Feeding a laminitis prone Veteran

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CaraT

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My retired 26 year old Welsh section D mare has lost a lot of weight recently and is in poor condition. She's been wormed and had her teeth checked recently.

She's still very sprightly and was cantering around the field this evening with the other horses but she just looks terrible. Her coat is so dull and she is very thin.

At present she has ad-lib hay and one feed of D&H 16+ mix daily. Our grass has picked up significantly over the past couple of weeks and this time last year she was on restricted grazing as she is very prone to laminitis.

Could anyone suggest what I should be feeding her so she gains some weight and gets her 'sparkle' back please?
 
Personally I'd ditch the d&h and swap to Allen and page veteran vitality. I'd also consider getting some fast fibre too, give her her normal 'feeds' of vv and make up some a big buckets of ff for her to nosh on overnight. I'd also consider a probiotic to boost gut efficiency and health and a blood tonic. For probiotic I'd go with protexin... Best by far on the market, and for blood tonic haemavite b plus... It has all the vitamins needed to promote high and efficient gut function, and generally help the mare make the best use of what she is being fed... The tonic gives a general boost too which will help the horse.
 
I'd just add there are also a lot of things that could be wrong other than worms and teeth... If she doesn't show any improvement or gets any worse, ring the vet and get them out to run bloods and do a general mot.
 
My veteran is also underweight and laminitis prone. She gets Dengie Molasses Free chaff, Fast Fibre and Top Spec cool conditioning cubes - she was on Spillers HiFi cubes but she just wasn't holding weight on them. I also add micronised linseed and this is fed twice a day with adlib haylage.

I would recommend you call Allen & Page helpline as they give really good advice but, I doubt they'll recommend the Veteran Vitality as it's not suitable for laminitics as I enquired about it last winter.
 
I too would ditch the 16 plus. Mixes are about the worst thing you can feed for laminitics as they are high in starch and coated in sugar.

I personally would feed either Fast Fibre or speedi beet and either or both some micronised linseed (about a mug a day) and or full fat Soya meal (about a mug a day) plus a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral suplement.

Both the Linseed and Soya will help with weight and overall condition plus joints.

Worth getting teeth checked and a wormcount done though - maybe a bloodtest for tapeworm too... just incase.
 
Thanks very much for the replies.

Went to the feed merchant earlier and bought Fast Fibre, Dengie Molasses Free chaff, Protexin and micronised linseed so I'll see how she gets on with that.

Also got the vet coming out next week to give her an MOT just in case there are any underlying problems.

Thank you again for the advice, it is much appreciated.
 
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