Feeding an oldie with no back teeth...

Fiona

Fiona

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 July 2001
Messages
10,150
Location
N. Ireland
Visit site
I've posted on this subject before, but basically we've got a wonderful elderly first ridden pony on loan for my 5yo son...

She is mid/late 20's

She choked with her previous owner (Jan 2016) and had to be operated on, but has made a good recovery.. However because of the state of her back teeth (either missing or loose or wavy rather than straight) she isn't allowed hay any more as she can't chew it, so will just choke again.

At the moment she is turned out with 2 or three feeds a day or soaked fast fibre and high fibre nuts and a handful of chaff..

She will however have to come in at night during the worst of the weather as we have no field shelters/she feels the cold and our winter started in early Nov last year :(

At the moment, I am thinking that her 'concentrate' rations are fine and she eats them well.. If she drops weight I can add either copra or linseed but I'm not doing so at the moment.

However I still need a forage replacement that can be given in 2 buckets (5pm and 11pm)

I'm thinking of a mixture of grass nuts (we can get simple systems so their blue bag nuts) and a grass chaff such as just grass or readigrass. Has anyone used this combination?? Would I need to add sugar beet to it to make it more palatable??

Or is there something else I can consider..

And the last thing (though v important) she goes days with normal droppings, and then has a horrendous bout of squits, with her tail and back legs absolutely covered.

I'm feeding her protexin and thought it was making a difference (on it about a week) but her back legs and tail were covered this morning and took over half an hour to get clean :( Is there any feed that would help this or is it just the green grass in her paddock (regrowth) plus not getting any long fibre to eat??

I would be grateful for any thoughts lovely people...

We live in NI, and can get Allen and Page, Spillers, Dodson and Horrell, Alfa, Copra and Simple Systems..

Fiona
 
We used to feed my old pony large buckets of slop made from high fibre mix and stud cubes. He pretty much didn't eat anything else. Couldn't even eat grass. When we could manage 3 meals a day he looked really good on basically just this and the few scraps of grass he could take in, I don't think I saw him ever eat hay.
 
Did he spend much time in the stable stencilface? I worry about giving her enough overnight, hence wanting a great big bucket of something..

Her 'concetrate' feed takes her 30-40 min to eat for example. ..

Fiona
 
Is the scouring related to her being in season? Otherwise, add some probiotic (e.g. yeassac) to her bucket feed. Probably worth doing that anyway, to help her get the most out of what she is managing to eat.
My 34 year old dentally challenged mare had two big trug tubes of soaked feed overnight, so she would pick and "graze" on them, she did like to chew haylage too, although she quidded most of it it kept her saliva going and she may have got some nutrition out of the "juice" (anyone remember hay tea? Used to be made from boiling water infused with hay and offered to sick horses on the assumption they could get some nutrition from it.)
 
Last edited:
My pony didn't no, he was out 24/7.

My sisters pony always used to drop more weight being stabled at night than being out. He had teeth but it's interesting how they are all different to manage.
 
In season would make sense jillA, think I'll keep a diary..She was fine today.

What did your 34yo get in her bucket overnight?

She is on protexin for a week. Fingers crossed it works. It was v highly recommended on here..

I think she does need to come in at night stencilface :(

Fiona
 
I don't think I would be thinking of her having a "concentrate" and a forage replacer but be thinking of them both being the same, she requires almost adlib access to high fibre "feed" which can either be given in one bucket or split into several to keep her interested, I would probably divide it but not complicate things too much, she is obviously happy on what you give her now so why not just increase that when she needs it so it lasts far longer and offer another bucket of soaked grassnuts that she can pick at as and when she wants.

The oldie I had here was not a good eater although his teeth were fine so last thing I gave him a bucket of his normal feed which he could eat overnight often there was some left in the morning so I knew he was getting enough, if they need more calories then linseed is ideal as it is high energy but easy to digest without adding too much quantity to the fibre ration.
 
Fiona said:
What did your 34yo get in her bucket overnight?
Click to expand...

Mainly 60% unmollassed beet pulp (Equibeet is cheap enough to feed in those sort of quantities) with grass pellets, micronized linseed and her supplements. She had Cushings so cereals were out for her, but you could add micronized barley if the starch isn't a problem, but maybe use the beet pulp as a basis.
 
That sounds very sensible be positive. .thank you very much..

I'll just increase the normal feed a bit with extra chaff so it takes longer, plus another trug with grass nuts (could add sugar beet jillA if nuts not palatable on their own)...

Right so I need a practice run, so will contact the ss distributor for grass nuts and give it a try before the weather turns..

Thanks so much folks.. It helps to get it all down here, hubby just pleads ignorance ..

Fiona
 
My oldie did very well on a complete diet of soaked grass nuts, soaked high fibre cubes and mollichaff calmer (it's chopped really small and fine)....with added micronised linseed
 
BORODIN said:
Havens Slobbermash would be perfect for your pony
can make it as sloppy as you like...
Click to expand...

Having looked for the list of ingredients and not found much info, other than it is cereal based and probably unsuitable to be fed in large quantities to small ponies, I eventually found a breakdown of the nutrients, it is a horrific 44% starch so certainly not suited to a pony and definitely not "perfect" for many equines.

For any one who may be interested the list is here, I never found the ingredients which would put me off feeding as I like to know what I am giving mine and make informed choices.

http://www.horsefeed-asia.com/files/62_catalogus/HAVENS Slobber Mash ENGL.pdf
 
Thank you be positive... :) Much appreciated. .

I've emailed the ss distributor asking about blue bag grass nuts, lucie stalks and lucie nuts..

Hoping to hear from him soon, and I can buy some and start practicing quantities, ratios, consistency and how long/how well she can eat it :)

Fiona
 
I would probably see if you can source hay cobs at a reasonable price. It's literally short-chopped, pressed hay, so could be fed (after soaking) as a one-to-one hay replacer (by weight). Could be that grass nuts work out cheaper, but the hay cobs have a nicer texture (short-chop, rather than grass meal) and soak pretty quickly (15-20min). I've recently tried a bag (25kg, Stephans Muhle medium hay cobs, from zooplus co uk, £15), and the cobs smell very palatable and the "medium" cobs are less tightly pressed and soak very quickly. kramer co uk also sell hay cobs (15kg bags, £7.99 I think).
Alfalfa (aka lucie) pellets or chop is also fine, but I wouldn't feed more than ~25% of the ration as alfalfa. It's really high in calcium and will throw out your mineral balance if you feed too much of it.
I had an oldie on soaked feeds for a few winters. She needed to be brought out of the herd for her meals, so time to eat up was a consideration. She ended up on half-and-half Spillers layoff cubes (almost identical to their high fibre cubes, but work out cheaper as come in 25kg bag, and has added yeasacc, but also slightly more starch at 12%) and alfalfa pellets - not ideal, but I figured mineral imbalance wasn't likely to kill her at her advanced age. This was before I found hay cobs available in the UK. The alfalfa pellets and cubes soaked quickly and didn't need masses of water to soften. I found the grass nuts took too long to soak, and beet just required too much water (4:1) and the buckets became huge, taking her longer to eat.
 
Thank you supsup - I'll check that out....

Been in contact with the simple systems man (thanks sheep for the recommendation a while back) and he's great. Will go up and see him later this week.

He has suggested something called HayCare which is protein 6-10%, sugar less than 10, starch less than 2, and this compares to grass nuts at 7-11, less than 14, and less than 3. I may add a big of just grass or something to this but it would be probably to slow her down eating a bit by putting some longer fibre in rather than a large % of her ration.

Anyway - making progress :)

Wee titch is growing her winter coat already, so she is looking after herself, but lost a wee bit of weight earlier in the month when we were away on holiday and she wasn't getting bucket feed so I need to reverse that ASAP...

Fiona
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top