malnourished fatties

[skint.spotty]

Hi, wondering if anyone can help with balancing my 2 very good doers' diet. Two mares, one 15hh 13yo and one 23yo 12hh, both EMS/PPID positive and on 1/2 prascend a day (building up gradually). Currently out in bare/mostly bare paddock for ~12hr then in overnight on soaked hay. Handful of alfalfa a oil in the afternoon with magnesium oxide, boswellia and prascend in but no other feed.
Recently another horse got into the "fatties paddock" and observed both mares but predominantly the pony eating their droppings so obviously these two are missing out on something other horses are not. Would it be an idea to add in something like speedibeet/ a balancer into their feeds overnight and if so can anyone recommend one suitable? thank you

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

I use forageplus powder balancers to make sure my 'good doer' is getting everything he needs from small meals.

Sorry can't help with the more complicated side relating to medications etc but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along very shortly.

 

[SEL]

I'd go for a balancer - if they'd eat a powder balancer then Forage Plus or Progressive Earth are good value for money but sometimes the taste in small bucket feeds means they won't touch it.

I use a pellet balancer over the summer when mine are restricted. Spillers was my go-to because they are low iron. There are ones designed for laminitics but tbh you feed so little that any of the range would probably be ok. I am capable of standing in the feed shop reading the recommended daily amount, looking at the cost, working out the cost per day for 3 horses and buying the cheapest in the range!

 

[SEL]

But also make sure they are getting enough roughage during the day. Soaked hay in the paddock or straw can be helpful

 

[Tiddlypom]

No salt?

 

[Burnttoast]

I'd have your hay analysed and feed minerals based on that. Hay and grass can vary massively in its mineral content/ratios - I've had getting on for 10 analyses done in the last nine years on various grasses and hays and only one of them would have been correctly balanced by one of the better off-the-shelf balancers like Forageplus or Progressive Earth. The more basic balancers I don't think are worth the tub they arrive in.

 

[skint.spotty]

Oh I should have said just started putting soaked hay out in the field. They have salt licks but won't eat salt in feeds. It was mostly because they were preferentially eating the other horses droppings over their hay that I worried about malnutrition/deficiencies.

 

[Burnttoast]

Might be worth doing an Equibiome test to see what's going on in there. Eating droppings might be a need for fibre but if they have hay available it might be a gut thing. That behaviour's often seen in horses that have had courses of antibiotics that have knocked their gut bacteria.

 

[Nasicus]

Is it just this horses droppings they'll eat, or will they eat others too?
Just wondering if there's something about this particular horse that makes it's poo particularly tempting, be it something it's fed, or perhaps it's not chewing it's food properly/digesting as efficiently making it's poo more palatable and tempting hungry mouths?

 

[skint.spotty]

Is it just this horses droppings they'll eat, or will they eat others too?
Just wondering if there's something about this particular horse that makes it's poo particularly tempting, be it something it's fed, or perhaps it's not chewing it's food properly/digesting as efficiently making it's poo more palatable and tempting hungry mouths?

oh that is a good point. Honestly I'm not sure. Maybe I need to do a poop buffet for them lol of different horses' droppings

 

[Nasicus]

oh that is a good point. Honestly I'm not sure. Maybe I need to do a poop buffet for them lol of different horses' droppings

Haha, aren't they delightful?!

 

[PurBee]

Foals often eat dams poop to expand their gut biome population to be more diverse. It is natural animal instinctual behaviour most times. My dog loves horse poop, and spends time to really choose which ball she’d like, evidently her nose searching for something ’appealing’!

Equibiome.co.uk do a mixed probiotic if you wanted to give them a diverse dose of bacteria commonly found in thousands of horse gut biomes. I throw it at mine every now and again to offer diversity.