Putting weight on old horse with no teeth

[mga4ever]

We have a 33 year old Arab who has been on a soft diet for a couple of years.

We have been using calm & condition which worked wonders on my pony who needed to put on weight after colic but had no teeth.

This horse has teeth but they are very warn so he is on a hay replacer under vet and dentists recommendation. However he is quite Ribby and the calm and condition isn't helping.

Current diet is 1.5kg dry calm & condition with 2 large Stubbs scoops apple chaff for tea. 1kg dry calm & condition with 1 Stubbs scoop apple chaff for breakfast. Ad lib Leigh chop senior overnight or when kept in during the day.

He is 15hh, any advice as to how we can better put weight on much appreciated.

 

[AdorableAlice]

Veteran Vitality and linseed, speedibeet/alphabeet would possibly help. Alpha Oil ? If he is not cushing positive Equi Jewel could be useful.

 

[MadBlackLab]

Have you tried simple systems. Its a natural soaked feed lurcene, alfalfa, grass. I find this great for weight and can be made as sloppy as you like

 

[MrsNorris]

Add some veg oil, a few glugs in each feed really ups the calories and most horse dont seem to mind if you introduce it slowly.

 

[pipper]

Veteran Vitality and linseed, speedibeet/alphabeet would possibly help. Alpha Oil ? If he is not cushing positive Equi Jewel could be useful.

Absolutly agree with the above - worked on our oldie who could not eat any hay due to lack of teeth.

 

[Marydoll]

Baileys no4 for my 30 year oldie, with micronised linseed and beet pulp with alfa A oil twice a day and ad lib haylage, sometimes i'll add in a bit extra oil in by using outshine as shes not great eating ordinary oils

 

[rosie-ellie]

Slobbermash is a veteran mash for horses with no teeth

 

[spottydottypony]

My old boy was 36 with no teeth, a poor doer TB. I fed him large amount of soaked grass nuts, Rowan Barbary ready mash fibre (seperate buckets) and a large tub of Leigh senior chop to munch on. For his breakfast and tea he had soaked sugar beet with soaked conditioning cubes. He could not eat hay or hayledge. I also tried him on the VHS hay replacer (soaked hi fibre cubes, chop and sugar beet in a large tub trug with water) but he want fussed on that. Spillers Sixteen plus cubes are good but pricey and conditioning cubes work just as well. Add some oil, linseed is good. My boy kept his weight till he died of a freak field accident this year.

 

[Bennions Field]

Ive got my 30 year old mare on sbeet, grass nuts and conditioning cubes - all soaked to a breadcrumb consistancy. Ive also recently added a pre/pro biotic as she was not puttong enough weight on going into the winter. I alsospoke to one of the nutritionist at yh live, it was invaluable as i wasnt feeding quite the right amount, my mares around 15h and i needed to feed her aprox 13kg (dry weight) of feed a day, she cant manage hay so has the above feeds as hay replacer/ feed. Its worked wonders as she's now almost 500kgs again . She's put on nearly 80kgs over the last 6-8 weeks. I thnk the pro/pre biotics have helped a huge amount as i only icreased feed by 2kg per day but it means she's hopefully going to manage the winter wel. Youre best trying to speak to the feed co's nutritionists, i spoke to spillers, they will tell you how much you need to feed, forgot to say i also add 1/2 cup of linseed oil per feed, good for skin/coat and adds extra calories in small volume. Best of luck its hard when they get older espacially when youve had the so long

 

[cheeryplatypus]

Try the hay blocks, soak them overnight first. The fibres are quite small once soaked and they come in handy 1kg blocks. Halleys 'greengold' one helped put some extra condition on my horse last winter (he has teeth so gets them dry). Your oldie would need plenty of time to eat the soaked block. You may want to split the soaked block into different buckets in his stable overnight.

 

[windand rain]

soaked grass nuts and alafalfa nuts, micronised linseed, calm and condition and top spec balancer about a coffee mug of each twice a day with the veterans chaff as forage. Cant rate micronised linseed highly enough as it is a very palatable oil with protein and fibre. It is rare for one not to like it but it might be worth borrowing a kg to find out

 

[Puzzled]

Kept my old boy going for years ( he was nearly 40) with veteran vitality and fast fibre ( added some sugar beet to the fast fibre to keep it more interesting ) he looked great! Give Allen and page a ring as they were very helpful.

 

[TickyTavey]

Soaked barley rings helped my old man.

 

[Jonesy]

I have always heard good things about Rowan barberry ready mash, linseed is fab too. My old pony used to be fed topspec super conditioning flakes to maintain his weight, he loved them and always looked well on them, though I do understand they don't suit all horses.

 

[alext]

My old boy was on spillers high fibre cubes and sixteen plus mixed into a warm mash. Think he had bran in there to, to help with his digestion. At night he had a mixture of hifi senior , Alfa a and hifi original . He seemed to do well on this and I have found high fibre cubes to work on my other horses too when they needed a bit more.

 

[twiggy2]

used to look after a 16hh tb that had no teeth, he could not have hay or chaff but some how always managed grass if it was reasonably long, his herd were always first (all old men) in a new field so they had the best grazing, in the winter when in at night he would have 3 stubbs scoops (dry measure) of sugar beet and 3 of grass nuts both soaked as needed with 2 scoops of veteran mix and in his last winter carried plenty of weight till his last couple of months. you could add micronised linseed as well

 

[Gloi]

Rowan Barbary ready fibre mash worked wonders for our old pony.

 

[nikanita]

Rowan Barbary ready mash extra. My oldie lost weight while we were on holiday and this was recommended. Absolutely brilliant, looked a different pony on 4 handfuls a day after 2 weeks. Only a 5 min soak and smells lovely.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Ive got my 30 year old mare on sbeet, grass nuts and conditioning cubes - all soaked to a breadcrumb consistancy. Ive also recently added a pre/pro biotic as she was not puttong enough weight on going into the winter. I alsospoke to one of the nutritionist at yh live, it was invaluable as i wasnt feeding quite the right amount, my mares around 15h and i needed to feed her aprox 13kg (dry weight) of feed a day, she cant manage hay so has the above feeds as hay replacer/ feed. Its worked wonders as she's now almost 500kgs again . She's put on nearly 80kgs over the last 6-8 weeks. I thnk the pro/pre biotics have helped a huge amount as i only icreased feed by 2kg per day but it means she's hopefully going to manage the winter wel. Youre best trying to speak to the feed co's nutritionists, i spoke to spillers, they will tell you how much you need to feed, forgot to say i also add 1/2 cup of linseed oil per feed, good for skin/coat and adds extra calories in small volume. Best of luck its hard when they get older espacially when youve had the so long

You are doing well. congratulations

 

[JillA]

It would be a good idea to test for Cushings before changing diet - Cushingoid and Insulin Resistant ponies can't tolerate sugars or starches (cereals) in the diet, so you might be able to use cereals or you might be doing more harm than good if you do.
My 35 year old with Cushings has no functioning molars so lives on unmollassed beet pulp and grass nuts, all soaked, and she does have a couple of acres if winter grass to nibble. She chews and spits out haylage, but it is difficult to get enough dry matter into her due to the amount of water needed to soak it.

 

[sueonmull]

Great fan of micronized linseed, supermarket vegetable oil and soaked grass pellets all good for putting weight on and keeping it on. Personally, if you haven't already done so, I would also have a blood test to check there are no underlying complications, assume his worming is up to date and dentist still gives him a regular check up. Most feed supplier's nutritionists are really helpful and worth a call just to check everything is balanced.

 

[xgemmax]

I'd add some speedibeet and micronised linseed to his feed

 

[Toffee44]

Soaked barley rings??

 

[Polos Mum]

I'm having amazing sucess this winter with soaked grass nut for my companion with no teeth - it's not pricy (£6.80 a 20kg bag), it's only grass so no worries about cereals etc, I tastes like mars bars (according to him anyway) so he eats it us really well.
He's only having 2 scoops a day at the moment as there is still some grass but he's a completely different pony compared to last year

 

[Magnetic Sparrow]

I love boiled barley as a conditioning feed. I use my slow cooker to prepare it from whole barley, so it's not much work, buying whole barley works out out relatively cheap, it can be fed warm and I've never known a horse that didn't love it.

 

[Lucky Lady]

Saracens is a great feed so check out the veteran one. She would also need a tummy support at all times now because as they get older their digestion system gets sluggish just like us!

 

[natmac84]

fibrebeet and fast fibre are great - also try adding some lambs milk powder to the feed x