feed problems-need help!

Archiepoo

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Hi im really hoping you clever people will be able to help me, i have a 17 yr old horse ,not old in himself and in very good health but a bit tricky to keep weight on. hes had his teeth checked and no problems there ,hes only ridden for an hour or so every other day so not working hard. when he came to me he was a bit thin so wanted to up his calories,previously was fed chaff ,pony cubes and beet but not in large quantities. hes a very cool dude and food doesnt heat him up much so im free to feed anything i want to get the weight back on. so i started feeding him the same as he was used to but in slightly larger quantities ,barely any weight gain over several weeks so i thought because hes so cool i could get away with adding barley rings and alpha a which would up his calories and protein ,anyway after several weeks there was noticable improvement in weight- but his back legs are now swelling over night! so is it the barley? the protein or the starch thats done this? or is he sensitive to alfalpha? ive cut out all hard feed so whatever it was thats upset his system should settle down again, so i need to give him a high calorie feed but cant overload his system-any ideas ?? im toying with equijewel anyone used this??
 
I've heard of alphalpha causing those symptoms before. A good, horse-friendly feed for putting on weight is micronised linseed. I buy it from charnwood milling, and love it. Puts weight on my TB like nothing else I've tried (and I've tried a lot ;)). I find it best with a very minimal, fibre based feed. Horses haven't evolved to deal with large meals or a lot of starch, after all, and such feeds can have the opposite effect to the one intended by causing problems in the hind gut, leading to the horse being unable to digest fibres efficiently.
 
thanks for answering but ive heard contentious things about linseed too! oh its soo tricky! i usually would go down the fibre route but this horse doesnt have a huge appetite and im struggling to get enough haylage into him as it is so as he will eat a bucket im trying to go that way. we have limited grass on our yard so cant just turn him out for the summer. aaargh!! frustrating horse!
 
Hi im really hoping you clever people will be able to help me, i have a 17 yr old horse ,not old in himself and in very good health but a bit tricky to keep weight on. hes had his teeth checked and no problems there ,hes only ridden for an hour or so every other day so not working hard. when he came to me he was a bit thin so wanted to up his calories,previously was fed chaff ,pony cubes and beet but not in large quantities. hes a very cool dude and food doesnt heat him up much so im free to feed anything i want to get the weight back on. so i started feeding him the same as he was used to but in slightly larger quantities ,barely any weight gain over several weeks so i thought because hes so cool i could get away with adding barley rings and alpha a which would up his calories and protein ,anyway after several weeks there was noticable improvement in weight- but his back legs are now swelling over night! so is it the barley? the protein or the starch thats done this? or is he sensitive to alfalpha? ive cut out all hard feed so whatever it was thats upset his system should settle down again, so i need to give him a high calorie feed but cant overload his system-any ideas ?? im toying with equijewel anyone used this??

I think its probably the protein thats causing the swelling, i suggest you call up one of the big feed companies and speak to the them, they will be happy to help you put together a good diet meeting his needs
 
thanks marydoll thats my next port of call, just wanted to cast the net far and wide for as much input as possible. i did think it was the protein too.:rolleyes:
 
Have you tried adding vegetable oil to his diet? That's a great way of increasing calories and I've used it many times with rescue starvation cases with good results.
 
ok will look into the micronised linseed my YO is a nutritionist and steered me away from it ,she favours barley and altho he ate the barley rings and gained weight ,im pretty sure hes not tolerating the straights very well. once hes come back to normal after withdrawing all the hard feed i was thinking about introducing each of the others in turn to observe the response. but in the mean time i cant afford for him to drop weight!
 
Barley rings contain linseed, iirc, so it's amusing that your YO steered you away from it. The barley would be very starchy, though, so I'm not surprised you had problems.
 
DOH!! its all so complicated!! and which feed company do i ring cos theyre obviously going to promote their own feed- not what will be best for his lordship! anyone got any experience of conditioning feed for sensitive horses??
 
Beet has lot of calories and oil even more (although it takes some time for them to start using it). The linseed has lots of oil in it and Omega-3 that are supposed to be anti-inflammatory. The micronised linseed is cooked and I think that's what makes it safe to feed.
I would add a spoon Yea-Sacc (or any form of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is live brewer yeast) to the feed to help with digestion.

Here is an interesting article about sugarbeet:
http://www.shady-acres.com/susan/beetpulp.shtml
 
thanks palindrome thats a very interesting article. this horse is being a bit of a test to feed and all advice gratefully received!
 
I needed to fill out a 26 yr old who was fussy and sensitive and have found dengies alphabeet to be good and saw results in the first week in condition and cost. Latterly he was changed to top spec anti lam and their lite chaf and he kept his weight and had just the right amount of energy so maybe worth giving the companies a call. I found both to be really helpful !
 
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