How to feed enough forage to horses with no teeth

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Morgan123

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Hello.

My lovely aged TB mare has only six teeth. She's only had six teeth for years and years now, and has managed extremely well just gumming the grass and on her usual mash-feed (she can't eat chaff, haylage or hay). However, this year she's lost far more weight than usual, and I'm currently feeding her more than i normally would in the middle of winter. My vet can't find a cause for this (we've had teeth checks, blood tests, jaw-arthritis tests, cushings tests, worm tests etc) and we think it's just an ageing thing - she is about 31 and doing amazingly well for her age otherwise. She is perfectly happy in herself and as sound and cheeky as ever.
She prefers to live out 24/7 all year, but this year I'm thinking of bringing her in becuase I'll be able to get more feed into her. She's currently on two mash-feeds a day (fast fibre, veteran vitality, a fibre mix for palatability, baileys conditioning cubes, and sugar beet, plus pink powder - we'll add linseed in winter).

My questions are:
1) i know that there are lots of forage feeds you can give instead of hay, such as fibre nuts and stuff - she gets this anyway all soaked into a mash. If you feed it instead of forage, how do you persuade them to eat it slowly (like a haynet)?! Do you just provide a MAHUSIVE bucket of mash and let them get on with it? Isn't that a colic risk?

2) How do you do this without bankrupting yourself? Much as i adore her and will do whatever she needs, I need a solution that I can sustain long-term.

Thanks!
 
My old arab mare has no functioning molars and quids grass, never mind hay. She can't manage any chop of any kind, because she can't grind it. She lives on a soaked Equibeet and grass pellets mix, a tub trug full twice a day, or better still split into 4 feeds. She is so used to it she doesn't bolt it, partly because of the water making it bulky, but also because it is a regular thing and she is happy to trickle feed from it. You need to bear in mind that for maintenance she needs 1.5% of her body weight in dry matter daily, and of course the water bulks it up.
If you can get Equibeet and grass pellets at a sensible price it is perfectly do-able, mine has to have Prascend and Danilon as well, that is the expensive bit. If you are anywhere near Shropshire and can collect, I am about to (hopefully) get an account with a wholesaler and get an order of Equibeet/grass pellets/cooked linseed at the right price every couple of months.
 
Hmm ok thanks, this is helpful (though I'm Oxfordshire so nowhere near for that bit, but thanks for the thought!).

Sorry if this is a weird question but how much is a 'trug full' roughly? My one is eating a 20 lite bucket (like this! http://www.robinsonsequestrian.com/stable-yard/feedroom/traditional-feed-bucket-92333.html) once a day and breakfast is probably a third. Once soaked. The reason I'm thinking of leaving her in is because I was thinking it would mean i could leave her with a higher volume of food in a bigger bucket, overnight! but actually if she just needed two of those full a day she could stay out, which she would prefer.

Thanks for teminding of the 1.5% rule, that's useful too, I'll take my scales to the yard tonight and weigh her feed rather than just doing my usual 'scoop full'.
 
These are the trugs I use - the largest size. She gets one 75% full twice a day and she is 14hh arab mare. She has to have her own paddock to ensure none of the others snaffle it because it does take her a fair while to eat it. She eats some, goes and picks some grass (not sure how much nutrition she gets when it is all spat out but it keeps her occupied), comes back for more etc etc.

http://www.robinsonsequestrian.com...campaign=criteo&source=webgains&siteid=105468
 
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Mine is a 32 yo dentally challenged 3/4 TB. She can't eat hay or haylage and can only manage grass if it is long.

Her basic diet is a mixture of hi fi, chaff, sugar beet, BodyBuilda mix & flaked soya from Gravenhorse feeds, Blue Chip and Equitop Myoplast. In winter she pretty much has access to a trug of sloppy food at all times.

Because she isn't that efficient at making use of what she eats, she does need a lot of food and we need to keep it interesting for her. So far, it has worked well and she is glossy and shiny.
 
I kept my oldie with hardly any teeth in super condition for years on two large sized trugs (like JillA) a day of Spillers High Fibre cubes. I added oil to it by way of Micronised Linseed and soaked to make a sloppy mash, which she literally sucked up.

This feeding regime was recommended by my EDT and i sought advice from my vet.

Edited to add, the cost was about the same as a weekly supply of hay, i bought 2 bags of cubes per week, she was a 14.3 New Forest x
 
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Thanks all, v helpful. The main problem with her is that she has separation anxiety issues so it's pretty hard to get her living away from others, so it's always been a case of standing with her while she eats her hour-long feeds, which is why I'm struggling to see how I can give her 24 hour access (or even four hour access!) to forage without the others getting it. It MAY be possible for me to get a stable next to my other horse, which she'd probably put up with but hate - I'm going to try and see if i can get one of the starvation paddocks next to her herd for the winter, then see if I can train her to stay in there for an hour or two after breakfast and dinner and hopfully coordinate with others on the yard to pop her bakc in the field. Nightmare!

thank you for your help.
 
I have an older mare (26 years young) who had trouble chewing the haylage last winter. I put her on Allen and Page Fast Fibre as a hay replacer.
It worked out economical, not sure what you pay per week for hay/haylage but I was £16 a week for adlib, I was using aprox 1 bag a week, which worked out at £12 I think.
It's soaked, soaks within minutes, looks disgusting but my old pony loves it!
She was gorging on it at first, think because it was in a bucket that meant she had to eat it all in 1 sitting, but after a while she would just pick at it throughout the day.
I also put some feed balancer in the fast fibre, just to make sure she was getting all her vitamins and minerals.

She looks fab, still gets ridden most days, competes at unaffiliated SJ and dressage and it has saved me a few pennies 👍
Good luck xx
 
Thanks! So did you have her in her own paddock or in overnight then for this?

I do use fast fibre already - I'm just going to have to massively increase the quantity I think, which is the issue.
 
My oldie is out during the day in the winter and stabled at night, and in the summer out overnight and stabled during the day.
So I fed her the fast fibre whilst she was stabled. Not so easy when you have others in the field, hopefully you can get something sorted for you pony

I've added a couple of photos.... 26 years young and as cheeky as ever!

http://s42.photobucket.com/user/Borntobeaprincess/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zps6d06ec4b.jpg.html

http://s42.photobucket.com/user/Borntobeaprincess/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zps06dc0e5d.jpg.html
 
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