Help! Food for rapid weight gain needed.

[The Virgin Dubble]

Can anyone suggest horse feed that will put weight on a 12 year old Thoroughbred asap?

He's non-fizzy and there are no known feeds that hot him up, so all suggestions would be most welcome.

Edited to add - Sorry this is in the vet section, but he's really poor and needs some nutrients asap.

 

[AmyMay]

Spillers senior conditioning mix - brilliant!

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Thanks hun, I'm willing to give anything a try.

Do you feed to the guidelines or stick a bit extra in?

 

[TGM]

Ad lib good quality haylage, plus Alfa A Oil (or normal Alfa A plus veg oil) and micronised barley. Obviously introduced gradually.

 

[spaniel]

Baileys number one. Makes up like a mashy bread pudding affair and piles weight on. Chuck a load of oil in as well....very high calorie dinner!

 

[BBs]

[ QUOTE ]
Spillers senior conditioning mix - brilliant!

[/ QUOTE ]

Echo this, and D&H 16 Plus

 

[Alibear]

Allen and page weight gain, fantatic stuff.

Personally I put it on pink powders to for a bit to ensure it's making the most of any food you give it.

 

[Nailed]

when weighting a horse up.. Please do it slowly and not just wack the weight on as it puts undue strain on the heart.
I agree with the ad-lib roughage, alfa a and barly
loux

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Spans, do you know if Baileys Number 1 is processed in any way to alter the phosphorous (I think?) levels in it?

 

[jessica_daunted]

pony nuts galore and plenty of alfa a with sugar beef and free access to good hay or haylage but watch for laminitis. I have a 21 yr old mare that never keeps weight tried this through winter now have a different horse. but change and add dinner accordingly and gradually as could make your horse worse if sudden change.
good luck hun x

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Thanks

I can assure you that I won't be whacking his weight up. I've had experience of slow weight gain in the past with rescue horses, but this one needs 'some' weight asap because he is dangerously underweight imho.

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Thank you

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Do you use sugar beet too?

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Sorry, I seem to be repeating myself, but would you add sugar beet to that?

 

[vicijp]

Alfa Oil, Oats and Barley - 5 feeds a day.
Salt, oil, Selenavite E added, and ad lib haylage.

 

[AmyMay]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks hun, I'm willing to give anything a try.

Do you feed to the guidelines or stick a bit extra in?

[/ QUOTE ]
I always fed Freddy to the guidelines - putting extra in won't really help.

The other really good thing to do is to split the daily ration down to three feeds. They will utilise smaller feeds much better than wopping great buckets full.

Freddy wasn't a veteran in the true sense of the word - but needed a bit extra. He looked wonderful on it.

 

[BBs]

And another thing

If you can split feeds over 2-4 feeds a day would help. Add oil for calories and a good chaff like Hi Fi and Sugar Beet.
Haylage would be better than Hay.
Echo Spans on Bailey No 1 as used it on Bertie alongside his Spillers Snr Conditioning mix when it got exceptionally cold.

Biotal Equine Gold is also useful too

£16 for a months supply.

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Thanks Vici.

At five feeds a day, would they be relatively small feeds?

 

[vicijp]

Usually scoop of Alfa Oil, with half scoop of both oats and barley.

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Ta hun.

I wish I'd taken a pic of this horse - he urgently needs some meat on him. Bloody owners need their arses kicking

 

[TGM]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, I seem to be repeating myself, but would you add sugar beet to that?

[/ QUOTE ] You could do I suppose but I don't!

When my old mare started to loose weight I initially tried Spillers Conditioning Cubes and then D&H Build Up, however they did work out very costly. The Alfa A/oil/barley combo is much cheaper and works much better IMO.

 

[luckilotti]

one of my old geldings lost a lot of weight quickly a few weeks ago and hes on Baileys No 1 - Spillers Senior Conditioning Mix, Molichop, Sugar Beet and Sunflower Oil - plus carrots

its slowly working, i'm keeping him in (been out a few days thou in one of the fields) and hes getting hayledge and also readigrass in his manger daily. it seems to be slowly working.
hope the horse is ok and sounds like its lucky to now have you caring for it.

 

[spaniel]

You would need a good vit/min supplement or some sort of balancer with the baileys.

http://www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk/whatproduct/general/no1.htm

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Thank you for your help, and thank you for your lovely comments.
Both are much appreciated.

 

[claire1976]

Echo the previous on Spillers Senior Conditioning. Gave it to my mare and it worked wonders, I'd pretty much tried everything before inc sugar beet which she wouldn't eat.

 

[_Jazz_]

Repeating others really...
My old mare was pretty poor when she arrived so I tried ad lib quality hay, Alfa A ( no Oil or other versions back then!) at recommended amounts and Baileys Conditioning Cubes(she was 'fizzy' so opted for cubes not mix) to get the weight on and then maintained with hay, Alfa A and Baileys Lo Cal . I did add alfa beet or straight beet but only to 'dampen' feed . I added warm water , again to encourage her to eat up.
Good Luck

 

[Andy66]

Dubble

I run an equine supplements business and we have a new supplement called 365 Complete. It is unrivalled at putting weight on a horse quickly. It is very concentrated (much more than Blue Chip, top spec, conditioning mixes/cubes). Using 365 Complete you see a difference in your horse in 2 weeks and after a month it should have put on significant weight. For more info go to www.equineanswers.co.uk or ring me on 0870 8030489

Andy

 

[Nuttymanxmare]

[ QUOTE ]
Spillers senior conditioning mix - brilliant!

[/ QUOTE ]

I can recommend this stuff too its fab. I changed to it for C and she looks great now.

 

[Pidge]

could always try top spec super conditioning flakes they are very good IMO or what about the soaked oats diet that is supposed to be very good?

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

Sounds impressive, but I'm always a little bit wary of biased advice - no offence intended.

How about you send me a free sample, and I'll take 'before' and 'after' photo's of the horse?
If the supplement does all you say it does, then I'll have a happy horse, and you'll have photographic evidence with which you can endorse your product?

Well, a girls gotta try.....