need feeding help!

[TarantuLove]

My boy STILL hasnt put on much weight...
He is a TB and a poor doer but he is barefoot and there are horses going down with laminitis at the yard left right and centre...he is also on a 3 horse field with only one other horse!

He also has suspected ulcers which will not be helping...

I was feeding him TopSpec Senior with CoolCondition Cubes and unmolassed sugarbeet but he didnt put on much weight (just got shiny

)

Due to finance I've changed him to pink powder (full dose as a pick-me up) and unmolassed sugarbeet w/ the cubes. Bit of hi-fi lite too to make him chew - he's also fed on mag ox to help with his feet/lami risk.

Ad-lib hay and good amount of turnout...

 

[martlin]

I can only tell you what I feed my ulcer/poor doer:
ad lib hay and haylege, but limited grass as it doesn't do him any favours
about 3 kg of spillers slow release cubes
home made meadow hay chaff, lightly molassed - 2 kg
Naf Thrive
Veg/corn oil - 200 ml
RedCell
He was looking superb on that diet/routine, but didn't have enough sparkle, so now he also gets approx 1 kg of oats.
He is in medium to heavy work, 16.2-3 and 3/4 bred.

 

[Cliqmo]

Do you mind if I ask why you feed HiFi Lite to a horse you're trying to put weight on? Surely full fat hifi/chaff would serve your purposes better? I fed my boy Allen & Page's Calm and Condition (soaked for 10mins) and Alfa A when I brought him last September and it worked an absolute treat

Bentley September 2008

Bentley December 2008

I will take some more recent ones soon!!

 

[TarantuLove]

Thanks both

The hi-fi lite is just to bulk it out to make him chew his meals properly (help buffer acid with more chewing)

 

[Cliqmo]

No problems, good luck with finding an effective solution

 

[teddyt]

Assuming the vet is helping you rule out ill health all you can do is increase the amount of energy (calories) your horse is getting. Usually grass is the best thing for weight gain, which makes me think that maybe your horse has a problem?

Anyhow, safer (compared to cereals) high energy feeds are coolstance copra meal or equijewel. They are both around 15/16 DEmj/kg and are high oil (fat). Fat is energy dense and contains around 2 1/2 x more energy per kg than cereals. For the same weight the horse is therefore getting more energy, which is good to keep the meal sizes small. Sugarbeet is good for helping with weight gain but because of the high water content it means that per meal the amount of actual feed is small, with the rest water. It may therefore be better to feed a different feed instead to get more energy per meal. Also, you could feed a higher energy chaff than hifi light. You would still get the chewing benefits but more energy at the same time. Alfalfa for example. This is also very good for ulcers as the high calcium content helps buffer the acid.

 

[toomanyhorses26]

if you are already feeding top spec I would switch to the conditioning flakes (you can feed these in addition to the cool and condition cubes and swtich to alfa a or alfas a lite depending on your horse.