For those of you with horses with poor teeth

[prettypony95]

Hi, my 19yo pony has 4 teeth missing due to not being looked after when he was younger etc and has another tooth that has collapsed so soon that will be a total of 5 teeth missing! Dentist is coming back out end of this month. He has managed fine with eating his haylage up until the last few days where he has been chewing it then dropping it, he was doing this with every mouthful he took He's fed the Allen & Page Calm and Condition soaked feed and manages fine with that. I have just bought a bag of A&P Fast Fibre and also a bag of Hi-Fi Senior to use as a hay replacer.

What do you with horses like mine use as a hay replacer? I was shocked to see that on the back of the Hi-Fi it said that a pony his size/weight should be fed approx 10kg of the stuff per day, and the bag is only a 25kg one, so obviously it is going to be VERY expensive!!

Any advice or info would be very much appreciated

 

[herring]

Has he lost a lot of condition? was he good or poor doer generally before teeth issues kicked in? Dengie Hi fi is a ripoff: as are many of the bagged chops/hay replacers = floor sweepings, quality is very poor. I would have a look at Simple System feeds (look up on internet & you should have a local seller) We have various oldies here as well as comp horses & find SS products much better value for money than dengie & most can be soaked so easy for toothless to eat. You may find that he can manage haylage again once his mouth settles down after having the wobbly ones out anyway so don't panic Good luck x

 

[prettypony95]

he's lost a bit of condition but nothing major. generally a poor do-er really, stresses quite easily and looses weight etc but this year he's kept weight on reasonably well. i will have a look at the SS feeds - thank you have you had any experience of feeding silage to horses like this? i know a lot of people say it's a big no no, but some say it's ok, obviously every horse is different. someone recommended it to me but i'm not too sure x

 

[nutwood]

My 26 year old fussy TB stallion has hardly any teeth left and he has found hay and haylege a challenge for the past couple of years. He does well if he has about 4-6 hours of grass a day as well as boiled barley, oats and damp stud nuts in the summer.

In the winter however it is more difficult to keep him looking well. I found Badminton High Fibre Nuggets, having tried so many soaked feeds, all of which he hated. He loves the nuggets. I soak them once a day in water - only just enough to soften them up. I then soak his second lot in sugar beet. He scoffs the lot and having read the instructions he appears to be getting the majority of his fibre needs. This is a huge improvement from him having hardly any fibre at all.

He also has his carrots grated as he loves these and cannot crunch them anymore. He wont eat alfalfa or molichaff or any other fibre feed. he really is the fussiest horse I have ever met as he does not like feeds mixed together! My vet says just feed hiwm what he wants and how he wants it. At his age - he raced at 2 years old - he deserves to have what he likes.!!!!

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

he's lost a bit of condition but nothing major. generally a poor do-er really, stresses quite easily and looses weight etc but this year he's kept weight on reasonably well. i will have a look at the SS feeds - thank you have you had any experience of feeding silage to horses like this? i know a lot of people say it's a big no no, but some say it's ok, obviously every horse is different. someone recommended it to me but i'm not too sure x

Please dont feed silage - it carries a much higher risk of botulism type soil borne issues than haylage or hay. People do sometimes feed it but it is Russian roulette. Safer for cattle who are built differently but not for horses and sheep.