He's dropped weight :S any suggestions?

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Pixxie

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Well its now 20 days until i leave for Hartpury and Ted shall be following 2 weeks later (my birthday weekend)

As (i believe) a result of the dental work he had done, he has dropped weight. I want to have more on him than necessary going to Hartpury as i know he is likely to stress some off and also the winter turnout is minimal if any (more likely there is none) so he will be missing the grazing part of his diet which we all know is vital to weight.

He will be on Horse First Relax Me for the week before he goes and the first week hes there as it works on the gut so will hopefully prevent him dropping too much whilst also keeping him a bit calmer just so he can settle a bit easier i hope.

But for now do you have any suggestions to get some weight on him or does this all sound enough?

He is out 24/7 at the moment, rugged if it is cold as i know they use a lot of calories to keep warm
He is getting 1 scoop of Calm and Condition (A&P) + 1 scoop of Mollichaff Calmer spread over 2 feeds (morning and evening)

If he comes in for the night, he get one large haynet (i feed it off the floor)

any other suggestions? or just keep going how I am?
 
Firstly what weight of food is he getting?

Secondly I found barley rings and pink powder are excellent for weight gain.
 
i dont know about weight, ive never weighed feed, but the scoop is the normal type of round bowly type thing lol

i wondered about Barley rings but i know too many horses that go nuts on them, as for pink powder hed never eat it, hes the fussiest horse i think ive ever met
 
Also if he has finished his hay by the morning give him more at night. I was astonished at the amount my big girl can get through.
 
Correct feeding is calculated as a %age of horse's weight. To do the sums you need to measure the weight of both his hard feed and forage and then adjust for his fitness, lifestyle. current weight and character. But the way to start is to measure!
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Your post suggests that you maybe don't, but do you know if he will have any turn out when you take him to college? Have you established that yet?

The ag college I went to had such little turnout I decided before I went that there was no way in the world I would have taken any of mine there
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The horses where I was, had a choice between hay and haylage - can he have haylage and would that suit him if he is a poor dooer? or would it cook his brain?!

Can he have hard feed like conditioning mix, or even H&P cubes? Or would that fry him? I like balancers, like topspec for putting on condition, have you tried anything like that?
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in which case shall root around in the kitched for an old pair of scales
i think this may be where im going wrong seeing as in terms of forage like i said hes out 24/7 or has a huge haynet at night sometime one small one as well (2 big ones is always too much for him)
 
That's not an awful lot of feed for a big horse that doesn't keep condition that well. Up his feed a little to the recommended amount for his size and workload. Also try feeding haylage.
 
Puppy- the biggest problem i have with him is that he is a very fussy eater, he loves his Allen and Page Calm and Condition (trust him to like the most expensive) he will eat D&H Build Up Cubes so will be chucking some of them in there again, he would be fine on haylage (but silly me hasnt checked if its available) as for the turnout situation im 95% sure there is no winter turnout but i live 3 hours away and its not fair to my non horsey mum to leave her with both Marley and Teddy, but when i can drive i will be looking to move Ted ot a smaller private DIY yard near the college where he can have turnout
 
Oh dear sorry to hear he is not eating well after the EDT.

Hartpury usually has turnout until early october (i was a student and a lecturer there). Have you tried giving him grass nuts that are dampened down? Grass nuts, not alfalfa nuts.

Also, your will have pick of 4 qualified EDTs when you go there so perhaps ask one of them to take a look just to comfirm that over rasping is the reason why he cant eat well. At least then you dont have to worry that there is anything else wrong with him.
 
i know that he cant eat hard things currently as a result of having the dental work done. she did a good job fantastic job, but because of the way the teeth had overgrown etc she has filed them so that they dont currently meet so that as they keep 'growing' she cant then straighten them up so they meet correctly again.

call me a numpty lol but what are grass nuts?? he wont eat wet sloppy feed calm and condiiton is good as it gets and wet as it gets before he wont eat it lol
 
They are basically grass that have been pelletised into nut form and a lots of geriatrics with terrible teeth have them as a forage replacer. Also horses that have had jaw ops and cant chew.

If you dampen them they dont turn to slop but more like soaked sugar beet that you have taken a handful of and squeezed out.
Perhaps leave a full bucket of it in the field and see if he munches through it? it requires little effort on his part to ingest!

If she has floated him out of occlusion then it will take a while for them to become functional again (teeth only grow 3mm a year) a year which is why you have to be v careful in making sure this doesnt happen.
 
they sound like a very good idea, will they be ok to add into his current mix of Calm and Condition and chaff? also where can i get them?

and yes she has floated him out of occlusion, i remember her using that term.
do you have any other recommendations for feed that he will find easy to eat properly? (EDT is coming back on 20th to check how hes healing so will have a chat then)
 
Yes no probs add your calm and condition into the grass nuts mix!

Pop into your feed marchant and ask if they have grass nuts and if not ask them to order some. get a couple fo sacks and make sure they are grass nuts and not alfalfa nuts. There is another feed but i cant remember its name so will look in my file for you
 
oh and maybe hi fibre cubes? you cam dampen them in the same way as grass nuts.........v impt to get as much fibre into your horse as poss if you are worried about their weight.

You cant overfeed grass nuts by the way so let her eat what she can cope with. One of my clients horses went onto grass nuts for a couple of months and he had half a water buckets worth (in dampened form) ad lib throughout the day (i think in 3-4 hourly intervals)
 
Thankyou ever so much, will pop in there tomorrow. im just desperate to get this weight back on him before i go or at least get him on his way to fatness
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really thankyou so much, didnt even know grass nuts existed
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If his condition is a worry, and considering his likely future management regime, then I would think it best to get him on to haylage now, as I really think such good nutritional fibre is better than any hard feed for upping/holding condition. Good haylage is the reason mine need astoundingly little hard feed when out 24/7 in winter.

Although I fed A&P for a bit with one of mine, I have since decided that spillers conditioning feeds are the best
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I wouldn't use D&H if you paid me
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Try some spillers, and with topspec and I bet you'll be pleased with the results
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It's unbelievable, but my former poor dooer is now in her 20s and I have to manage her at times to control her weight!!

Personally I wouldn't take my horse to a yard that has so little turn out, (it screws their joints!!
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) and like I say, I objected to my former college for doing so. I left, as I didn't like their ways, and I am amused to see that the professionals I use with my horses (vet, farrier, physio, dentist), feel the same way about the place and refuse to hire their grads
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If you do get there, and feel like I did, then explore other options about moving your horse nearby, but not necessarily on to the college yard. I really don't think they suits too many horses and would rather shoot one of mine than send it to the college local to us...

Just don't be too swept up in what they tell you
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im not thrilled about having to be on the college yard BUT he is on DIY livery not working livery. i dont have a choice for him to be off campus as i cant drive so i need him to be on campus currently. but like i said ideally as soon as i can drive i will be hoping to move him off campus.

and as i said leaving him at home isnt really an option. will look into starting to feed him haylage now though and will have a chat with my EDT on the 20th as to feeds he will find very easy to eat as i said i dont think hes going to find eating HARD feed easy due to his teeth being floated out of occlusion (thankyou VictoriaEDT for the correct term
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)
 
To be honest I'd be bringing him in at night. His biggest problem has always been feeling the cold and he's never been out 24/7 as long as I've known him. Even when it's hot he's needed a summer sheet when stabled over night. Might conserve enough energy for him to stop dropping weight at least.
 
N, I agree that he isn't having much hard feed and would bulk it out with some more fibre, if you go to pampisford or fulbourn they have green bags of basic high fibre nuts - quite cheep and would be good to add in and wont hot him up. Also I know you are trying to keep costs down but I would also feed him a balancer - there are some cheaper ones out there - they are not all blue chip prices!!

Obviously the food you were giving him when I first came over was fine as you weren't working him then but I definitely think he needs more. Also if you can get more hay into him then I would. If you go to the feed stores I mentioned they also sell Newport Haylage, maybe buy a couple of bags of that and start mixing in with the hay and see how he goes - this is cheaper than Horsehage and is more likely to be the same quality you would receive on a yard if they supplied it. He might not like it or he might go nuts but if you do it gradually then you can see if it makes any difference.

How come he isn't moving with you??
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will he eat his feed if you add some oil to it? Any sort of oil is a good way of getting extra calories into them and it doesn't cause extra fizziness. I buy a big 10litre bottle of sunflower oil in Tescos for about £7 and it lasts ages. It doesn't taste of anything either so it should be good if he's a fussy eater. They can have up to 200ml day (it looks a lot!) but I found 100ml was plenty for my boy.
 
You are welcome!

There is a yard right next door to the college on the same lane......just go past equine and college entrance, round the corner and when you pass the old stud (academy yard) you will see a farm on your left. I know students kept there horses there and at Tor Brewers place a bit further on down the lane (on the sharp right bend, turn left, that is the driveway). Might be worth a visit......both are walking distance and have turn out
 
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