How to get weight onto ex-lammie oldie?

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FinkleyAlex

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Background info - M (20 year old PBA) used to live off thin air (decent grazing 8-4pm, 1/2 haynets at night and a handful of happy hoof for supplements). He went out on loan but stayed on the yard we'd been at for three years who knew of his history of laminitis (one episode about 7 years ago, never had it since as long as we kept his diet and turnout the same). I moved back home for the year and found out they'd allowed him to get very fat and he'd come down with low grade laminitis - with the vets advice we put him on a diet and got him slim again. I then got a phone call from the YO saying he was too thin - went to visit him and he was underweight with a lot of muscle wastage.

Brought him home and he put on a bit of weight over late summer (living out 24/7 on good grass) but seems to be going downhill again. He is turned out from 8-4pm on what is now relatively poor grazing thanks to the rain, but he is always has his head down - just the quality isn't great. He gets two huge haynets of hay a night, and 1 1/2 scoops of happy hoof, 1 scoop of Topspec cool conditioning cubes and some oil + NAF superflex. He is shiny, seems happy in himself but I can still see his ribs (he doesn't look like a rescue case but I'm definitely not happy with how he looks). The vet has done his teeth (a little sharp but nothing too bad) and blood tests showed everything was working fine, no worm burden was found (and he is regularly wormed).

Does anyone have any other ideas, bearing in mind he can't have 'proper' cereal feeds? I thought maybe he may have ulcers from the diet but the vet doesn't think he has so didn't want to test for it.
 
FinkleyAlex said:
Background info - M (20 year old PBA) used to live off thin air (decent grazing 8-4pm, 1/2 haynets at night and a handful of happy hoof for supplements). He went out on loan but stayed on the yard we'd been at for three years who knew of his history of laminitis (one episode about 7 years ago, never had it since as long as we kept his diet and turnout the same). I moved back home for the year and found out they'd allowed him to get very fat and he'd come down with low grade laminitis - with the vets advice we put him on a diet and got him slim again. I then got a phone call from the YO saying he was too thin - went to visit him and he was underweight with a lot of muscle wastage.

Brought him home and he put on a bit of weight over late summer (living out 24/7 on good grass) but seems to be going downhill again. He is turned out from 8-4pm on what is now relatively poor grazing thanks to the rain, but he is always has his head down - just the quality isn't great. He gets two huge haynets of hay a night, and 1 1/2 scoops of happy hoof, 1 scoop of Topspec cool conditioning cubes and some oil + NAF superflex. He is shiny, seems happy in himself but I can still see his ribs (he doesn't look like a rescue case but I'm definitely not happy with how he looks). The vet has done his teeth (a little sharp but nothing too bad) and blood tests showed everything was working fine, no worm burden was found (and he is regularly wormed).

Does anyone have any other ideas, bearing in mind he can't have 'proper' cereal feeds? I thought maybe he may have ulcers from the diet but the vet doesn't think he has so didn't want to test for it.
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Have you tried Allen & Page fast fibre?

I've got two ex lamis on it and its worked well for them. Ones a 16 year old welsh cross whos a good doer, and the other is a 15 year old welsh cross whos a poor doer
 
MyLuckyStar said:
Have you tried Allen & Page fast fibre?

I've got two ex lamis on it and its worked well for them. Ones a 16 year old welsh cross whos a good doer, and the other is a 15 year old welsh cross whos a poor doer
Click to expand...

I haven't tried the fast fibre yet as I didn't think it was known for its calorie content - I will look into it though as I'm open to all ideas now, I just want him back to how he was!
 
FinkleyAlex said:
Background info - M (20 year old PBA) used to live off thin air (decent grazing 8-4pm, 1/2 haynets at night and a handful of happy hoof for supplements). He went out on loan but stayed on the yard we'd been at for three years who knew of his history of laminitis (one episode about 7 years ago, never had it since as long as we kept his diet and turnout the same). I moved back home for the year and found out they'd allowed him to get very fat and he'd come down with low grade laminitis - with the vets advice we put him on a diet and got him slim again. I then got a phone call from the YO saying he was too thin - went to visit him and he was underweight with a lot of muscle wastage.

Brought him home and he put on a bit of weight over late summer (living out 24/7 on good grass) but seems to be going downhill again. He is turned out from 8-4pm on what is now relatively poor grazing thanks to the rain, but he is always has his head down - just the quality isn't great. He gets two huge haynets of hay a night, and 1 1/2 scoops of happy hoof, 1 scoop of Topspec cool conditioning cubes and some oil + NAF superflex. He is shiny, seems happy in himself but I can still see his ribs (he doesn't look like a rescue case but I'm definitely not happy with how he looks). The vet has done his teeth (a little sharp but nothing too bad) and blood tests showed everything was working fine, no worm burden was found (and he is regularly wormed).

Does anyone have any other ideas, bearing in mind he can't have 'proper' cereal feeds? I thought maybe he may have ulcers from the diet but the vet doesn't think he has so didn't want to test for it.
Click to expand...

have you tested for cushings?... my boy was loseing weight. i was told ti increase his soaked haylage.. plus fast fibre.... he has cushings and lammi prone, hes around 20 - 25 yrs old.. turned out in a muzzle... hes now looking well...
 
tango'smum said:
have you tested for cushings?... my boy was loseing weight. i was told ti increase his soaked haylage.. plus fast fibre.... he has cushings and lammi prone..turned out in a muzzle... hes now looking well...
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I think the vet said that cushings would have shown up on the blood test (which it didn't - bloods showed everything was working fine internally)
 
Has the vet tested for cushings? my oldie is not a typical laminitic pony he is not really a good doer, he lost weight rapidly 3 years ago with loss of topline, when tested he had cushings which affected his metabolism, stopping him absorbing his food properly, the symptoms can vary so much. Now on prascend he maintains his weight much better although in winter does not look great as there is less goodness in the grass, which is his preferred diet.
 
Second getting him tested for Cushings and IR. If he needs to gain weight I'd give something like speedi/kwik beet and of course tons of low sugar hay. A decent balancer (Pro Hoof??) and perhaps some yea sacc if not in the balancer.
Fast fibre is very low in calories so although good for good doers/laminitics it wont really help with weight gain. Add micronised linseed too.

ps. The Cushings test isn't included in routine bloods.It has to handled carefully.
 
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Thanks all - going to call the vet to see if we did test for cushings or not - I'm due to give him an update anyway (wishing I'd taken advantage of those free cushings blood test vouchers now!)
 
Speedibeet, linseed and yeast helped my exmoor. I've actually taken both of mine off linseed for the time being and am cutting out speedibeet, too, as it worked a little too well!
 
Dot2dot said:
Fast fibre and are you feeding twice a day as this is a must. 3 times if possible!
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Only feeding once a day as I work in healthcare and start my shifts at silly o clock in the morning so my YO turns him out. I will ask her if she can put in a morning feed for him and turn him out last (not sure how he'll deal with this as all the others pass his stable on the way to the field and he likes to be first out!).
 
FinkleyAlex said:
Only feeding once a day as I work in healthcare and start my shifts at silly o clock in the morning so my YO turns him out. I will ask her if she can put in a morning feed for him and turn him out last (not sure how he'll deal with this as all the others pass his stable on the way to the field and he likes to be first out!).
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A horse will always get much more out of its feed from having it split as the body can absorb more nutrients from the feed. You shouldn't feed more than 2-2.5kg of hard feed in one go as this can cause colic and is also just a waste if passing straight through the body rather than being fully absorbed.

Ask YO to try this for you even if she may have to wait 5 mins while he is eating. It should make a big difference especially if adding some fast fibre as well.
 
I'm having good success with spillers senior conditioning mix. It mashes down really well with fast fibre and I split it into two feeds.'.

Had one with a body score of about 2, and now about a 3 (out of five). Ex lammie, cushings veteran plus.

I don't really know if the senior mix is good for lammies or not, but it's palatable and hasn't done my oldie any harm :)
 
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