Older horse losing condition

[MonkeyTheNF]

Hi. We have a loan pony he is 13hh, 20 yrs old and has cushings.He has started losing condition over the last few weeks.We put him on speedi beet but this hasn't helped with condition and have just put him on veteran vitality by allen and page.He is ridden 4 days a week, mainly hacking but popping small xc jumps, cantering and trotting quite a bit,these hacks are 30 mins upwards. He is schooled once a week for 30mins and has loads of energy and does all this quite happily. His teeth were done a month or two ago with no problems and vaccinations and cushings blood test done in August. The blood test came back the same as the last. He is fed chaff,pony nuts,pasture mix and veteran vitality now, with oil,tumeric,garlic and in the pink senior supplement and of course his cushings medication. Any ideas what we can do?
Thanks

 

[meleeka]

Are you feeding recommended amounts of the feed? How Much hay does he have?

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I have always liked soaked grassnuts with linseed and dried grass chaff for the oldies, with speedibeet for a bit of added extra if necessary.

ETA with ad-lib hay.

 

[MonkeyTheNF]

Meleeka
He has nearly the same amount of hay as my 14.2hh NF who has 3 and a half sections and we feed recommended amounts
Pearlasinger
Thanks may try that

 

[be positive]

That is a lot of feed for a small pony, I have one similar and he is on nothing other than grass, I don't like the mix and match approach with a lot of different feeds all contributing but all doing different things, cut it back and make it more simple based on the feed he likes best and give him the recommended amount with a good quality unmollassed chaff or grassnuts, linseed may be better than oil and cut out the garlic which could be totally upsetting his gut and can be harmful.
Ad lib hay or haylage should also be given and if he is dropping weight maybe cut back the work for a few weeks to give him a bit of time to catch up don't forget to ensure e is not too warm or too cold.

 

[tda]

Have you recently checked his teeth? Two of our oldies are getting wobbly teeth now

 

[MonkeyTheNF]

be positive
He is not the best of doers and has nearly always been fed the same thing (apart from speedi beet/veteran things and meds) even in his prime. Asked owner about diet when started to loan him and they said not to change the things he has always been fed it (oil,garlic and mixed feed) as we were a bit worried about that too so can't really change it as the lady likes things done the way she does it. The hay is ad lib forgot to put that. Will cut work back. Thanks

 

[MonkeyTheNF]

tda
He had teeth checked couple months ago with no problems

 

[be positive]

be positive
He is not the best of doers and has nearly always been fed the same thing (apart from speedi beet/veteran things and meds) even in his prime. Asked owner about diet when started to loan him and they said not to change the things he has always been fed it (oil,garlic and mixed feed) as we were a bit worried about that too so can't really change it as the lady likes things done the way she does it. The hay is ad lib forgot to put that. Will cut work back. Thanks

It may have been fine before but is not now, the garlic can gradually damage the guts, possibly prevent absorption of the nutrients he is getting and will do no harm to drop it, she may like things done her way but in my experience part of being experienced is to recognise there is always more to learn and if something is no longer working it needs to change, not easy when there is an owner involved who is blinkered but just giving him more and more will probably make little difference if he is struggling to absorb or digest what he is getting, his diet really needs a total rethink, maybe you could find a tactful way to deal with her.

Don't forget the prascend will have an influence, the one I had on it became very picky and lost weight which he never really regained but he was in his 30's by then.

 

[MonkeyTheNF]

It may have been fine before but is not now, the garlic can gradually damage the guts, possibly prevent absorption of the nutrients he is getting and will do no harm to drop it, she may like things done her way but in my experience part of being experienced is to recognise there is always more to learn and if something is no longer working it needs to change, not easy when there is an owner involved who is blinkered but just giving him more and more will probably make little difference if he is struggling to absorb or digest what he is getting, his diet really needs a total rethink, maybe you could find a tactful way to deal with her.

Don't forget the prascend will have an influence, the one I had on it became very picky and lost weight which he never really regained but he was in his 30's by then.

We would have tried to make his feed smaller and take out garlic but she has her other horse on the same yard and does the feeds for us before we have even gotten down to the yard as she works early. She took quite a bit of persauding with the speedi-beet / veteran vitality as we have sworn by sugar beet based products for condition for years but he seems to be a special case. So she is kind of hard to deal with and it could make things awkward on the yard which we want to avoid while helping him at the same time. He was diagnosed with cushings a few yrs ago and hasn't had problems with prascend but things can change. Thanks again

 

[Micky]

If he has cushings, the owner needs to look at the laminitis site for feeding guidelines for this condition..it gives feeds to gain and lose weight, cut the oil and the garlic. Speedibeet, umolassed chop, micronised linseed, a good balancer/supplement and plenty of hay soaked or in depending on his laminitis risk. Hope you can get it worked it with the owner

 

[paddi22]

yeah was just going to say about the garlic. And if hes getting big feeds, a lot of it could be being wasted. Also as someone said, the teeth make a massive difference to how they are processing food, we had an old skeleton rescue come in, and two weeks after the teeth were done it was a different pony conditionwise, it hadn't been able to chew hay properly. . Equerry conditioning mash is also brilliant for oldies if you wanted to give extra small bits of feed during the day when you are there

 

[hopscotch bandit]

Hi. We have a loan pony he is 13hh, 20 yrs old and has cushings.He has started losing condition over the last few weeks.We put him on speedi beet but this hasn't helped with condition and have just put him on veteran vitality by allen and page.He is ridden 4 days a week, mainly hacking but popping small xc jumps, cantering and trotting quite a bit,these hacks are 30 mins upwards. He is schooled once a week for 30mins and has loads of energy and does all this quite happily. His teeth were done a month or two ago with no problems and vaccinations and cushings blood test done in August. The blood test came back the same as the last. He is fed chaff,pony nuts,pasture mix and veteran vitality now, with oil,tumeric,garlic and in the pink senior supplement and of course his cushings medication. Any ideas what we can do?
Thanks

Speedy beet has empty calories although its a filling food. V.V is for horses but make sure you are not feeding the light version if you want weight gain. Fast fibre is good as is linseed pellets or oil for weight gain without fizz. Also A&P Calm and Condition although from what I have heard some people find it does anything but calm! Barley rings will add weight and some are made to reduce fizz. Dodson & Horrell do one that has linseed in it.

 

[Michen]

I’m having good success with Alfa a oil with mine since I started adding it. Also giving three feeds a day.

 

[ester]

garlic seriously please get the owner to do some proper reading!

How many feeds does he get a day and how much in each. what chaff and what pasture mix?
When was he last wormed?

Depending on the above if the weight loss is significant in just 3 weeks I'd probably err on getting the vet to pull bloods and probably recheck the ACTH (cushings) to check if anything is underlying it before upping feed (for which my intial recommendations would be adding micronised linseed instead of oil, and/or copra)

 

[MonkeyTheNF]

Thanks all for your replies had nice long talk with owner and have vet booked in 2 weeks time for possible blood test and having a check for any other possible reasons for this

 

[MonkeyTheNF]

Ester
He is fed 3 feeds alwayso has chaff in them with meds at night. Half a small scoop nuts in breakfast and dinner. Supplements at night. Pasture mix and veteran vitality as 'lunch'.
Dodson and horrell pasture mix
Dengie chaff with no molasses
He was wormed beginning of October before he was moved to winter grazing

 

[Pinkvboots]

Thanks all for your replies had nice long talk with owner and have vet booked in 2 weeks time for possible blood test and having a check for any other possible reasons for this

I think it's a good decision I hope it's nothing serious hopefully his just needing a different feed