feeding the older laminitics?

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joeanne

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we have on our yard an old guy, who is now 21yrs old, and has suffered quite badly over the years with laminitis.
over time we have gone from trying to keep weight off to now having to try and get it on him as he seems to be dropping weight.
he has always been regularly wormed, and his teeth are ok, so i am wondering if its time to look into "getting on in years" type feeds that will be ok to give him bearing in mind his laminitic tendancies.
he is currently on 1.5 scoops of happy hoof, half a scoop of pasture mix, half a scoop of speedi beet and has mint, garlic, cod liver oil, along with a broad spec vit. he has this twice a day.
now he is only a 12hh welsh a and i find that it seems a huge amount of food for one so small yet he puts no weight on!
so any ideas anyone????
 
How much hay is he eating? I know you say his teeth are OK, but a lot of older equines have some deterioration in their teeth, which means they eat hay more slowly. You could consider feeding a short chop hay replacer which he may find easier to chew - I used to use Happy Hoof like this for my old pony. If you ring Spillers they can advise how much to feed for your pony's size.

I definitely wouldn't contemplate giving standard veteran mixes or conditioning feeds containing cereals, and personally I wouldn't risk pasture mix either. If he needs extra then I would stick to lots of fibre foods (AlfaBeet might be a good choice) and perhaps consider adding something oil-based if really necessary.
 
That does seem like a hell of alot for a small pony. I have my boy (lammi prone) on Simple system feeds - Lucie Nuts. I phoned them up and found them extremely helpful. They can advise you on dietary needs for him.
 
If the worming is all ok,Maybe you could ask you vet to recheck his teeth-they could be wearing unevenly/ or have hooks so causing difficulty chewing hay etc- or it could be that his teeth are wearing away. You could also call your feed companies help line for advice (in conjunction with your vet)- they are normally very helpful- maybe he needs a slow release high oil/high fibre feed with no starch/cereals. Cubes are good to feed to horses that have probs chewing as when they are damped down/soaked they're a lot softer. Some of the senior feeds do have cereals in which arent that gd for a laminitic pony! gd luck though-
 
he recently had his teeth checked (he has them looked at every 6 months).
hay.....he really isnt fussed with it tbh, some days he will eat it other days he wont.
this is the first year he has not looked good, i know he is getting on a bit, but even so i would have expected him too look a bit sleeker.
 
If he is not keen on eating his hay, then that would explain why he is not looking so good, even though he is getting big bucket feeds. I would definitely experiment with partial hay replacers - Dengie or Spillers would probably be the best manufacturers to contact for advice, as both have Laminitis Trust approved feeds that are suitable for use as hay replacers.
 
If he is happy eating hay then up that, don't up the hard feed any more, he is already on quite a bit.
Soak the hay so it is more palatable.
Has he had his teeth check recently, hooks can occur quicker on the older ponies which makes it painful and therefore harder to chew.
Are you able to spread the feeds out, 4 a day rather than 2?

My advice firstly however is to get the vet to run some blood tests.
The fact that he's older now means he won't be able to fight off infection the way he once could.
It's best to rule out blood works before pumping him with new feeds etc which could potentially send him down with laminitis or colic.

If blood works are fine, teeth are fine and he's up to date with a good worming programme, then introduce something like vegetable oil in his feed. Maybe a tonic such as red cell to help perk him up. Change the mix to a high fibre nut (obviously do it slowly). Happy Hoof is a good one, stay on that. But do try to spread his feeds out. I know its hard but can you ask anyone to pop a feed into him during the day so he's not on such big feeds.

I joined the veteran horse society and they were very helpful. My girl was 31 when she was put to sleep so lived a very happy and healthy and long life.

Hope this helps x
 
Try feeding Winergy Equilibrium, if you ring them they have some great feeds for older laminitics, not always the obvious choice as i found, so best to ring.....
 
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