Ideas/tips for putting weight on Cushings horse please!

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Patterdale

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Horse is 16.2hh tb, 16/17 years old. He was a poor doer before but now with the Cushings he's not looking very good at all this winter.
Trouble is he had laminitis last summer so I don't want to trigger that again.
Haven't much experience of trying to put weight ON laminitics so is there anyone out there who has?

He currently has speedi-beet and happy hoof, with hay.

He's always had v good haylage before but obv can't have it now :(

I used to feed him barley and sugar beet with Blue Chip before all this and he looked great, but do people think barley would still be ok? With Blue Chip lami-light?

Any ideas/experiences gratefully received, I hate to see him looking poor :(
 
Assuming that alog with most other Cushings horses he has Insulin Resistance you need to avoid cereals, aka starch, along with other sugars, so the barley is out. I feed my old lady Speedybeet or other unmollassed beet, fibre beet which has alfalfa as well, micronised linseed, grass nuts and Top Spec Cool Condition which is cereal free. And she has a total hay replacer diet because she can't swallow hay.
I wouldn't worry too much about haylage - the laminits was probably down to the Cushings, but if mine would eat plenty of good forage that would be the mainstay of her diet.
There is a Yahoo group E(quine)C(ushings and)I(nsulin)R(estistance) which is a really good source of information, but mostly in the US where feeds and medication are a bit different.
 
My 23yr old cushings girl is doing really well on cuprameal. She has an extra complication on top of cushings related insulin issues as she lost nearly half her hindgut in colic surgery (10 yrs ago - unrelated) so cereals/ starch have been a no go for years.
 
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