She is fading away before my eyes.....

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Eggs and Guinness if she will
Barley rings but experiment with them. Sometimes you can get more of them into a horse if you crush them and feed them with a sloppy feed - sugar beet is my preference - rather than pre-soaking them.


And (((hugs))) for you both as I know what a worry it can be feeding old animals, and humans.
 
you try the old fashion boiled barely, i use to feed this, but i made mine from crushed barely in a large pot on the stove, very quick make sure you have loades of water as it will swell up well and it works out cheaper than buy already cooked flakes
 
I had my oldie on micronised barley - I think it was D+H - and linseed lozenges. His teeth could cope with that and if you need to you can soak it it warm water to really soften it.
 
I have put my old boy on Allen and Page Fast Fibre, you soak into a mash and he has done verywell this winter, It is as the name suggests high fibre but does have linseed and other goodys. Allen and Pade are very helpful if you ring them.
 
Spring is around the corner but I think JM is probably right.

Seems as if her central heating system has broken down, so to speak.

If you make it till Spring you might want to make the difficult decision next Autumn.

Oldies are a worry. I had mine PTS last Autumn time and I don't regret it one bit. She was still bright but the previous winter had been hard for her. I know she was very happy about being PTS as she was - unusually - the first to come to me that day (She was always the last). Horses are so lucky. They don't have to suffer like us humans, we can take that horrid bit away for them.
smile.gif
 
I just read your post and it broke my heat.My 14 yr old TB Gelding had cancer diagnosed 3 years ago and he started to waste away in front of me and I feed him Simple systems.
You soak the following in a gorilla bucket over night and I guarantee youll see the difference in her I promiss it worked a treat for me.My little boy was so skinny you could see all his bones near enough from his illness and stress of it all.I mean look at my pic and he still has the illness but the feed helps with his weight.Its only about £8 per bag and last months
You need
1/2 scoop simple systems Sugar beat
1 scoop Simple systems grass nuts
3/4 scoop simple systems luci bix
Check out the below link it shiuld tell you a supplier in your area if not send them an emai.Let me know if you decide to try it honestly it works,let me know how you get on.
http://www.simplesystem.co.uk/
 
i've a 29yr old TB thats got bad teeth due to crib-biting

he gets
(morning and mid day)
steamed hay
Allen n Page Old Faithful
Veteran Mollichaff

(evening)
Allen n Page Old Faithful
Veteran Mollichaff
Allen n page Fast Fibre
Haylage

basically, he's eating most of the day.

if you can feed 3 or 4 times daily its better than morning/night
 
I had a toast-rack TB once who wouldn't put on condition no matter what I tried - until someone suggested Spillers' Build-Up, which is basically milk pellets, and he never looked back. Plus it made the feed smell wonderful and he hoovered up everything he'd previously been picky about.

But I think JM07 may have hit the nail on the head (if I'm understanding her correctly). Sorry.
 
Underfed horses first use up fat, then break down muscle to provide the energy required to keep them alive!!!. Muscle consists of protein. Proteins consist of amino acids. All animals require a daily supply of suitable quality protein (must contain enough essential amino acids, e.g. lysine, methionine,etc). Hard working, growing and older animals have a greater need for good quality protein than those resting.
The best readily available vegetable protein sources in the U. K. are linseed and soya, and are used in better quality compound feeds and supplements. Even these products sometimes need supplementing with extra protein.
You can achieve this by adding linseed or soya to existing feed. Both need cooking before they can be safely fed. Whole linseed has traditionally been boiled to provide a protein supplement. This process is time consuming and messy. Its analysis is 23% protein; 35% oil 0.9% lysine.
Soya is a better option. It is only available cooked, either as Hipro (with most of the oil extracted) or as full fat soya meal or pellets (the whole bean cooked and ground). Respective analyses are Hipro: 40-45% protein; 1.6% oil; 3.2% lysine and FFsoya: 35% protein; 18% oil 2.9% lysine.

Neither linseed nor soya are readily available through the retail feed trade. If your merchant can't source it you will have to use Google and go mail-order. There are several firms supplying both products in various sizes & prices. For underweight horses resting or in light work it may be more cost-effective to buy a cheap economy type nut or mix and supplement it with some high quality protein to restore lost muscle.
 
can you try and feed 3 times a day little and often the ready mash extra from target feeds is an excellent product i had my old girl on it. give ab lib hay fibre beet is very good as well as alfa a oil. maybe get a pre/probiotic in to her aswell that will make her body get all the godness it can from her feed. you say her teeth are done what about being wormed? linseed is very good aswell.
 
Replace your hay with haylage and feed Copra Meal mixed with normal sugar beet and boiled linseed . . . has never let me down with the oldies & skinny's yet !!
 
Hi Keltic,

I am sorry that your horsey is dropping weight! I had a 22 year old on loan that had the same prob, and she wouldn't eat her b fast or dinner, but ate hay fine. She colliced (sp) about 2 months after I had got her and I found out she had a stomach tumour which eventually shut off her hing gut. This was why she wouldn't eat feeds all in one go. Might be worth getting it checked! just a thought. Hope i haven't scared you.
 
You have had lots of recommendations with linseed (one of which was mine) bearts do linseed pellets that dont need cooking.Mine were about £ 8 per bag for 25 kg.It would save you lots of messing about.
 
A friends pony is 35 this year and after a change in diet is looking better this year than ever before!
He gets 3 feeds a day of 16+, Baileys No1 and veteran chaff damped down with a little sugar beet, cortaflex and equivite. In addition he gets 3 stubs scoops of spillers hi fibre cubes soaked to a mush divided into 3 buckets. He no longer gets hay, instead he gets a big tub of redi-grass and hi-fi mixed and damped, apparently old horses find it harder to digest long fibre, she kept adding to the amount fed until she got to a stage where he had a little left in the morning.
He also wears thermatex leg wraps and is well rugged day and night is warm but light rugs. He was looking awful a couple of winters ago (he does have worm damage from before they owned him and very few teeth left) but since the hay has gone from his diet to be replaced by the fibre cubes and hi-fi/redigrass mix he has thrived.
 
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