feed help

[grace00234]

right i have 2 problems with feeding
1.. i have a very overweight welsh who is now getting nearly no hard feed but is starting to lose condition. Is there anything i can give her that wont make her put on weight but keep up her condition... baring in mind she's so fat she's on the brink of laminitus so im thinking along the lines of suppliments so that i dont have to feed her more than she has.
Also... my 16.3hh warmblood is having trouble keeping up his weight so ive been feeding him more than usual, but he's just getting stronger and harder to deal with, is there a feed that's high calorie but wont fizz him up... or should i just live with it and get myself a stronger bit

 

[Walrus]

Hi,

If I were you I'd call one of the feed companies, they do really good advice that's tailored to your horse and they can also give you managment tips etc. for dealing with your overweight mare etc.

But as a starter - with your welsh mare how much grass is she getting? How much exercise is she getting? and how much hay is she getting? When you say she is losing condition do you mean she is still overweight but maybe looking a bit less shiny? When someone says to me that thier horse is losing condition I tend to think they mean losing weight but you don't mean that do you? I think your main priority has to be to get her weight off if she really is on the edge of laminitis. Restrict her access to grass, feed her soaked fibrous hay and make sure she gets lots of exercise. If she's not looking as shiney it could be something as simple as her coat is changing or something but you might want to give her a vitamin and mineral supplement to ensure she is getting all of the vits and mins she needs. You can just get a broad spectrum vit and min supplement powder and put it in a small handful of low calories chaff like Hifi Lite or something like that.

As for your warmblood I wouldn't think about bitting changes yet especially if the stronger behaviour has happened as you've upped his feed. The first thing is what are you feeding him at the moment? Without knowing that it is difficult to say what he needs to be honest. But if he is getting fizzy I would guess you are feeding him something that's got a decent amount of starch in it as this is a quick releasing energy source and tends to make some horses fizz up (a bit like some kids if you give them sweets). You should look for something with slow releasing energy sources and less starch but that still provide calories to put on weight. Something that is based on fibre and oil. Fibre is a slow releasing energy source and oil is a very concentrated calorie source and also slow releasing energy. Without knowing what you are feeding your boy at the moment it is hard to say which level of feed to go for but look at things like the Winergy Equilibrium range, maybe something like Spillers Slow Release Energy Cubes (they have a nice low starch level but the calorie level of a comp feed) or things like Alpha A oil. I'd avoid mixes and go for cubes or fibre personally.

Phew! Hope that helps.

 

[Annie&Amy]

Please please be careful with your mare, my mare has been on box rest for 2months now with laminitis caused by her being too fat. Thankfully she is now recovering but it was touch and go for a while with her. When she does eventually go back out she will be strip grazed and only out at night, she will either be ridden or lunged every day to keep her weight down.

At the moment i am giving her top spec anti-lam, it's a feed balancer that you can give with a small amount of hi-fi lite or used with just hay or grass. It is a good source of vits/mins and it also has supplements in it for their feet but as well it has something in it that helps their digestive system. If you go on top spec website they explain it better!! And they have a really helpful phone line and you can speak to a nutritionist.

 

[lauraanddolly]

For the mare I would be restricting her grazing either by keeping her stabled with soaked hay during the day or if not access to that with a muzzle instead for part of the day.
Feedwise I would be feeding one of the laminitis safe chaffs hi fi lite as A&A says or similar, again as A&A posted with a vit and min supp.
As for WB, I really like fibre based feeding so something like Alfa A Oil could replace any hard feed you are feeding if energy but not fizz is needed. I would add a balancer to that to provide all vits etc, possibly adding some speedi beet or fibre beet in winter if needed.
This is just what I would do as you haven't really given us enough info, i.e what you are currently feeding and the amount of work your horses are doing would maybe help us answer a bit more helpfully : )

 

[grace00234]

thanks for all the help.
ive been out and got some slow release feeds for the warmblood so i'll try that out...
But with my mare, all she gets is half a scoop of hi-fi lite... she got fat around may time because i left her out to graze for a month while my stables were being built and since then i've brought her back and been really careful, she's lundged or ridden every day, only turned out for an hour with a grazing muzzle and has soaked hay. she's losing weight well but she's just looking abit rough. I think she needs some vitamins or minerals because she just looks quite ill... her coat looks grey and her eyes dont look great. She's been like this before and she perks up straight after she gets some more hard feed but obviously i'm scared to give her anything because she's already so fat. I'm thinking of getting Restore by global herbs and putting it in a handfull of hi-fi lite does anyone know if its any good?

 

[RachelB]

The overweight pony at my yard ended up with laminitis and lost not only a LOT of weight, but a lot of condition too. She was so stressed about being on box rest that she just wouldn't put the condition back on. She was fed ad-lib hay that had been soaked for 24 hours, and the owner then started feeding her Formula 4 Feet. She has now been out on restricted grass for about a month and is looking fabulous on just that and a cup of F4F every day. It really helped to get her looking less like she'd been tortured

(We actually thought we'd lose her at one point as her lami was so bad...)
It doesn't have to be F4F that you feed her - as Annie&Amy says TopSpec do a balancer for laminitics, there's Farrier's Formula, Baileys Lo-Cal, and all sorts of different powdered general purpose supplements that would be suitable for putting in her HiFi. I would personally look for something specifically designed to be used for laminitics on restricted rations, as they usually have things in them to help the feet return to good health (if she is as close to lami as you think she is, she probably already has some slight lami already - my horse isn't technically laminitic but she has had the early signs of it, such as a stretched white line. She is also on F4F and doing well).