Quantities to feed?

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LCH611

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We have a new baby ISH. He is rising 5, 17hh and very skinny - on a weigh tape he is 504kg. He was bought from Goresbridge in October in good shape (I have seen photos and spoken to the chap who sold him), arrived in the UK at a dealer's yard and promptly got ill & shivered off all his condition. However he doesn't now have a temperature, has a shiny coat, clear eyes, good appetite, no snotty nose etc etc and my vet was happy to pass him when he vetted him for me last week. He tested high for tapeworm & mod-high for everything else, so has been wormed with Pramox, has had a v sharp wolf tooth out, has the back lady on Tuesday & the dentist next week.

I think I have now persuaded him that he can eat copra, and I also have available alfabeet, readigrass, linseed, lysine, rowan barbery solutions mash, kwik beet, pure feed conditioning pellets & pure easy. All of which he will scoff with great relish. He is in overnight with as much (very dry) haylage as he can eat - there is always lots left over in the morning. He goes out after breakfast at about 8 am and they have enough haylage in the field to last them until about 11 - they tend to mooch about picking at grass (I have very little this year) and playing, and then I try to bring him in at about 2pm to a big trug of feed and feed again at about 6.30. He is always keen to come in. What would you feed him and what sort of quantities of each would you be feeding at each meal? Breakfast can't be a vast meal as I do have to get all stables done in very little time.

Also, he has a "dealer clip" (i.e high trace clip with neck & head taken off) and was swaddled with rugs when we got him. I don't like to overrug, and he always seems to be really warm (actually hot without feeling sweaty) under one HW rug, but perhaps I am not keeping him warm enough and I should add another layer?
 
At the moment he is having a dry scoop of alfabeet & the solutions mash (obviously soaked) with a mug of linseed & lysine in the morning, and the same for tea with a mug of the Pure Conditioning. He also has a full trug of readigrass and pure easy to eat overnight with truly ad lib haylage (3+ thick slices from a big bale overnight & a slice in the field in the morning & a slice in the afternoon in his stable). He has now decided that he does like the taste of copra, so I would prefer to feed him on that rather than the solution mash, as it is far easier for me to get hold of. He really needs to be out on proper grass, but I have lost half my grazing this winter due to sycamore seeds, so I daren't risk it.
 
Given that he has now recovered from his illness, has hopefully had his worm burden removed, and his teeth done, plus is on ad lib forage, I suspect that he will now start to put on weight without you having to up the food quantities much. However, it is quite possible that his gut bacteria have been disrupted by the illness, change of home, etc., so might be worth putting him on a probiotic to rectify that and ensure that his gut digests the fibre in his diet as efficiently as possible.
 
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Protexin quick fix and gut balancer should be with me tomorrow, in the meantime I will add yeasacc to tonight's feed
 
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