Feeding a cushings shettie

[Penny Less]

I am tearing my hair out trying to find some way of putting weight on shetland without tipping her into laminitis. She is ancient, has hardly any teeth and at the moment every bone can be felt. She has two buckets of happy hoof at night with some speedibeet
and a double handful of pasture mix. Another morning feed. She cant eat hay or horsehage even if cut up into small lengths or soaked . Have tried readigrass, mollichaff and alfa A, wont eat any of it ! She doesnt eat all of her feed. I did try some Baileys No1 last year on recommendation but she got laminitis within a couple of days even with no weight gain.
Weightwise im not sure what amount she should be having. She has been on fibre mash previously which she,s not too keen on and this also has hardly any calories.Any one any ideas?

 

[be positive]

She should be ok on oil, if she will eat it, plenty of calories and no extra chewing, my cushings pony is meant to be on it but will only have a small amount in his feed. Can you give some more speedibeet if she likes that it is also safe as low in sugar and starch, I assume you have tried Fast Fibre which would be ideal.

 

[team barney]

I'll second Fast Fibre, an excellent feed.

Contact Allen and Page, they will send you samples of some of their feeds and often send out a £5 voucher to use on their products too.

Have you tried micronized linseed, I think some people have found it useful for wight gain. It should be safe (hasn't caused my lami any issues).

Oil is far a safer option than oil based supplements in my experience, despite being marketed as lami safe I have found the supplements far from it!

pasture mix probably isn't the best for her, it's cereal based so will be far too high in starch to be ideal.

If she can eat nuts (or you don't mind soaking them) TopSpec CoolCondition might be a good option, quite high DE levels but less than 10% sugar and starch.

Have a search through this group, it is free to join and is a wealth of information... http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/TheMetabolicHorse/

 

[Nudibranch]

Is she on medication?

Can you increase the unmolassed sugar beet? Good for weight gain without laminitis risk. Also another vote for oil, ordinary sunflower or vegetable should be fine, but introduce gradually. Will she eat haylege? I know it's not often recommended but my cushings shetland is fine on it, although she is on pergolide which may make a difference. Or would soaked hay be more palatable to her?

 

[fatpiggy]

Is she on medication?

Can you increase the unmolassed sugar beet? Good for weight gain without laminitis risk. Also another vote for oil, ordinary sunflower or vegetable should be fine, but introduce gradually. Will she eat haylege? I know it's not often recommended but my cushings shetland is fine on it, although she is on pergolide which may make a difference. Or would soaked hay be more palatable to her?

OP has already said she can't manage long stem forage. I feed soya oil to my Cushings mare, she seems to like the taste of that better than other (cheaper!!) oils. I've also recently put her onto Suregrow (youngstock feed). You give much smaller quantities than ordinary hard feed, its yeasty so palatable and is low in nasties. I'm not surprised your little one didn't like alfalfa or readigrass, quite a few refuse it. Just a thought - do you think chopped hay or haylege would go down? My dentist suggested buying a garden waste shredder from B&Q and putting my haylage through that. Since then though her wobbly tooth fell out and she can manage a net again

 

[Penny Less]

Thanks for replies, she has tried Fast fibre, but doesnt like it! I cut some hayledge into half inch bits but she hasnt touched that either ! I cant give her too much speedibeet as it gives her the runs. She seems fairly lively but I can feel every rib and her hipbones.I will try her with some oil and hadnt thought about linseed so will try that.

 

[NeverSayNever]

OP I hate to say it, but it sounds like PTS may be kinder if she is ancient and struggling so

 

[Penny Less]

I actually agree with you, unfortunately shes not mine. I look after her for the farmer, and have broached the subject on several occasions but it falls on deaf ears. So I am trying to do the best I can !