Feeding a box rest horse who can't have hay?

[now_loves_mares]

Wrote a long post, computer ate it, I swore...so this might be lacking in details!

Anyway my mare is on box-rest, but due to Colitis (inflamed colon) she kept colicking, so we are trying a no-hay diet. The problem is getting enough food into her and/or slowing down the rate at which she eats it. In other words, because everything she is eating comes out of a bucket, she eats it all immediately, leaving her hours before the next feed. She is getting 3 * hourly stints on my lawn (closest grass to her stable) per day, but other than that is subsisting on Spillers High Fibre cubes (soaked), readigrass, Sugar beet and balancer. She is off Alfa and won't east the fast fibre.

I'd potentially like to get a few more calories in to her as she lost a fair bit of weight (albeit needed to lose some of it!) but my main concern is how to slow her eating rate down!

Will post before I lose this again

Any ideas? I've got a decahedron toy but been avoiding it as she likes to kick it with her broken foot

 

[TarrSteps]

Mine at least has the decency to stand on the broken foot and kick it with the other one at least half the time.

What about one of the hanging treat balls filled with something like forage cubes? She's still have to bang it around but not with her foot.

They do make timer feeders for horses but I suspect they cost a bit. I'm sure there's a good reason not but is there the option of feeding her smaller feeds more often? Perhaps in multiple buckets? I think they do make "slow feeders" for horses but perhaps you could improvise with a tub and some big rocks?

I wonder how easy it would be to invent a trickle feeder, like they make for hamsters etc. Hmm . . .

 

[ashlingm]

Could you try a grazing mask on her? Means maybe she could graze for longer as she will not be getting the same amount per bite...but over all will consume the same amount??

 

[now_loves_mares]

Mine at least has the decency to stand on the broken foot and kick it with the other one at least half the time.

What about one of the hanging treat balls filled with something like forage cubes? She's still have to bang it around but not with her foot.

They do make timer feeders for horses but I suspect they cost a bit. I'm sure there's a good reason not but is there the option of feeding her smaller feeds more often? Perhaps in multiple buckets? I think they do make "slow feeders" for horses but perhaps you could improvise with a tub and some big rocks?

I wonder how easy it would be to invent a trickle feeder, like they make for hamsters etc. Hmm . . .

Yes I've seen the trickle feeders - if all else fails.....

TBH she is already getting her food split into about 6 or 7 feeds a day . But the main issue is I have to go back to work (boo hiss) and as they are at home, there isn't a steady stream of people available to put feeds in. I have someone lined up to come in at lunchtime, someone else at 3.30. I'll be here till 8.15 and home by 6. So the main gaps are 8.15am till lunch, and bedtime till morning. I'm going to hope my work don't mind me working from home a couple of times a week, but at an hour round-trip it's too far for me to do it during the day, and I've run out of people I can ask

At night, I'm splitting her food into multiple buckets, but I suspect she just moves from one to the next until they are all gone, and hey presto 7 more hours to wait till breakfast. For the first couple of nights I was getting up at 3 to put a feed in, but not sure if I can sustain that.

If my field was drier or my lawn was bigger, I'd just leave her out One of those cat feeders that flips open at set times is what I need! Only bigger.

Ashling -hmm worth a thought. In a way it seems counter productive, but it might let the lawn stand a chance of surviving (nor for the sake of my garden of course, but for my horse!)

I'm dreading the forecast change in weather, it's been much easier in the sunshine all week

 

[TGM]

As she needs more weight can you not increase the amount of Readigrass she eats overnight - as this is in a chaff form it should take her longer to chew than the soaked feeds. And as suggested above a few large stones or similar in her buckets so she has to work harder to get all the bits of food out.

I suspect as she gets used to the idea of all her food coming from buckets she will start to slow her eating down herself - that is what I have found to be the case when I have had oldies on hay replacer diets.

 

[now_loves_mares]

Thanks TGM, I can certainly try that. The only thing making me nervous is that my feed merchant says that the Readigrass supply starts to dry up at this time of year . Running out would be a disaster!

Will go and unearth some stones from the garden!

 

[saz5083]

If readigrass becomes hard to come by you could try graze-on? Where do you get your feed? If you get stuck and want to pm me I can see if my feed merchant has any in? I have mine on graze-on and have never had a problem getting hold of it.
If you want weight gain I'd try alpha beet over speedy beet if she will take it. Ers pellets are great for weight gain, high oil and low starch. Not sure if they would be of any use?
Can't think of much else just now but feel free to pm me if you need help sourcing anything. I'm around midlothian way so may use different suppliers. S

 

[now_loves_mares]

Thanks Saz. I get mine from Coxydene at Wilkieston- they did have a few bags left when I went in at the weekend, so perhaps I'll just go back in and buy their stock up

I'd certainly like to keep to the Readigrass for now if I can as she seems to like it.

Not sure if it was a typo but what pellets did you mean were good for weight gain? The Alfa-beet?

Could be worth a bag. She's just being weirdly fussy just now. Normally she is a gannet but is being super-choosy. For instance she troughs down her readigrass until she gets to the soup at the bottom, then turns her nose up at the last bit, but my other horse and the shelts will happily lap up her leftovers

I'm about to smear carrots in soaked fast fibre to see if I can persuade her to eat that, seen as I have a bag going to waste right now

The other thing I wondered about are suregrow pellets? Obviously meant for youngstock, but I seem to recall I'd heard it was good in these circumstances too.

 

[Jane_Lou]

You are right about Redigrass running out, a friend has her toothless old pony on it and tends to buy up in bulk this time of year to ensure she has enough in case it runs out, is that an option? She stores in on a pallet under a tarp which seems to work. Graze on isn't an option for this fella as he won't eat it!

 

[saz5083]

Alpha-beet is great. The other one was ERS pellets from Dodson and horrell. They're designed for horses in hard work that tie up (which is why I used them on my old boy) but they have been great for keeping weight on my other lad over the winter.
If you get stuck with the readigrass I use millers at fordel or drum feeds at gilmerton so could prob source some extra.

 

[cm2581]

I have had a similar problem but the lack of hay in the diet was bad teeth/choke problems. What size is you horse? My mare is around 600kg. So when there was loads of that evil white stuff covering the lovely green stuff it was a little bit of a nightmare!!! She absolutely minimally requires 6kg of fibre replacement per day (1% of her bodyweight) but ideally she would have 9-12kg per day (1.5-2% of bodyweight). Can your horse have sugar beet? I found the cheapest way to acomplish this was 1:2 weight ration of sugar beet:high fibre nuts. I increased the amount till she was leaving some and I never got to the 12kg!! So I wonder if you go up to these amounts if she will stop scoffing and start 'grazing' on her bucket? If she didn't maintain her weight on adlib sugar beet:high fibre nuts, try replacing part or all of the high fibre nuts with grass nuts. Some or all of this weight of feed could be short chops but maybe the colitis would be better without? I don't know about this but just a suggestion. Good luck with her!