Food help for retired pony

HollyWoozle

HollyWoozle

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I was wondering if someone might be able to give me some advice on what to feed my retired pony, Cosmo. He is about 18 years old and has been retired for most of his life (due to being a general looney, too small, and us loving him too much to sell). He is very prone to laminitis and this is the first year in ages that he hasn't looked at all sore, seeing as I really took over all the decisions about his eating etc. and have been very strict.

The problem is that he also arthritic and according to the vet (and I agree) he is pretty much a cushings case, though we have not tested. The vet is very good and we agreed not to start treating for cushings yet. She also said that it was much better for him to be on the lighter said due to the arthritis.

I am at a loss for what to feed him as, to be honest, I really am a bit clueless. He is on very restricted grazing and fed twice a day with fast fibre and safe & sound. He also has cortaflex and stand-free supplement, along with equibites for vits and minerals. He has access to hay all the time. He just looks awful and I need some help please! He is ribby but has the big barrel belly of many cushings ponies.

Help please! :(

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PS - I promise I am not starving him... the other pony in with him is the picture of health!
 
I'd start to add some unmollassed beet such as Speedibeet to his diet. This is low and sugar and starch, so therefore suitable for laminitics, yet much higher in calories than Fast Fibre etc. I am presuming that you have had his teeth checked so you know that he is able to eat his hay properly?
 
I forgot to say that dentists check is next on my list and I have sourced a good one (well, supposedly!). He has not dropped weight recently, he just seems to have maintained this look for months now and it worries me with winter coming, especially knowing how tough the last winter was. He was ribby when the vet saw him earlier in the year and she was not concerned but I would really like his condition to be better.

Thanks for the speedibeet suggestion, I always really assumed that it wouldn't be good for laminitics for some reason.
 
I agree with everyone else give him some speedibeet (less sugar then normal beet) and mix this with some alfa-oil. The extra oil will actually help put on weight and if you feel he is still looking a bit thin I would recommend getting some soya oil to add to his feed.

If he's still looking thin after this Blue Chip is brilliant! It sounds very expensive but you don't actually give them that much so I found it works out cheaper then normal mixes. Blue chip also has a laminitic feed for ponies very prone to laminitis.

Remember not to add to much feed at once and to start off with small amounts. And don't give him a huge amount of feed at once as too much food at once just won't get digested properrly by him and you would have wasted your money and time giving it to him. Good luck I hope he looks better soon :)
 
To give you an idea, Fast Fibre has a calorie count of 8 MJDE/kg, whereas Speedibeet has a significantly higher calorie count of 12.4 MJDE/kg. Therefore, you have to feed quite a bit more Fast Fibre than Speedibeet to get the same weight gain effect. This could be OK if your horse has a big appetite, but if not, then a mixture of Fast Fibre and Speedibeet might be better at getting more calories into him. (My old mare has recently been suspected of having Cushings and I have her on a mixture of Fast Fibre and Speedibeet which is helping her keep her weight on.)
 
Can't you start him on a herbal treatment for Cushings? When my pony started to look a bit 'suspect' I started him on a Vitex tincture. It really did make quite a big difference. I would also use something like Alfa-Oil or Alfa-beet and some oil such as ground linseed and/or soya oil and some yea-sacc.
 
Thanks everyone, I am going to buy some speedibeet this afternoon and look online at the vitex supplements. I've weightaped him this morning too to try and keep a record of it.

I said to my stepdad this morning "it would be nice to get some weight on him before winter" and he laughed and said "oh yes, when you've been starving him all summer." :(
 
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