Please help, Very fussy old bag with dodgy teeth!!!

A

alicat

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I'm at my wits end, my old girl is 34 and still has all her teeth but struggles to eat hay now. I have tried buckets of alfa a, horse hage, graze-on, soaked hay and she won't eat any of it unless it is actually made up as a feed!

At the moment she is having soaked hi-fibre cubes, veteran mix, bran and graze-on and a bit of alfa-a. Obviously I'd like her to eat something else when I bring her in at night when the weather turns colder, she will eat nettles that i tie up in her stable but I can't really pick enough! She can eat grass with out too much trouble. Its just so frustrating that she is so incredible fussy.

Has any body got any other ideas because I'm stuck now!!

Sorry its a bit long

Al
 
soaked readigrass or graze-on, with a handful of nuts on top of a big bucketful?
umm, otherwise, soaked grass nuts?
i'd give her sugarbeet definitely, unless there's a reason she can't have it, sugarbeet on top of soaked readigrass usually goes down very well.
maybe you could try cutting the hay so it is shorter strands, i'd check with vet first though. very labour intensive but would cut down on chewing requirements i guess!
 
Thanks, She won't eat ready grass either, she will eat graze-on if wet in a feed. I have tried just wetting it on its own with a few nuts which doesn't work. But maybe if i try sugar beet with it she may eat it. How much do you think she would need over night. She is 14.1hh.

Sorry i don't fancy cutting up hay, I've had her 15 years and can't imagine life with out her but I draw the line at doing that everybody thinks i'm mad for picking her stinging nettles! lol
 
I can't seem to get hold of grass nuts down my way, so using hi-fibre cubes instead. Have tried alfa nuts but they take ages to soak and i got worried about too much protein
 
So nice to see a loving, old horse owner doing everything they can.Sorry I cant help with anything but positive vibes. Give your old horse an extra cuddle from me.
 
Soaked high fibre cubes are good - used to feed them to our old pony! I would suggest you ring one of the manufacturer's helplines, perhaps Spiller's if you are using their cubes, and ask them to work out what quantities you need to feed to make up for the lack of hay.
 
sugar beet - i'd prob feed unmolassed (depending on her condition) or low molasses, e.g. speedibeet (this is what i use.) prob 1/2 a scoop (soaked) per feed, see how she goes, if she loves it, maybe more.
sorry, i use Readigrass and Graze-On interchangeably as terms, as mine will eat either and i can't tell the difference!
what about soaked or damped-down chaff, such as Happy Hoof or something? i've got a few bags to try and mine love it.
i can totally understand you not wanting to cut up hay!
umm, i've found Baileys Top Line Conditioning Cubes to be ultra-palatable, a handful of those on top of a bucketfull of 'fluff' (readigrass, hi-fi, whatever i want to fill the horse up with) usually makes the whole lot go down very well.
 
I feel your pain .. my old girl is 34, has all her teeth but is getting fussier as they day goes by!! She's on speedibeet, conditioning cubes (which i leave for 5 mins to soak up SB water til they are a pulp). She also had Allen & Paige Old Faithful mix, Dengie Hi-Fi and a rather large helping of mint. She's out all the time atm but winter is a nightmare as she'd rather stand in her stable and stare at her hay/haylage all night than eat it if it's not quite to her liking (which it often isn't!) Fussy b*gger! So frustrating they don't seem to understand our frustration do they?!

Good luck anyway and if you find some sort of miracle please let me know!!
 
Scranny- ann, I think our girls must be related!!! I'm going to stick with the hi- fibre cubes, etc for the mo in case the grass goes mad, i don't mind her being a bit light at this time of year. Then will add some conditioning nuts if she needs it.

Any type of chaff or hi-fi is a big no go, i've even tried cherry flavour chaff and she still turns her noise up at it. and yes i have a tub of mint and no that hasn't helped!

I think i will add some speedi beet to the graze-on and keep everything crossed.

Thanks so much to all of you

xxx
P.s how do u put photos on here?
 
Bless her, maybe they are long lost twins!! If you go into Picture Gallery there is a sticky on the top of the page showing you how to post pics.

Hope to see some soon
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Have you tried Allen & Page fast fibre? My welsh D will have it all through winter and my hot blooded mare will have that and further into the winter will go on to their Calm & Condition as she loses weight and muscle. The fast fibre is soaked in hot water and looks just like a bran mash,it is perfect for the oldies as they don't have to chew much and it's super tasty,both mine loved it and one of mine is vvv fussy.
 
So is that the same type of thing as high fibre cubes? She loves their old faithful mix. If its the same type of thing i will change to that and then maybe calm and condition if i can't keep weight on.


Thank you
xx
 
All that everyone has said is great - and good that she likes Fast Fibre!

Sha looks great, full praise goes to you! I hope my old man looks like that in a few years!

Just thought I'd say, if she likes nettles, then you can get dried ones - a company called Equus Health do them if you have their stuff anywhere near you? Also; the bran in her feed? I know it was a good old fashioned way of upping fibre, but it can totally ruin the calcium:phosphorus ratio as it is high in phosphorus. Alfa is high in calcium, but I'm not sure that it is enough to equal the bran? There's quite a lot online about it if I haven't made it sound very clear!
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I feed my OAP shetty fast fibre instead of hay (he just cant manage it anymore either!)
I was using the Spillers cubes but they took half hour to soak, Fast Fibre is just 60 seconds (great stuff!) and if its really cold, like fruity says, add a bit of hot water, and you have a nice warm mash
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Hi Guys, just thought I would let you know last Monday I had to have Queenie PTS after a bout of laminitis........ absoluted gutted but she is now in a happy painfree place xxxx
 
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