feeding 29 year old

Bennions Field

Bennions Field

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my mare is 29 this year and has gradually lost almost all her molars over the last 12 months (has regular dental checks with EDT), she's not willing to eat hay/hayledge now and is on a forage based feed diet anyway, ie sugar beet/alfalfa pellets (soaked) and was having reddy grass type chaff but i now need to add more fibre into her 'feeds' as a hay replacer. i've found a simple hay chaff (chopped up hay) with no mollases added which she appears to have tucked into tonight but dont have much idea how much to give her??? I've also had a suggestion of adding in some brewers yeast and micronized linseed, anyone had any experience with feeding these, and again how much?? She's 15h and weighs around 450-500 kg

also in stable yard - gold star for patience in geting this far :)
 
We tend to use soaked grass nuts as part of hay replacement for oldies. They soak up a lot of water to make a sloppy feed, but pretty much need no chewing.
 
I have a 34 year old pony who is still going strong despite her lack of teeth (people never age her over 25 when shown a pic!). She gets 2/3 of a scoop of speedibeet and half a scoop of 16+ mix at the moment, though this will be increased as it gets later into the year and split into two meals. When she was younger (late 20s), she would also have Dengi hi-fi or alpha A to give her more fibre and just general bulk, around 2/3 of a scoop per feed.
We always put warm water over her food as dry feed takes her too long. She also gets a splash of cider vinegar and a splash of vegetable oil.
I can show you a picture of her from this January when I'm on my laptop if you'd like :)
 
Monty was 33 and he used to love fibre nugggets (the big ones, I think they are by badminton feeds) mixed with barley rings (the linseed ones are GREAT for condition) mixed with hot water in the mornings.

It looked just like porridge and he used to slurp it all up as breakfast :)
 
Would Fast Fibre be suitable? It is a soaked feed and you could feed a lot of it - and it can be used as a hay replacer but I assume that if using as a hay replacer you would need to feed masses of the stuff....
 
Hi OP don't suppose you could give me the name of the hay chaff you have found? My friend has a Tb of the same age with the same problems regarding her teeth. She is desperately looking for something suitable to use.

Thanks loads
X
 
i would think fast fibre would be a good choice too! its like a mash, slop, so easy to eat! my 27yr old mare has this but she still has all her teeth but she adores it!
 
Thank you all :D very helpfull ideas, the biggest issue though with feeding the feeds as a porridge type feed is she gets through it within about 10 minutes flat :eek: she then has nothing left for the rest of the night and i'm worried this will cause her problems. she cannot stay out all night as she gets mud fever in the real wet weather, how did your horses manage when you all fed the nuts soaked - did they scoff the lot in one go or did they pick through the night ?

the hay chaff was from farm and pet at oswestry, the link is here http://www.farmandpetplace.co.uk/pr...eplacer/leighs-dry-chop-chopped-hay-15kg.html not sure if this would be available elsewhere but it did the trick last night :) she had half the bucket of feed still left this morning and i left her tucking into it like she'd never been fed before !

Thankfully she has always kept her weight well so is a good doer which means she's still looking good, so far anyway - just hope this isnt the start of her decline :( she is my horse of a lifetime, i had her as an unbroken 3 year old and she still has a huge character :D
 
My husbands old pony is 38 and he hasn't eaten hay for a few years now, and he also can only manage short grass. He's fed 16+ warmed and mashed up and also grass nuts added. He has good grass and two of these feeds a day and he's doing fine. He was stable kept at night until he decided last year he wouldn't stay in there anymore so just wonders in and out. He was just left with a big bucket of his feed at night and turned out early in the morning, I don't like horses standing in all night with nothing to eat but he seemed ok.
 
Is there no way she can stay out but maybe with a shelter or something? I always choose to have my veteran out as otherwise, her arthritis gets bad from standing around a lot. She gets double (sometimes triple) rugged and does very well on it.
I'm sure it's not the beginning of her decline - if you're willing to put the work in (which you seem to be), you should have many years left with her! :)
 
You can feed as much fast fibre as she will eat. I used to mix about 1/3 of a bag up in a massive bucket for my oap welshie. he would eat the majority of it overnight.
I used to mix a few handfuls of finely chopped chaff to bulk it out a bit, and bingo....total hay replacer!
 
I'm contemplating ordering some of these hay blox from Halley's feeds, you can either feed them as they are or soak them.
 
A very good friend of mine has 2 oldies, ones 32 and the other older, she was convienced that this year would be there last summer as they were looking so poor but went into her local feed stor and they recommended Vetran vitalite........both horse are now looking super the point her 32 year old arab has come out of retirement for the odd hack as his feelin very spiritely. Having seen the results myself I would highly recommend it :)
 
thank you all for your help and kind words :)

i've got a bag of veteran vitality from A&P and added this to her 'hay bucket' (hay chaff, sugar beet and alfa pellets soaked) she ate nearly a full bucket (45litre) last nite and beat her son up to the stable tonight ! (he's 21 so an oldie too ) only problem is now she's a little loose but hopefully this will settle when she's got used to the feeds, and i've added some brewers yeast (pro biotic) in to help, will give it another two days and if no better will contact vet for a better pro biotic.

she's still keen to eat so hopefully will manage on the above for the winter till the grass comes through again in the spring.
 
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