How can I keep weight on my old girl

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janice160

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Hi, I have a 14.2 28 year old welsh/arab cross. Unfortunately for her she has steadily lost quite a lot of her grinding teeth over the last few years and I find it a struggle every winter to stop her from looking boney. She usually ends up getting a huge bucket of feed morning and night (and if she's lucky at lunchtime) containing mix and chop. Can anyone recommend anythingelse that I can try since hay just gets balled up and spit out and she's not keen on ready grass. Any suggestions would be useful.
 
Have you tried fast fibre? Brilliant stuff, when made up it appears like bran mash so shouldn't be troublesome for old teeth. Low in sugar and starch too and has vits and mins added. Pretty sure it can be used as a hay replacement. If you call allen and page they will send you a sample so you can see if she likes it. Ours absolutly love it and gobble it right up! We add microionized linseed to ours aswell, if you did this then you could put more calories in her from the linseed too. Fairly sensible price too - about £9 a bag round here, and since you add twice the amount of water to the feed it does stretch!
 
Micronised Linseed has been great at piling the weight on my TB in just a couple of weeks but have had to feed it at quite a high level. Its powder form & really palatable. Also another vote for ast fibre as it can be fed as a hay replacer.
 
It is difficult to keep the weight on some horses, especially older ones like ours. My mare is 34 and still in gentle work 2 or 3 times a week so that does help keep the muscle on her (although not as much as when she was younger). But we do have to watch her to make sure she isn't losing weight as her teeth are now very ropey. She has trouble eating her horsehage and longer grass these days so we now make sure she has a large bucket of Dengie hi fi Senior at her disposal all the time, even when she is out. She just has it dampened, but you could also mix with sugar beet. Tiff was really dropping weight last Autumn and we managed to turn it around with the HiFi senior. Just wondering if that's worth trying with your girl.
 
Until a year ago I was caring for a 44 year old arab/NFx who had lost 11 teeth and the others were worn to the gum so I know what you mean. She could eat grass ok, but hay and haylage were impossible, although she did get alot of pleasure from sucking it! I used to give her 2LBS of soaked conditioning mix, plus 2LBS soaked hi fibre nuts in the evening feed, two handfulls (dryweight) of sugar beet and two large scoops of HiFi twice daily. She lived out 24/7 (not my choice :( ) and we are lucky to have grazing that is still there through the winter, if not particularly nutritious. That kept her weight on nicely although I would admit that despite her age, she was a surprisingly good doer. She didn't like Readigrass either, and wasn't too thrilled with Alfa. Make sure your mare is well rugged. Is she on bute or similar? because my own old girl is and it lowers their body temperature so they feel the cold much more.
 
Your pony needs a fibre feed in the form of a hay replacer. Horses are designed to consume around 1.5-2.5% of their body weight in forage. For my 14hh pony that was around 7.7kg.

If your pony can manage some chop then that is a good start as this will be beneficial to her. A soft chop such as Dengie Hi Fi Senior or Mollichaff Veteran are good. My favourite is Happy Hoof and my pony who has very bad teeth coped with this very well. I gave her 4 scoops of this

To this, I would add Speedibeet (unmollassed Sugarbeet) around 1.5kg dry weight.

Then I would also recommend Fast Fibre. This is fantastic stuff!!! I have my pony 3 scoops of this which weighs 4.5kg

This regime was given to me by an independent nutritionist. Her name was Clare Mcloud. If you contact any of the feed companies, they will be more than willing to help you with a plan to suit your horse. Dengie even have fact sheets on hay replacers that they will post out to you.

Finally, I would add a good probiotic. I used Pink Powder and I love this stuff. Its a good balancer and the pre/probiotics will help your pony get more from her feed. The bacteria in the gut will thrive and they will help your pony break down the food inside her gut.

Feel free to PM me if you need any more help. Having been through the same thing (and possibly will again this winter), I know what a worrying time winter can be. :D
 
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