How long with no feed?

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MyBoyChe

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Still need to get some weight off my highland pony before the spring grass appears. Have switched to shavings and am weighing his hay, 6kg dry per day. So he is in from 5pm til 7am, shavings bed and 6kg hay, obviously from about 8pm he has nothing to eat! Have been on this routine for just over a week and he is definitely dropping a little weight. He is in as his paddock is clay and very wet so need to save it from being totally trashed, obviously if he was out he would be able to nibble the trees and the very short grass but whilst in he has quite a long time with no food available. He is well in himself, but he is grumpy and a bit hungry. Is this routine OK? I have always fed ab lib before but my old horse was a TB and would eat when he was hungry, this one will eat if it is there :)
 
Can't speak from personal experience as I have TB & ISH both in lots of work so on ad lib haylage which makes life nice and easy!

My sister tho had horse that got pretty bad case of laminitis and I think she mixed wheat straw (think that's what it was but happy to be corrected!) with poor quality hay in the small hole nets. Idea being enough to keep him occupied and thinking his belly full but few claories as possible. Really difficult as not great for them to not have access to forage for long periods but need to control calorie intake

Think she also used to give him big buckets of hifi lite - bit expensive tho to feed bags of the stuff I guess
 
I would consider feeding hi fibre blocks which are oat straw and hay and putting them in a small holed mini net.
Or just feed some hay and some good quality oat straw .
 
how big is he?
what is his ideal weight?
what work is he doing?
how long is he out for, you say he is in from 5pm till 7amand then say he is not going out in you OP?
how may times per day is he given hay?
 
I wouldn't like to think of my horse being so long with no hay although I can see your predicament. Are you using small holed haynets? I would double net as well which should hopefully slow the gannet down :)
 
Hours without anything in the system risks gastric ulcers as the acid environment has nothing to stop it splashing the stomach lining. And hours without anything to do risks him finding something to occupy himself, chewing wood or eating bedding or stable vices.
Oat straw is best then barley, not wheat, and make sure it is clean and not dusty or mouldy because it can affect their wind if so. My horses pretty much lived on hard feed, a small amount of hay and lots of oat straw one winter years ago when I struggled to find decent hay for them.
 
only way i got weight off my highland gelding was off grass altogether (bare paddock/hardstand), weighed the min amount of forage like your 6kg but may have been a bit less (as per dengie advice & confirmed with vet) and I used straw not hay. This was double netted in a greedy feeder net with a bigger holed net over the top. Pony had a really good quality vitamin supplement in a handful of chaff each day and access to a salt lick.
 
Please get him some oat straw to eat, leaving them with nothing is so bad for them. I have a few real fatties but they are NEVER ever without ad lib forage of some sort. I also find they eat less when on ad lib, the tend to gorge themselves when limited.
 
Horse do not need to eat 24/7 .
They don't do this in the wild they forage most of the time they don't stuff them selves standing still with food in front of them .
Being over wieght is an significant health risk ,to manage horses for ulcers by stuffing 24/7 is ignoring the rest of the horse .
When Fatty had his epic 200 kilo weight loss we left him with no food for up to two hours at a time and at the end of that he got some chopped oat straw if he left because he did not like it much , tough it was there if he was hungry .
Skin issues all but elimated , joint issues gone ,the awful swollen legs if he stood in a thing of the past , he's able to hunt two full days a week ,wind which was awful is good and oh yes the heart issue that caused him to be subject of LOU claim corrected .
You just have to keep horses the correct wieght .
You failing in your duty as an owner if you don't and if the horse is a very good doer that is hard work .
 
Mike007 said:
chuck him a couple of sections of oat straw.
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This. I hate to see horses with no forage at all - not good for their guts . . . I fully understand your predicament, and good on you for trying to shift the pounds, but I'd be giving him something very low value just to keep his gut moving.

Good luck :).

P
 
Sorry if this has already been said. Get him one of the stables toys, the balls are good that you can put treats in and fill with some high fibre cubes. THese are fairly low cal but will keep him busy. You could hang a swede up from a piece of string or you could put an apple in his water bucket, or find him a stick of gorse to nibble on. Horses love eating gorse, and they like to strip the bark too. You could hang him a couple of little nets, or maybe give him twice the quantity of hay but soak it so all the nutrients are out of it. If you use a small holed net or 'double bag' your nets they will last longer. How about digging a clod of grass from somewhere (fill in the hole afterwards). Then he's got something to nibble on and will play with shaking it around his stable too, and will get nutrients from the soil. You can get those hay 'bricks' which are meant to be low calorie and last for ages especially if suspended in a small holed net.

You don't want to take too much weight of too quickly as this can be dangerous as well as being a bit unfair to the horse.

Too much time without ad lib forage can be dangerous for colic too. If you do all or some of the above it might make life a bit nicer for him and he won't be so hungry. I feel your pain. I'd like to reduce my horses hay a little to lose a bit more weight but hate the thought of him being hungry.
 
I'm getting the weight off my gassy colic prone maxicob. He is currently turned out 8 til 5 on a very bare paddock. He gets a slice of hay at 8am, 1pm, 5pm and 10pm, plus extra before he's worked (not sure of the total weight, naughty me). He's got a shavings bed.

He's doing very well on this regime. I used to soak his hay but read on here that soaked hay can trigger colic, so he's on dry hay now. He seems happy and comfortable, and is not too grumpy at breakfast time. He gets twice daily tiny feeds of damped bran with his linseed, salt, and pro hoof in.

In the autumn, he had to be on box rest. I gave him ad lib soaked hay, and he put on 40kg (weigh bridged at vets) in 4 weeks! He will eat all day and night given the chance.

He's kept at home, so it's easy to give him his late night hay. I appreciate that not everyone can do this.

I have wondered about feeding him straw, but have heard that it can cause impaction colic? With him being colic prone, I have steered clear of it so far.
 
Tiddlypom said:
I'm getting the weight off my gassy colic prone maxicob. He is currently turned out 8 til 5 on a very bare paddock. He gets a slice of hay at 8am, 1pm, 5pm and 10pm, plus extra before he's worked (not sure of the total weight, naughty me). He's got a shavings bed.

He's doing very well on this regime. I used to soak his hay but read on here that soaked hay can trigger colic, so he's on dry hay now. He seems happy and comfortable, and is not too grumpy at breakfast time. He gets twice daily tiny feeds of damped bran with his linseed, salt, and pro hoof in.

In the autumn, he had to be on box rest. I gave him ad lib soaked hay, and he put on 40kg (weigh bridged at vets) in 4 weeks! He will eat all day and night given the chance.

He's kept at home, so it's easy to give him his late night hay. I appreciate that not everyone can do this.

I have wondered about feeding him straw, but have heard that it can cause impaction colic? With him being colic prone, I have steered clear of it so far.
Click to expand...

I feed only chopped oat straw because I don't have an easy source of good small bales , I introduced it to Fatty very gradually and kept an eye on his droppings , I had no problems it's excellent for horses on the regime you describe .
I keep my horses eating it all the time now ,they are then used to it if I ever need to feed more during box rest .
If you gave it starting a half a feed scope at a time given in a bowl the same time as the hay that would be the best way .
I have also mixed half and half with hay chop.
 
Mmmm...I'd be a little concerned that your boy is going for long periods without anything in his gut (for reasons that have been pointed out in earlier posts OP... i.e...the risk of ulcers with the over production of acid and nothing for it to work on!)

In my humble opinion I'd very probably go and buy a good quality bale of either barley or oat straw and give him a net of this, as well as your hay quota.. and Yes, as has been said (if you don't already), I'd feed from a small holed net/double net as well.

If it's viable, you could soak your hay to take some of the calorific value out of it OP thereby having an avenue to perhaps feed a little more of it?! Although, doing this will take other valuable nutrients out of the hay too, so I'd be inclined to feed a good balancer alongside too, to replace what's been lost with the soaking.

You don't say whether he's rugged or not...if not, great. If he is,..perhaps drop down a bit of tog of the rug to make him use his own central heating system to keep warm!!

Hope that helps OP.
 
Thanks everyone, some really good ideas from all. To clarify a few points, he is blanket clipped and in a lw t/o or a cotton sheet if in (to keep him clean), small holed haynets, it takes him about a week to chew through the strands to make bigger holes! I have started to mix some straw in with the hay to make it last longer, so 6kg of hay and a small section of straw as well, treat balls, it takes him about 10 mins to empty it of half a scoop of nuts so I dont use it, thats just feed he doesnt need. I did think about maybe putting some seedless grapes in it, he likes them :) Current regime is working, he is slowly losing his too solid neck and a bit off his shoulders and tum but we still need to get about 30kg off. That will get him down to a mark where we have a little leeway in spring. He is 14.2 and an old fashioned, solidly built boy, lots of bone and definitely built to carry a stag down a hillside, however I appreciate that is not an excuse for fat!!
 
How much exercise is he having and I presume you are soaking his hay.

I have a native pony and I know hard it is to check the weight under control but at the same time to go nearly 12 hours without food is not ideal especially if he is not well rugged as it could mean he is cold and hungry for long periods of time.

I found small holed hay nets made very little difference in slowing down my pony so he has swapped on to the shires greedy net and that has worked very well. However he does need to be worked as well to control his weight. Magnesium is meant to help with weight control as well so I make sure I feed a vitamin and mineral supplement that contains magnesium.
 
I am always struggling to keep the weight off my food obsessed Welsh. He is stabled at night all year round and fed 12kg year old hay split into two feeds. He has 6kg at 6pm and the other 6kg at 10pm before I go to bed. I can do this because he is at home but even then he is probably stood for 6 hours with not a lot until he is let out at 5am by me.
I think 6 or 7 hours is the most I would leave him with nothing although I have found his hay lasts just as long now loose off the floor as it did in the small holed hay net...he seems to have regulated himself a little.
 
12kg is an awful lot of hay for a fat horse! I feed mine (14.2 - 15.1 baroque type PRE's) 7.5kg split into 4 feeds, and they don't need to lose weight.
 
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