Feeding 1.5%

[chaps89]

Fatty is now on box rest for 3 weeks.
She had been getting either 5kg of soaked hay at night or 4kg soaked hay if she was in during the day. Then out muzzled the rest of the time.
She weighs roughly 450kg, so 1.5% of that is 6.75kg. So in reality with a bit of grass intake on top of the hay she was probably over 1.5% anyway.
She could probably drop a bit of weight but doesn't need to drop lots, my main thing is just not wanting her to gain.
But given as 5kg doesn't even last the night and she is hungry in the mornings, how on earth do I feed her enough?!
She has 25g speedibeet with 50g of healthy chaff twice a day but that's it for 'feed'.
Ideas for her to just maintain her weight without her going hungry would be much appreciated.
She won't eat straw chaff but will pick at regular straw, though she had some of that this morning and ignored it whilst going frantic because she's hungry.

 

[be positive]

If the yard is quiet overnight but active during the day, which most are for obvious reasons, then I would give her the main portion in the morning rather than last thing, that way she should be better occupied while things are going on which will be better for her if she is supposedly resting, over night she is likely to sleep more so leave her with the rest of her soaked hay, some straw and a tub of straw chop, if she is hungry she will nibble on it with less reason to be upset because there is no one around to disturb her.
It seems wrong to leave them with a small net at night but if you are not there to watch her she should just relax and get over it.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I had to box rest one of mine last year and found the best way of regulating his intake was to split the soaked hay into 4 small nets and trickle feed him over 24 hours. It was quite labour intensive but it meant he never went more than a few hours without Forage so his tummy never really emptied. He was having a token handful of chaff twice a day to carry Bute and salt and he came out of it looking very svelte. If you don’t want fatty to lose much weight you can go up to 2% of bodyweight and she should maintain condition.

 

[Cortez]

I've never fed more than 8kg hay to any of mine; they are all good doers in light/med work and get no hard feed at all. Always empty nets by morning, they can pick at straw beds if hungry. If horses need to lose weight their food must be restricted and work increased. If that means that they have to spend some time not stuffing their faces, so be it. I feed four times a day if in.

P.S. No horse on my yard has ever had ulcers, or colicked (except one that ate some ivy for some obscure reason).

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Cortez while I agree with increasing exercise as the best way to lose weight sometimes that isn’t possible. Those on box rest for injuries can’t be exercised so in B’s case he was box rested until sound and then sent swimming as it was non weight bearing but there was no way he could have done that to start with.

 

[vmac66]

My mare was on box rest last year with laminitis. She was allowed 8kg total feed over 24 hours. I split it into smaller nets. The small forage block nets take 1kg of Hay. I packed it tightly so took longer to get the Hay out.

 

[meleeka]

Haynets with 2.5cm holes work well. I gave a small normal net with straw mixed in and then another with teeny holes.

 

[Leo Walker]

I mix hay and straw together for mine. she would starve before she ate chopped staw but does eat normal straw. In her head its different to a straw bed as its in her hay feeder.

Could she have a hay ball or would that mean she moves too much?

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Fatty is now on box rest for 3 weeks.
She had been getting either 5kg of soaked hay at night or 4kg soaked hay if she was in during the day. Then out muzzled the rest of the time.
She weighs roughly 450kg, so 1.5% of that is 6.75kg. So in reality with a bit of grass intake on top of the hay she was probably over 1.5% anyway.
She could probably drop a bit of weight but doesn't need to drop lots, my main thing is just not wanting her to gain.
But given as 5kg doesn't even last the night and she is hungry in the mornings, how on earth do I feed her enough?!
She has 25g speedibeet with 50g of healthy chaff twice a day but that's it for 'feed'.
Ideas for her to just maintain her weight without her going hungry would be much appreciated.
She won't eat straw chaff but will pick at regular straw, though she had some of that this morning and ignored it whilst going frantic because she's hungry.

Just checking it’s 5kg before you soak it?

Otherwise I found double netting two small hole haynets worked to slow mine down. I only feed my two 16hh 600kg warmbloods about 6kg each overnight in winter so I’m amazed 5kg isn’t enough for a smaller horse. I did find on box rest mine were not as hungry and ate slower anyway.

 

[chaps89]

Thanks, there's some good ideas here.

I have some smaller holed nets so will dig those out.

I'm going to split her daytime ration into two and she can have the second lot early afternoon so I can tie it in with lunch break and a third cold hosing.

I wouldn't have thought to give more in the day and less at night but I'll do that.

If she has food she's very good at parking herself and not moving which is what we want at the moment, so a hayball is probably out of the equation for now.

Her winter night time rations are 7-9kg depending how long she's in for. We don't do ad-lib, it works out expensive and she has no off switch ?

She's usually in a good amount of work 5 times a week which counteracts her metabolic issues but the last 6 week's with lockdown we've only been able to do walk work with the odd bit of trot 5 times a week, which hasn't helped her waistline. Sadly from the size of her leg I don't think we'll be doing much more for a while.