Feeding 29 year old Arab X, please help.

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SJB33

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Hello,

I'm not sure if this is in the right place but I could really do with some advice. I have a 29 year old Arab X who really needs to put on some weight. She's fully retired so has no muscle tone and is starting to look a bit scrawny and she worries the life out of me.

I have had the vet out to her and he said that she is absolutely fine, but to worm her and get her teeth done. I have wormed her and the dentist is coming on the 7th December.

He did say though that she couldn't process the large feeds I was giving her and that they were just going straight through her and not doing her any good at all. He said to feed her 4 smaller meals.

Unfortunately I work full time and have no on that could help out on a consistent basis so I can't do that.

I've cut the feeds down a bit but I think I need something that has good fattening properties but less bulk.

The feed she is on at the moment is (per feed, twice a day)

1 Scoop speedi beet (1 scoop being the large round scoops)
1 1/2 scoops molli chop
1 Scoop pink powder
1 Cup of linseed.

She was also on a cup of blue chip but I've run out at the moment and before I ordered some more have come on here for advice.

She is on ad lib haylage and although she needs her teeth doing, manages ok and eats a reasonable amount - probably 1 1/2 haynets a day on a good day which is a vast improvement on previous years.

She weighs about 433kg at the moment and although her skin is in good condition, I cringe everytime I take her rugs off as she seems so skinny.

Please help.

What could I feed her that would put weight on but suit feeding her only twice a day?
 
Personally I would be tempted to wait until the dentist has been and you can see how much effect this has on her eating. It could be that you may not need to change anything after all
 
My old Arab was like this - her teeth didn't look bad but actually couldn't grind food properly as they kind of locked together in the sideways chewing motion so she couldn't digest properly. Had lots of work done over several visits and made a huge difference once she could properly grind and digest her food the weight slowly went back on. I would encourage a really good look at her teeth therefore. When my girls were done her mouth looked young again!
 
I found Baileys No.1 to be really good and you don't need much of it though it should be no more than 50/50 with their normal feed. You could either add something like that to her speedi beet or have a look at the mixes available.
Once you start feeding more than a scoop at meal time a lot of the food will just be passd straight through as their stomachs are quite small.
If she's the sort of horse that will nibble rather than scoff could you leave pony cubes or similar mixed in a bucket of chaff, also linseed oil added to her feed should help.
You have said you're working full time so not really practical to think about giving more than two feeds a day but if you're going to be there more than an hour after she's finished her feed give her a tiny extra feed just as you leave.
 
LD&S said:
I found Baileys No.1 to be really good and you don't need much of it though it should be no more than 50/50 with their normal feed. You could either add something like that to her speedi beet or have a look at the mixes available.
Once you start feeding more than a scoop at meal time a lot of the food will just be passd straight through as their stomachs are quite small.
If she's the sort of horse that will nibble rather than scoff could you leave pony cubes or similar mixed in a bucket of chaff, also linseed oil added to her feed should help.
You have said you're working full time so not really practical to think about giving more than two feeds a day but if you're going to be there more than an hour after she's finished her feed give her a tiny extra feed just as you leave.
Click to expand...

I could certainly do two feeds 1 hour apart, will this be enough time for her to digest the first feed? I didn't realise that.

Surrydeb, I've told the dentist she needs thorough work done, so hopefully we can start to make the improvement from the 7th.
 
I disagree with your vet. A bucket of fibre feed like you give is not much different to her eating a haynet IMO. if you were feeding a pile of cereals I'd agree with the vet, but you're not. The Blue Chip and Pink Powder do the same job so choose the one with the most calories, you don't need both. Blue Chip Pro is meant to be best for veterans compared to the original version.

I'd change the chaff to Readigrass or similar and the sugar beet to Alfa-Beet or similar, then add in some Spillers Response Slow Release Cubes. Keep the linseed too.
 
That's really interesting sugar and spice. Do you know why her droppings would be so loose? Since the vet told me that I've put it down to the feed. Her droppings really are quite wet though.
 
I have an Arab x who has been a poor doer but since I put her on a combination of fast fibre and linseed, she's never looked better. She's actually fat going into winter. I find because of her nature she can get quite stressed easily which affects her weight. I have recently stopped stabling her nd she is keeping weight better despite all this rain and only having a rain sheet on. You could try upping the linseed. I have found it to be amazing for weight gain. I'd also leave a bucket of your speedi beet in the stable for over night or swap to fast fibre and do the above as it's a hay replacer so they can graze on it. I'd feed haylage too rather than hay or a mix of the two.
 
Also get rid of the chop. It counteracts what the speedi beet will do by itself because the chop is full of sugar so the horses body is burning more calories trying to break down the sugars.
 
I would try fast fibre and feed like a hay replacer or high fibre nuts soaked, or even alpha beet, I would think its the lack of forage that is making her loose weight so you need to replace with something she can eat, I would start now no need to wait for the dentist most horses at that age will struggle a bit with chewing hay or haylege.
 
LD&S said:
I found Baileys No.1 to be really good and you don't need much of it though it should be no more than 50/50 with their normal feed. You could either add something like that to her speedi beet or have a look at the mixes available.
Click to expand...
There is no way at her age I would be feeding No.1
Simply far too high in sugar and starch.
If she is struggling toothwise, until the dentist has been you can feed fast fibre as a gruel. You can leave her with a bucket to graze on all day long.
I would possibly add more oil to her feed, no bulk, but certainly more calories.
 
SJB33 no I'm neither psychic or a vet so I don't know why your horses droppings are loose, lol. If it happned at the same time you started feeding her then perhaps the feed is upsetting her digestive system. I've known a few horses who can't have sugar beet because it gives them diarrhoea. I've known the odd horse unable to tolerate molasses too. Whether the ones that couldn't eat sugar beet were eating the molassed version I don't know.

Or it could be coincidence, maybe your old horse can't digest much of anything any more. It happens sometimes, a lifetime of worm damage slowly building up (not worms themselves but the damage they do to the gut wall) for example.

Don't mean to be the voice of doom, but sooner or later something in the body stops working and life is no longer viable for that body. Sometimes its the gut that stops working. It won't help if the horse can't chew well. Chewing is the first stage of breaking down food. If its not really working, the other parts of the digestive system have to work harder. Hope you can sort something out for your horse.
 
You could try veteran vitality which is a soaked feed and then add fibre and fats to increase the amount of calories your horse has.Also feed little and often if you can.Micronised linseed as great as a fat.Calm and condition is fantastic too.Used all this on my 27 year old Arab who is still working.
 
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