Feeding my old TB

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melanie99

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Hi all just wondering if anyone else has had similar experience and could help me out. My 23 yr old TB is struggling to digest hay or haylage anymore. He is therefore losing weight. Has been checked by vet and all clear and no worms. Just wondering what everyone else uses as hay replacer and in what quantities. He is 17hh. Thanks. :confused:
 
My pony has bad teeth and last year she suffered quite bad. I was advised to feed a hayreplacer at a rate of 2-2.5% of her bodyweight. So for my 14h pony, this was 7.7kgs!

This worked well for her and although she can now manage soft meadow hay, I still offer her a small hay replacer to keep her fibre intake up.

At the moment I am giving her a bucket of Fibre Beet and Hi Fi Senior although last year she was having:

Fast Fibre
Hi Fi
Speedibeet.

If you contact Dengie, they are very helpful and have a great fact sheet on hayreplacers that they will post out to you.

I may even have a few emails saved. PM me if you would like me to send you across some info :D
 
I have my little Riding Pony Mare (24) on Ready Mash now as she stopped eating her hay and haylage and lost a lot of weight so she tucks into 3 buckets of this with happy hoof everyday and looks really good and only been on it 10 days. Shes a lot brighter and happier in herself as well. They do an extra version which contains oil as well to help aid weight gain. Brilliant stuff and can be fed warm so great in the cold weather for the oldies.

Of course you will need good grazing as well as its the best thing for the oldies unless they have some medical condition that prevents it (lami etc) then being out all day on decent grass moving about is good for their weight gain, joints and muscles and mental well being.
 
We have a 40 year old exmoor on our yard with hardly any teeth who can no longer chew or digest hay. He has 2 big tub trugs of Fast Fibre every day, one in his paddock for the day and one overnight. He gets a few nuts or handful of chaff mixed in and looks in better condition than he has done for a few years tbh since he started on this. It can be made quite sloppy if needs be and takes him as long to eat as my TB takes over a full haynet so keeps his gut functioning well, his poo looks v healthy! Not sure how much you would need to feed to a full TB as a total replacement feed but the A&P helpline are also v good.
 
I feed my 34 yr old TB x with no teeth Rowan Barbary Ready Fibre mash. It is excellent and doubles in size when soaked, full of linseed and soya too. He has this with Leigh Senior hay replacer chop in a big bucket and for his feeds i have just started using Allen and Page Veteran Vitality because of all the vits and mins in it. I would recommend Rowan Barbary mash to anyone its great and reasonably priced too!
 
The Ready Mash range is very popular as a hay replacer.

I prefer to mix my own due to cost and sugar levels.

My diet was inspired by Dr Kellon's recommendations.

Dengie Alfalfa pellets
Speedibeet
Wheat feed
micronised linseed
rolled oats
brewer's yeast
carob
2 squeezed Vit E capsules (2000iu)
Readigrass
Mixture of herbs (chamomile, neem, dandelion, mint, marigold, nettle, clivers, buckwheat, hawthorn, meadowsweet, yarrow, garlic.)
'Magic Powder' (rosehips, turmeric, salt, limestone flour, cat's claw, yea-sacc, magnesium oxide, milk thistle seeds, fenugreek, burdock root.)
 
i feed my oldie AP Veteran Vitality, he gets 3kg dry weight a day as he barely toughs haylage anymore. and he looks fab, and he has always been a poor doer in winter. so that gets my vote.
 
My 32 year old shire is on molli chop, soft and soak and a mix he gets that along with carrots, apples, sugar beet, and vegetable oil all of which is easy to chew and if he's having a problems chewing the haylage try ready grass with a little suger beet in it just to make it more paletable my old guy looks fantastic and my old tb who was 36 when I lost him but he looked great on this as well.
 
I can't recommend hay replacers but i swear by a&p veteran vitality for my 25yr old wb x tb. This soaks into a mash for those with poor teeth. He has a round scoop twice a day with a scoop of speedi-beet and alfa-a lite. I put hay in field but tbh, he doesn't eat much of this.
 
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