Should I try feeding Sugarbeet?

wellsat

wellsat

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Gerry has a poor appetite at the best of times but its rubbish at the moment. He's dropping weight that he didn't have to lose in the first place and I'm worried about how he's going to cope if this cold weather lasts.

Have swapped him from hay to adlib haylage but he only picked at that last night.

My only guess is that maybe he's a little dehydrated although his bed is still wet so he's weeing as normal.

Would a big sloppy scoop of sugarbeet be a logical thing to try? Am I best to go for sugarbeet or speedybeet? I don't mind about the sugar content as he's pretty laid back and I'm not riding at the moment anyway while its like this.
 
Speedi beet is great for getting a little weight on. Try Baileys No.1 too.

If you are worried about the amount of water intake use the sugar beet water as his water, they do this with indurance horses to encourage them to drink. They love it. If you add some hot water and make it to a normal summer temperature, he might be likely to drink alot more. :D
 
Sugarbeet might cheer him up. I use the sugarbeet nuts that you need to soak, but I wouldn't think it mattered whether you used that or speedibeet - whatever suits your lifestyle.

Have you thought of giving Gerry linseed. Horses love it, it's a great appetiser, and you end up with a horse with a beautiful coat, mane and tail. We always use it in the winter, and if you cook it yourself (never feed it raw) your horse can have a nice warm meal as well.
 
Sammii819 said:
Speedi beet is great for getting a little weight on. Try Baileys No.1 too.

If you are worried about the amount of water intake use the sugar beet water as his water, they do this with indurance horses to encourage them to drink. They love it. If you add some hot water and make it to a normal summer temperature, he might be likely to drink alot more. :D
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Apologies for being dim but how do I do this? DO I just make it really sloppy and then strain some off for his water bucket?
 
Not being stupid at all.

Soak a little less with a lot more water, then as you said strain the beet out, feed the beet and use the water.

Speedi beet is easy to use then sugar beet pellets as it only takes ten minutes with cold water and five with hot. Pellets take 24 hours and if you forget to soak more it's a right pain.

:D
 
Have swapped him from hay to adlib haylage but he only picked at that last night.
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Are you absolutely sure that he is ok?? Horses rarely starve themselves, and for him to eat only a little haylage would be a concern.......
 
I use speedibeet to keep hydrated when they're competing, as it's high fibre so keeps moisture in the gut effectively. It also helps keep weight on :) I don't like the molassed stuff, but then I don't like any feed with molasses in!
 
Wallsat

I would get him checked out by the vet as he does not seem to be eating enough.


What are you feeding at the moment.

How old is your boy and how big.

Speedi Beet in this weather is better because you can soak a small amount quickly by adding hot water (Takes a bout 10 mins to soak) The hot water will warm his feeds for him. To help him take in more fluids you can make the Speedi Beet sloppy and also you can leave a bucket of sugar beet water in his stable. This is done by putting a small amount of Speedi Beet and topping it up with 3 or 4 times the amount of water.

You can also add a small amount of apple juice to the water.
 
It is a concern but I'm not sure what to do about it. He's perky and lively in himself, keen to go out to the field this morning and bright eyed. He had a little play with his field companions yesterday so not feeling miserable. I know its not his teeth because they were done just over a month ago and I have a friend who is a dentist so she keeps an eye on him.

When I say he only ate a little haylage I would say he ate about half of what I gave him last night, possibly a little less. I stupidly didn't weigh it as I'm feeding ad lib but will start weighing it so I can keep a closer eye on how much he's actually eating.

He also had a scoop of Alfa A Oil, four large carrots, two large apples, some Pink Powder and a glug of oil. I left him 4 scoops of Readygrass in his manger to keep him going. He ate both his dinner and his readygrass but didn't lick the bowls clean, there was a little left in each.

He had had some hay in the field but its not possible to day how much as he shares with two others.

Whatever he's eating it clearly isn't enough as he's dropping weight. Will get a picture of him tonight so see how much he has lost this week.
 
He's an 8yo, 17.2 Westphalian, I've only had him for two months so I don't know whats normal for him yet. He was skinny when he came to me but we've been putting weight on at a nice steady pace with RI and chiro both pleased with how he was doing condition wise.

Our vets are the traditional type, if your horse isn't obviously lame or bleeding to death they are likely to say that you are being hysterical and that there is nothing wrong...
 
Yes, have tried giving him more but he leaves it. It wasn't a problem until the snow came, as I said he was doing really well on it.
 
wellsat said:
Yes, have tried giving him more but he leaves it. It wasn't a problem until the snow came, as I said he was doing really well on it.
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You don't have to feed more - just correctly.

Start him with Alpha A Oil and Hi fibre cubes (big round scoops) twice a day - and the speedi beet and go from there. You can also add Soya oil.

Essentially he's not getting hard feed at the moment - so if he's a skinny minni then yes he's going to strart dropping weight.

Then you can start on more conditioning feeds if he still refuses to put condition on.
 
2 things here

1) I would change your vet. Any vet that is not concerned about a horse that is not up to weight should not be a vet.

2) what you are feeding him is not enough. He needs to have twice as much as he is having. I would say talk to one of the feed company's I use Baileys feed and find them very helpful and good with their advice.

He is getting the oil with the Alfa so he does not need the extra oil.I would change the Pink powder for a balancer or add a balancer.

You could also give him a course of a liver / general tonic.

I would deferentially get him blood tested. When was he last wormed.
 
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He is getting the oil with the Alfa so he does not need the extra oil.
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True, and it is Soya Oil. But it never hurts to add a drop more for a horse that needs condition. Soya Oil is high in calories, and easily digestible, so an excellent addative for the anorrexic horse.
 
One of the oldies of our yard lost a lot of weight recently. Owner tried alphabeet which is soaked like sugarbeet and the difference is amazing. He does get conditioning cubes, hifi and blue chip added during the winter. The alphabeet made the difference.
 
I think there may be another issue here. I had a similar experience going into winter when my boy was new - dropping weight , not eating properly etc. If back , teeth etc are fine then how is he with you if you are doing your girth up ? Any grumpy response ? Loose droppings ? If he is new and you have little info on his history and was underweight when he arrived you might need to consider stomach ulcers .

I would definitely call the vet . You may well have got his weight back on track when he came to you but the cold weather may have stressed his system again.

Good luck and I hope you get to the bottom of it.
 
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