Putting weight on elderly minature shetland

[Bens_Mum]

As title. Our little companion pony (31 inch) Gloria has not done at all well this winter. We have rugged her up and given adlib hay but she lost alot of condition during the cold weather. She will be 26 this year. The dentist looked at her teeth (what little she has left!) and they are fine.

She is shiney and has bright eyes but we have very little grass and her friend is lamanitic so we have to be careful anyway. Other than hay would you feed a mini hard feed at all or maybe switch to haylage? It has become apparent as her coat is coming out that its more weight that she has lost that it looked as she is so fluffy so we want to do something now rather than wait for the grass to come through. Any ideas apreciated I don't have much experience of little ones!

 

[horses13]

My friend has some Shetlands, including an ancient one. She does feed him High fibre haylage when there is little grass. She also feeds Alfa A and Blue chip for laminitics. He was a very poorly little chap when he came to her with liver damage from ragwort. He now looks 20 years younger.
All the feed companies can give excellent advice for any particular horse/ponies needs. It is well worth emailing them with full details of the pony.

 

[Cat&Mouse]

It sounds like you definately need to start giving her some feed. as they get older they need a bit more help & also if her teeth arn't great she may not be managing hay or grass very well so moving her onto haylage may not do a lot. You may need to look at hay replacers as well as a feed. But you need something low sugar & starch with her being a shetland she could easily end up with laminitis.
I have a 26 year old welsh section A that drops weight in the winter but balloons in the summer but has had bad laminitis in the past. I used to feed her Spillers happy hoof with extra vegetable oil in her feed with allen & page fast fibre or unmolassed sugarbeet during the winter, but have just put her on Chestnut Alpha Easy already has the oil in & ok for lamintics & feed their meadow graze as hay replacer as she has choaked on hay in the past. Most feed companies should have an advice line give them a call.

 

[fallenangel123]

If I need a little extra condition on my minis I give them a handful of Hi-Fi and speedy beet twice a day.

 

[Bens_Mum]

Thanks for the tips! I will give the feed merchant a ring. Its been a bit of a shock as she has always been on the plump side and we have been trying to watch her weight not put it on. She was a brood mare at a large stud and fairly unhandled for many many years so is a bit of an odd shape anyway and came to us a nervous wreck. Now she has got used to us she is such a personality we even got her a 'friend' when my horse went to livery so we want to do the best for her!

 

[Cat&Mouse]

I would ring an actual feed company advice line & talk to a nutritionist rather than your local feed merchant.

(I am not trying put people that work at feed merchants down, honest )

 

[teddyt]

stick to fibre only feeds and feed them soaked to preserve what she has left of he teeth. the grinding surface may be inadequate now to fully survive on hay/haylage anyway.

Suitable feeds include unmollassed sugar beet, allen and page fast fibre or any fibre nut can be soaked.

 

[millimoo]

My Shetland is 24 this year, and is kept well rugged in bad weather in the winter (350grm when its really bad). He even wears a rain sheet on cool wet summers days, but only because he's kept in at night all year round and get miserable if he gets wet /cold.
He has quality Hayledge (thats what we have for the horse, and no storage for Hay), and Dodson & Horrell safe and sound - i've managed to get my mum to stop giving him Dodson & Horrell 16+ in the winter. This is his feeding regime all year round now, and we just up the volume over the winter, with adlib Hayledge.
He's currently muzzled for the summer, unluckily for him with 2 very small Hayledge nets a day plus a handful of Safe & Sound as it's good for their feet.