Feedin for weight gain

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nrj

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Hi, my TB/ID/Appaloosa 5 year old has lost lots of weight and top line over the course of the winter and over the past 2 weeks, it has become even more noticeable, he has lost topline and muscle also.

He has recently been wormed for everything including encysted red worms and tape worms. He also had a worm count which was completely clear, he has had his teeth done recently for routine rasping, they were fine, I've had his back checked by physio tonight which was a bit tight under saddle area due to previous saddle, he has just had new saddle fitted so that should settle down.

He is in light work, with lots of stretching and lateral work when schooling and hacked out on weekends.

He goes out everyday with Adlib hay and in at night. Rugged up to max. X2 feeds per day ~ 1 scoop light mix, 1 scoop alpha a oil and 1 scoop speedibeet.

I am thinking of changing light mix to calm and condition and adding in vegetable oil and naf pink powder.

Any thoughts/suggestions as to why he may have lost so much weight are welcome and ideas to build him up again!! Help!!
 
Drop the light mix and bulk up feed with non heting stuff like A and P calm and condition or baileys topline cubes. Depends if he is highly strung as some food can make him fizzy.

Also working him more will slowly build up topline and muscle.

:)
 
Oil is good to put on weight but you have that in your Alfa.
I also believe Barley is good for weight gain.
I used to feed Blue Chip on my old pony - was great but very expensive.
 
Ok they are helpful suggestions, well he is normally worked more but I've held off so as not to lose more condition. He seems well in himself just looks like a different horse in comparison to how he looked in the summer/autumn. He's not highly strung so could prob manage on a mote of a build up feed. The thing that held me bak was that in the past he had azorturia but fingers crossed he's not had it again since and he's being turned out alot more than he was when he got it.
 
Our TB was very underweight when he arrived... He thrived on a 2:1 mix of Fast Fibre, Calm & Condition and a glug of linseed oil... Adlib haylage and (at the time) good grass... No fizziness...

Changed things a little bit now he's in good shape but that's to try and work on getting his feet into good condition... :)
 
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Hi mike, can you expand on that at all, what would you suggest.

The consensus seems to be that calm and condition works wonders. So I think il go with that + alpha a, speedibeet and a glug of oil!

I will let you know how he gets on.

I have just bought him a solution saddle which should promote development of his topline.. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
Ps just one other thing... I noticed on another frum that rice bran is great for weight building with skinny horses... I have no idea what that looks like, how you feed it or where you buy it from?!? If anyone has any info would be very much appreciated!!
 
I've heard great things about micronised linseed which is what I'm about to start my girl on because she doesn't keep weight very well. Its very high in protein and oil, cheap, and easy enough to add to the existing feed. Might be worth a try before changing the feed completely?
 
Rice bran is excellent as a conditioner. If you look at Equijewel on Saracen Hoprse feeds website the info. is there. It is pelleted, and easy to feed, and has Vit E added.

If you can't get Saracen Feeds locally then Hickstead Feed also do it but theirs is 'diluted' with mirconised linseed, but they sometimes have offers on delivery etc.

Charnwood Micronised Linseed is fab, and cheap too.
 
If you are having problems keeping the weight on ,its not just a question of feeding more hard feed. This merely reduces the amount of forrage they need to take in.If the DE of the feed falls below about 7.5 MJ/kg and they get plenty of good hay then you are putting them on a slimming diet.Its like trying to put on weight by eating loads of celery,it aint going to happen.Get rid of the light mix and feed a good competition mix, Cut back on the sugarbeet and Alfa A oil and increase the amount of mix. Try to split the daily feed intake into as many small feeds as practical. This will have a dramatic effect on digestive performance and your horse will get a lot more benefit out of the same amount of feed.
 
That's helpful so you think if I just fed a mix like calm and condition there is no need to mix it with anything? Because that would reduce the calorific intake per feed... Hmmm makes sense. Thank you.
 
I feed my ISH 1 scoop of alfa a oil 3/4 calm and condition and 3/4 conditioning cubes and she has put weight on with this.

You could try adding comp mix or conditioning cubes to the C and C?
 
But would there be any point in doing that or am I better off just increasing c and c as it has more calories that most comp feeds.....
 
If you wanted (and if your horse will eat it) then you could just feed C and C without anything and I'm sure it will do the trick, I just add the cubes to make it a bit more appetizing (sp?) :D
 
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