfalfa based product, is high on calcium oxalate so would help soothe the stomach...
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I don't use copra as a feedstuff I use it purely to soothe the gut. It makes a lot of difference. I have never seen that effect with alfa A. I also only use it for horses with gut problems.
I also add soaked dengie alfalfa pellets to it. I don't use alfa A as all my horses are barefoot and I find alfalfa in that form can make them footy.
 
paddy555 said:
I don't use copra as a feedstuff I use it purely to soothe the gut. It makes a lot of difference. I have never seen that effect with alfa A. I also only use it for horses with gut problems.
I also add soaked dengie alfalfa pellets to it. I don't use alfa A as all my horses are barefoot and I find alfalfa in that form can make them footy.
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If you mean copra as in from coconuts I have used coconut oil to soothe the gut of one of my tbs that had hind gut ulcers and yes it did make a lot of difference.

I had to google it as had never heard it called that before.
 
Ginger Bear said:
Vet said he could possibly have ulcers, hasn't been scoped. Have any I'd yours looked bloated??
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Yep - bloating typically a sign of hind gut discomfort / acidosis / ulceration... Less so gastric ulcers, but the conditions / reactions which cause gastric often also cause hind gut problems, so really wouldn't be surprised...
 
philamena said:
Yep - bloating typically a sign of hind gut discomfort / acidosis / ulceration... Less so gastric ulcers, but the conditions / reactions which cause gastric often also cause hind gut problems, so really wouldn't be surprised...
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Completely agree. Might be worth it to have a chat with the vet and either do an experimental course of GG or have him scoped.

Meanwhile, I would switch him to an ulcer friendly diet, since it is beneficial even if that's not the issue.
 
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