Feeding a malnourished thoroughbred!

Hay, hay and more hay. When she starts to show some imorovement, add some balancer.

To start with give her 3 feeds of HIFI, speedibeat, black sunflower seeds. After about 6 weeks add the balancer in.
 
I've also got an ex eventer who's on Baileys Top Line cubes and Dodson & Horrell Safe & Sound which she thrives on. Do you think that would suit the TB too? I'm also a big fan on NAF Pink Powder.
 
I wouldnt just yet, wait until she is a bit more healthy, i am by no means an expert, but I had a skinny TB and the above worked a treat
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Rememeber less is more, keep it simple.
 
Ive got a TB and he dropped condition when he first came to me. I tried him on some balancers and they just made his legs blow up like ballons (has happened to a few TB's I know) so I now feed him ad-lib hay, Alfa-A and Dodson and Horrell Build Up and he looks amazing now. Build-up is designed to help with condition, muscles ect without blowing their brains. I couldnt speak highly enough of it :-)
 
My Irish Sports Horse was a bag of bones when we first got her. When I look back at her photos it's shocking to see all her bones sticking out. But now we have the opposite problem, she is naturally a good doer so she was in a really bad state to be so thin when we first got her.

The first thing we did was worm her, but gently. She had a 5-day course of Panacur Guard, followed by Equest a month later.

We were also recommended to add oil to her feed, but she was such a picky eater she really didn't like it with oil in. These days I think I would try Alfa Oil instead.

I hope your horse picks up as well as mine did. This was the second horse I bought in poor condition. The first was a thin and tatty cob. Both turned the corner very quickly on good grass and tlc.
 
With my sickingley thin thoroughbred, it has taken about 6 weeks only just a week ago his digestion went normal ( after weeks of runny droppings !) he had no appetite at first but has really picked up now- he was on adlib haylage ( not that he ate much of it at first but 6 weeks later he is now a pig) and a feed called Winergy Growth. It is a unique in the fact that it is a high calorie but also very high in fibre and a low in starch. As they have difficulty digesting high amounts of starch this feed is really good for them.

So try the winergy growth and adlib haylage. Good quality haylage or hay is vital..
 
Plenty of hay,and a feed that is high in fibre,if you can and if she has an appetite try and feed 4 small feeds a day(not always practical but the best),try and add a vitamin supplement as in equivite original which will help!!Make sure she is wormed well,maybe consult your vet and get a worm count so you know what you are dealing with!!
Just keep the feed low in energy and am sure you will be fine,they gain weight quite well it is the losing weight that is the problem
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Charliesmum might have some info TD as she has a TB that can drop half his body weight in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea in the livery caravan! When things got really bad a year ago she added baby's milk powder to her boy's feed and that did the trick. At the moment, he's just had Build Up added to his diet at which point he promptly refused to eat anything! But liberal soaking of his feed with apple juice has changed his mind and he's doing really well again.
 
I too was recommended the sure grow, have yet to see results as I've only had my skinny TB 3 weeks or so, and only on the feed a week, however he seems a lot brighter in himself already, without being out of his mind.

My boy is a real fussy boy, barely picking at forage and not really interested in feeds and he's wolfing it down and can't wait for his next bucket!
 
Another fan of Baileys No.4 Top Line Cubes. I bought one of mine (a 1/2 TB) very thin and this really boosted him so much so Ive left him on it. He was also on Alfa A Oil, speedi beet, soya oil and a high spec vit & min supplement. Id say the vits & mins are most important to give him a kick start.
 
I agree with the hay, hay and more hay advice.

I would also phone somewhere like the ILPH or Redwings to ask for their advice.
 
As everyone has said as much haylage as you can get her to eat. I feed my TB three feeds a day as this helps. If she is a fizzy type you might want to beware with Alfalfa as it sent mine bonkers. I recommend Spillers conditioning cubes - they keep the weight on without any of the fizziness that can come with other feeds.
 
if you go into horse and hound features that have alittle on feeding rescues on there this might help
 
My old toast-rack TB gained weight on Baileys No 1, milk powder pellets (I think Spillers) and oil. Plus the usual forage-type feeds.

What really let him pile on condition was retirement!
 
I used to work at a yard that fed skinny/wormy rescues calf powder (smelt like off milk and very sticky when wet) worked really well
 
Another vote for Winergy. If you don't want to blow her mind, stick to low starch. Call the winergy help line, they are really helpful and extremely knowledgable.
01908576277

Good luck with her. Mine was skinny and poor when i got her and is now fab.
 
I am a fan of spillers conditioning cubes, feed little and often, add lib haylage is a must!! My lad is still very prone to dropping weight as he was a rescue almost three years ago. I also used a pro/pre biotic in his feed when I first got him rather than pink powder. I also used hi-fi rather than alfa-a as it is less heating. He gets selinavite-E, but the area I am in is deficient in this anyway. Was sugested barley rings and oil should be added by an old horse man I met, but he's a fussy bugger and wouldn't eat it.
Also had a pony on the yard who dropped weight very quickly one year after a spell of very cold weather, we gave her milk pellets, worked a treat as well.
 
I found a great supplement for my skinny Tb was Protexin its a digestive suppplement, and put condition on my TB really quickly.
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Email Dodson & Horrell, there is a contact email address on their site. You answer various questions about the horse & they will send you an email giving their opinion of what you need to do. You will be getting professional advice & it costs you nothing.
 
My horse was fed Balanced Horse Feeds Show Mix. Sounds like a mind blower but it isnt. Its nearly 20% fibre and is a total complete feed, with all the vitamins and minerals. Its got less digestible energy than a "cool mix". My chap looked the business after he was fed it!
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Here's the link if you fancy a look. http://www.balancedhorsefeeds.co.uk/show-mix.html

Its about £10 per bag. Good luck!
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I rescued my first TB - 23 years old and a coat rack. Initially she was given as much hay as she wanted and nothing else for the first few weeks. We then gave some spillars conditioning nuts and a plain chaff. This was back in 1990 before all the wonderful feeds we now have.

With my second TB, I really found equimins pro-bio did the trick along with ad lib good quality hay, spillars condition cubes and hilight buildup.

Breeze my first TB went from skin and bone in October to winning severall show classes locally by June (but she turned out to be a good doer with good feed).
 
Mine was in a terrible state when I bought him ,he weighed 350kg and his ribs stuck out but he was young so had no top line.I gradually put him on d and h build up and still use it if he drops weight .I use alpha with oil pasture mix plus speedi beet hes a good weight now 540 .He loves haylage but this blows his mind more than hard feed.Im going to put him on top spec this week as he could do with a balancer he has poor feet without supplements.He was riddled with bots when I bought him so I used the 5 day panacur wormer and then he put on weight and held it.If she is very poor do several smaller feeds if you can.
 
IMHO there's nothing wrong with wanting to get the weight on sooner rather than later and to do that there is no getting away from feeding calories. It just depends where you decide to get them from. Ad lib good quality forage is obviously paramount then I'd go for the recommended amount of a conditioning feed to ensure a fully balanced, non-heating calorific diet. Fibre is great but is not calorie dense and so will take longer to get the weight on. Oil is better but you need to get loads in. Balancers have no calories but do provide good quality protein, to build muscle, plus vits and mins.
TBH, I'd ring a feed company helpline and follow their advice!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Balancers have no calories but do provide good quality protein, to build muscle, plus vits and mins.

[/ QUOTE ] That's actually not true! They don't provide a huge calorie contribution to the diet due to the small quantities they are fed in, but definitely do contain calories. Unfortunately, many balancer manufacturers don't publish detailed analysis on their websites, but Equilibra do give the 'calorie count' of their products - for example Equilibra 500 contains14 Mj of digestible energy per kg, which is higher in calories than many conditioning feeds. The difference is that it is recommended that they are fed in much smaller amounts than conditioning feeds.
 
My new TB is a tad underweight, he also cribs which makes me think he may have an ulcer (am getting his scoped).

For the first week he was on Alfa-A oil and Baileys no.4, with Pink Powder and mint 3x a day as well as ad-lib hay and haylage, a snack ball with high fibre cubes and turn out. He's put on 9kg in one week.

I'm now slowly changing him over to Winergy Growth; it better work or make him poo gold the amount it's costing! lol

I'm starting him on an antacid suppliement too to try to help/cure/lessne his cribbing.

Good Luck. I think it's a case of trial and error as every horse is different and there are so many choices.

Have you had his teeth done/checked too as this will effect his food intake. Yea-sacc is also a good supplement for improving digestion.
 
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