how to put weight on a cushings pony?

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lozzles

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Im currently struggling to keep weight on our 21 year old 14hh new forest, diagnosed with cushings last autumn, shes managed well with pergolide and is extremely fit and healthy , bloods all fine and competes regularly.

shes currently fed 1 1/2 scoop of healthy hooves, with 1/3 scoop of speedi beet and 3 pumps of soya oil as well as glucosamine twice daily. shes not very keen on the healthy hooves so want to change this ideally to something with more calories

im at a bit of a loss really what to feed her for weight gain which is laminitic friendly ( only ever had two bouts but have to be careful with the cushings). shes currently too ribby altho has loads of energy.

any ideas would be great! I have emailed spillers and dodson and horrel but thought id try here as well.
 
Ideas:
- Alfalfa, as long as kidneys are ok.
- Fibre nuts
- Topspec conditioning cubes are 12.5 mj/kg DE and low starch.
- Saracen equijewel or coolstance copra meal are both very low starch and high energy

Are teeth ok?
 
teeth were checked a couple of months ago and are absolutely fine. topsec conditioning cubes sound a good one. also do u think alfa a would be ok, our other horse is on that now so would be easy enough to switch her onto that.
 
alfalfa is good a long as kidney function is ok. If not the extra calcium can cause more problems. In the majority of horses alfa a is fine though
 
no kidney probs as recently had bloods taken . awesome will try alfa a and topspec as it also looks non heating which is a good thing with a wizzy pony. thanks a lot!
 
Can recommend triple top up by Badminton feeds. Its a suppliment to add and the horse I have it on looks amazing at the moment. He is a bit of a worrier and will drop weight easily but on this his coat looks great and he has sparkle without being stupid. Its about £32 for a sack. A tub is about £14 and lasts 10-14 days.
 
Have you tried one of the winergy feeds? the reason i say that is my mare needed energy but has had laminitis in the past (and many other horrible problems) and they were able to help me find a safe source of energy, same might apply for your horse?
 
i just got the email back from spillers and they recommended winergy growth, not sure whether to try it or not as not all horses like it and as shes really not keen on dengie healthy hoof even with speedi beet shes quite fussy and dont know if she'd take to it

think shes more likely to eat the alfa a and topspec,
 
I would suggest Alpha-A Oil rather than the standard one as it contains less molasses.

We have had problems with alpha a being heating in some ponies, so introduce it carefully!

A word of warning, that Farriers Formula is apparently really high in protein, so I would avoid swapping to that from Heathly Hooves if your pony is already whizzy.

We used to feed an iron suppliment to our Cushings Pony, can't remember what it was called, but it was a green liquid. It made a real difference and she looked a lot less sorry for herself when she was on it.

We also clipped her out all year round, which seamed to help keep weight on in the summer. We assumed it was because she was lighter and sweated less.
 
The following products are recommended by the lamitis trust:
Fibrebeet
Speedibeet
Alfabeet
Hi-Fi Lite
Healthy Hooves
Alfa A Lite
Happy Hoof
High Fibre cubes.

The following feeds also say they are suitable for laminitics
L-mix
Fast Fibre
Bailey-lo-cal Balancer
Blue Chip anti-lam
Outshine
Badminton Fibre Nuggets.

Currently my lammi prone pony who is underweight is fed
Fibrebeet (a large scoop fed on it's own)
Happy Hoof |(two large scoops)
and High Fibre Cubes (One large scoop)
and Baileys Lo-cal. (this is split into 3 or four feeds)

Over the winter she also has two mugs of Outshine.

The above diet has be approved by an equine nutritionist and also my vet alongside hay and limited grazing.
 
she was clipped earlier in the spring and thanks to the pergolide she hasnt grown back more than a summer coat. the main problem with just feeding the laminitus trust feeds is that they all tend to be low cal.

shes only had laminitus twice in her life and both of those were when her cushings first appeared. according to our vet the pergolide should make her no more prone than she was before.

i might try the alfa oil but think she really does need the cool condition cubes, apparently the pergolide can work two ways, speed up or slow down the metabolism and in her its definately the former.

i wasnt too worried about the hoof benefits of healthy hooves as she does have very good hooves which although they have some laminitus damage grow well and are being managed by our farrier.

do you guys think the alfa a would be too mollassed? I know people with laminitics who feed it with no probs but would hate to have a problem, dengie feed advice did reccomend alfalfa just not which type and obv dont want to use alfa lite as trying to put weight on especially as its summer so certainly dont want her being thin by winter time.
 
If you want to feed alfalfa without the mollases you can get alfalfa nuts (dengie) that are just straight alfalfa. You have to soak them before feeding though.
 
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