oldie losing weight & coming back into work

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TarantuLove

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My boy is looking awful atm
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He is ribby and has lost his muscle due to being out of work. However he is still lively and prone to being spooky, and he MUST have a fibre based diet with LOW sugar and starch, and NO ALFALFA (it sends him bonkers!)

Atm he is fed speedibeet and a handful of hi-fi lite (alfalfa in it I know but was seeing how much he can tolerate) with benevit and a joint supplement. I am also treating suspected ulcers so he needs to CHEW his meals to buffer his stomach.

What would you recommend?
 
I'm assuming he is getting as much hay or haylage as he can eat and his teeth have been checked? Do you know the quality of your forage - might be worth seeing if you can get hay or haylage of a higher nutritional content if your forage is poor or average. Any chance you can get him on some good grazing now the grass is coming through?

If he doesn't tolerate alfalfa, why not give him Readigrass or a similar dried grass product instead of HiFi Lite, as this will supply a lot more calories. Have you considered feeding a high oil supplement such as Outshine/Equijewel or something like micronised linseed?

If he is as poor as you describe you will need to be feeding at least three times a day, and you may want to consider having some bloods done as well.
 
Hi, hay has not been checked (supplied with livery) but it seems to be quite high quality as it is soft and not leafy, the grass is not really coming through in his field yet and when it does he eats it!

I was thinking about adding in a third feed late at night, but apart from that he is in fine health but he is just looking sorry for himself with no weight and no muscle!
 
Does he get as much hay as he can eat - ie does he get enough overnight so there is a little left in the morning and is there hay available all the time he is in the stable? Obviously, the more hay you can get into him, the better for his suspected ulcers and the less hard feed you will need to give him.

I would definitely add a third feed.
 
Yep he gets ad-lib hay and it is always available. I was thinking of changing him to the TopSpec Senior balancer too but dont know whether this would be a good idea..?
 
The advantage of adding a balancer like Top Spec Senior would be that you could drop the Benevit and joint supplement, but it would also supply some additional protein and contains yeast products that are meant to help improve fibre digestion, so might help him get more out of the feed you give him.

However, feeding additional calories in the form of a dried grass chaff would still be beneficial and would work well alongside the balancer.
 
What TGM said
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ad-lib good quality hay, Top Spec Senior Balancer, some sort of chaff and what about swapping your Speedibeet to Fast Fibre and also adding some Equijewel or Outshine.
I use Outshine on my Lammi prone oldie through the winter and have been happy with the results.
 
[ QUOTE ]
what about swapping your Speedibeet to Fast Fibre

[/ QUOTE ] Speedibeet contains a lot more calories than Fast Fibre - Speedibeet has 12.4 MJDE/kg whereas Fast Fibre only has 8 MJDE/kg - so for a horse who is struggling to put on weight the Speedibeet is a better choice.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks
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What are the main differences between outshine and equijewel?

[/ QUOTE ]

Outshine is on a wheat base, and Equijewel has a rice bran base - you would need to check the starch content with the manufacturers (Baileys and Saracen), although I have heard the starch content of both is similar. (When assessing the starch content of these feeds you have to bear in mind they are very concentrated and designed to be fed in small quantities - a starch content of 18% may sound high, but if designed to be fed at the rate of 500g then would only supply the same amount of starch as a 9% starch feed fed at 1kg a day). Outshine is more concentrated in calories than Equijewel, containing 24 MJDE/kg compared to Equijewel's 15 MJDE/kg.

Another option is micronised linseed (doesn't have to be cooked like the old-fashioned stuff) which has 20 MJDE/kg:

http://www.charnwood-milling.co.uk/horse_specs/micronized%20whole%20linseed.htm
 
Thanks for that info
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wow you are knowledgeable!

Would the linseed (as its high in protein) be ok to feed with the senior balancer? Because I think that is almost 20% protein?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Would the linseed (as its high in protein) be ok to feed with the senior balancer? Because I think that is almost 20% protein?

[/ QUOTE ] That would depend on how much protein is in the balancer (a quick glance at the TS website doesn't seem to say), how much linseed you intended to feed and what the protein content of your hay is! I would ring Top Spec to check.

I must say I'm surprised that Top Spec hasn't added their own high fat supplement to their range yet - I'm sure it won't be long coming though!
 
Because balancers are meant to be fed in small amounts (usually about 500g a day), it doesn't have a dramatic effect on the overall protein content of the diet, the same would go for the linseed which is also designed to be fed in small amounts. However, if you decide to feed the balancer then I would ring TopSpec and tell them the feedstuffs you plan to feed alongside it to check that they will all work well together!
 
If you want to feed the CC cubes that's fine, but if you want to feed something else alongside the balancer, then they really ought to tell you whether it is OK to do so, or if not why not!
 
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