Skinny horse - cant get weight on

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silverstar

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Since getting my horse about a month ago I cant seem to get her to put on any weight. Shes been on Spillers conditioning cubes for a few weeks but have changed to Topspec (as it works out cheaper to feed). So she gets 1½ mugs of Topspec, 1 scoop chaff, 1 scoop sugarbeet, ½ scoop basic mix. She is getting ad lib haylage in field (we have no grass at all) morning and night. I wormed her when I got her. i moved yards half way through the last month.I really cant get to the bottom of this. She had her teeth checked last week by my vet who said they're fine.

Any ideas??
 
I bought mine about 5 weeks ago and she looked like she was about to go to Badminton! I have got her on Spillers H & P, Spillers conditioning mix, Dengie Alfa A, Speedibeet and NAF Pink powder. The Top Spec will be helping for her. Moving yards won't have helped her but getting weight on takes as much time as getting it off. Patience as the grass comes through you'll see a difference. Has she got a rug on?
 
Yep she has a rug on past couple of days shes had a lightweight on even though its been quite warm she is okay with it on. At night she has a middleweight on. She is currently living out. is the pink powder good?
 
It claims to encourage their guts to be more efficient. Sort of like Yakult or Actimel. Put mine on it because she had really loose droppings and she is scrawny. There are loads of products like that out there, I like NAF stuff that why I chose that. Glad she's got a rug on, as I say patience pays off. You could always get a weigh tape and do it every month. You could feed her more haylage if she was in at night as she may be being bullied and can't get to it?
 
She shouldn't need pink powder if she's on Topspec - you're just doubling up the ingredients (and therefore wasting money
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Have you had her tested for tapeworm?
often it is an underlying cause.
I would put her on pink powders and to be honest up her feed a little. half a scoop of basic mix is hardly anything unless she's a tiny mare and although topspec is very good, you would be better back on the conditioning mix or cubes.
I would give Saracen a ring, when we had a problem they were fantastic, and their recommendations (though expensive!) worked exactly as they said they would.
The change of yard might mean her gut flora are struggling to cope with different things so the pp should help her.
Failing that find her some decent grass even if you hand pick it!
 
i have a horse like thgis, she used yo be skinny and i think its like ppl some of them just naturally have a higher metabolism the problem with my horse is that i wanted to show and wh her so she needed weight on, what put weight on and maintains my horses weight is baileys no1 cereal meal, spillers conditioning cubes (it has a higher protein content than spillers) speedibeet and a handful of chaff, also dont be doing just 2 big feeds a day give her an average size feed morning, lunch dinner and supper, and may i suggest i dont believe in theses pink powders etc, it didnt work 4 me
 
Are you using Topspec balancer or nuts? We are using their cool condition cubes on a little horse. She is about 15.2 and gets 3 scoops a day with some hi fi and they are doing the job though it has taken a couple of months. She is also on pink powder but sugar beet seems to make her droppings very loose. It is important for ours to have non heating and these cubes are brill for this.
 
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may i suggest i dont believe in theses pink powders etc, it didnt work 4 me

[/ QUOTE ] Pink Powders will only really have an effect on weight gain if the horse's gut bacteria are compromised in some way - by stress, illness, high concentrate diet, antibiotic treatment etc. If that is the case, the theory is that the Pink Powders will improve conditions in the gut, allowing the horse to get the greatest possible benefit from it's food and therefore gain weight.

If the conditions in the horse's gut are favourable anyway, the Pink Powders are less likely to have an appreciable effect on weight gain, although will still supply vit/mins etc.

And yes, Pink Powder and balancers like Top Spec do a similar job - so you should feed one or the other, not both at the same time.
 
The horse moving twice in a month may be sufficient reason on its own for the lack of weight gain due to stress.
Also, she has probably had at least three changes of diet in this time. 1) the type of haylage and grass has changed twice. once when you bought her then again when you changed yards 2) changing from spillers cubes to topspec.
And maybe a change in hard feed when you bought her too?
These changes combined with worming and stress from moving mean the gut bacteria have been affected in several ways. I would suggest this is a strong possibility why she hasnt put on any weight. Some horses can also take several weeks to notice any change in weight.
I would stabilise her diet as much as possible and weigh tape regularly to monitor her more accurately than by eye alone.
 
topspec is just a balancer - it's not a feed in itself - if you want her to put weight on you'll need more than that.

my 15.1hh welshie has been in hard work and looks racing fit at the moment. now trying to get a bit more condition on him - he's currently on full rations TopSpec balancer, 1kg Bailey's Outshine a day, 3kg TopSpec CoolCondition Cubes, 1.5kg TopSpec Super Conditioning Flakes, 3kg Saracen ReLeve, 1kg speedibeet and 1kg alfa-a oil/readigrass every day! My bank balance is suffering but he's finally looking a bit better. He's out 24/7 with plenty of hay too. Most of that is fibre feed so he gets a huge trug at once to munch through as you can feed more than 2kg at once if it's just fibre.
 
Wow! Thats complicated! Can i ask why so many different feeds and not bigger quantities of less types of feed?
 
It could be previous damage by worms or encysted worms, you don't say what you wormed with? Did you ask the vet re the lack of weight gain, sometimes you have to be specific!

If all is well then Allen and Page do an excellent product called weight Gain mix and another called calm and condition. They are a very reasonable price and excellent quality without the gimiky addatives like dried carrot!!! I have had my TB broodmare out all winter suckling a foal that I weaned a few weeks ago at 11 months, she was on the mix and has come out of winter looking in tip top condition and the foal is growing very well on allen and page stud and youngstock mix. I will not use cubes because of the risk of choke.

I use for her baileys stud balancer which is 1/2 the price of some, grazeon chopped grass as a bulk and sugar beet.

If you can with yours try to give more smaller feeds per day as many as you can really, rather than a couple of big feeds.
 
My first horse used to look like a coat rack so I tried Supa Barley Rings by Burgess and Baileys No.1 cereal mix and the combination did start to work with him after 2 1/2 years of trying just about everything else on teh market. Unfortunately we lost him after an accident so I don't know how much it would have helped him but he did put on a little weight before he died.
 
I agree, the Allen and Page mixes and condition feeds are excellent. ALthough I don't feed them simply because I can't afford for one horse to have a completely different feeding regime to the others; only a few extra bits and pieces.

I feed wheat to my skinny. Simply as an alternative to barley as he is only 3 and I don't want him to heat up. He gets:
2scoops wheat, 4 scoops Alfa A, 2 scoops pony nuts [cheapest I can find], and 2 scoops of Spiller's Stud and Youngstock mix per day, this is split between 2 feeds. [1 scoop= about 1 kg of hard feed]. Ad lib haylage is also a good idea if the grass isn't up yet.

Most good feed stockists will be able to get you some wheat [mine is crushed and micronized]. I can see a difference between now and when I got him, not a massive difference but he has more condition and has fewer pointy bits! [I bought him a month ago]

Stress of moving won't have helped but hopefully things will improve =]
 
I missed out my best weight gain tip oil!
I would add that to both feeds every day, you have to judge the amount by how their droppings look, if they go loose cut it down.
I would still say check teeth/worm possibilities then start on pink powders, at least that way you know you have a clear start whatever feed you choose.
I hope you soon get some grass because there is nothing works as well no matter what the bag label says.....
 
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Wow! Thats complicated! Can i ask why so many different feeds and not bigger quantities of less types of feed?

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TopSpec says to feed a maximum of 1.6kg per feed of their cool condition cubes and the super conditioning flakes. you cant feed more than 2kg at a time if using cereals so gets his super conditioning flakes and some CC cubes for breakfast but then i want him to have more than 1.6kg for his dinner so he gets the CC cubes and Saracen ReLeve as well. Then a bit of alfa-a oil/readigrass to mix in and some sugar beet. Bailey's Outshine is high in oil and there's nothing else like it on the market. Increasing his mix/nuts wouldn't replace using the Outshine. Then it's just his balancer on top of that. I cant think of any way I could reduce the number of types of feed and maintain a very low starch, but highly conditioning diet.
 
how about adding corn oil to her dinner add 3/4 cup of corn oil to her grain to add more calories...it adds 2000 calories.
Also pink powder it helps with gut fuction, also try and feed three meals aday instead of two ,plenty of grazing try and feed through summer so she has this on top aswell as grass good luck
 
Thanks for your reply. Heres a high oil low starch feed that is fed in small quantities:
http://www.stanceglobal.com.au/Staging/Equine/Home/Products/PowerStance.aspx

Dont know whether that is worth a consideration? They have others based on coconut as well. Coolstance is less than 6% starch and about 15 mj/kg DE, so much less starch than the topspec conditioning flakes and also higher in energy wth less starch than the re-leve. Dont know how much you can feed of that though. I guess its a case of doing lots of calculaions to come up with the most calories per meal!
I hope your horse appreciates your effort
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Hi, haven;t read whole thread but I just read on a different forum that a horse may have trouble putting on weight after either not having been fed enough for a period of time (on hunger mode) or that they simply got too much good stuff which equally kills the metabolism. THese are extreme cases but just another thought... Perhaps you know what your horse was fed before you got them. Whatever the cause I would think it may take a while for a horse to put on weight, Good luck
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Thanks for your reply. Heres a high oil low starch feed that is fed in small quantities:
http://www.stanceglobal.com.au/Staging/Equine/Home/Products/PowerStance.aspx

Dont know whether that is worth a consideration? They have others based on coconut as well. Coolstance is less than 6% starch and about 15 mj/kg DE, so much less starch than the topspec conditioning flakes and also higher in energy wth less starch than the re-leve. Dont know how much you can feed of that though. I guess its a case of doing lots of calculaions to come up with the most calories per meal!
I hope your horse appreciates your effort
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thanks - i forgot to say it's a picky bugger as well and will only eat small quantities of each type of feed. anything powdery about it and he leaves it and i believe copra is quite powdery. i thought buying another welsh cob it'd be easy to feed - my other is a gannet and lives on fresh air!
 
if your going to feed Oil as suggested you are better off going for Soya - introduce slowly moving up to 1/2- 3/4 a cup daily depending on size of horse.
Yes corn oil is better, however, you need it for its fatty acid content and the stuff bought in supermarkets is heat processed which destroys these acids you require. I dont think many feed shops readily supply unprocessed corn oil, as ive been looking myself, but Soya is much more readily available.

i am another fan of pink powder having used it on mine, - i would personally feed that rather than the top spec until the horse is back on a normal regime. then the top spec could be reinstated as its normal feed balancer. the horse has had a lot of change, moving, ownership, feed wise etc - all this even for a laid back horse will have enduced a certain amount of stress. this is the sort of situation pink powder is designed for.

No grass wont be helping, will be having a large effect really.

as already said above if its topspec balancer yuor feeding (which i think must be if your measuring by mug) then this isnt a hard feed in itself, so aside from the chaff shes just getting 1/2 scoop basic mix and some sugar beet.
im not sure the idea of the basic mix? i'd phase that out and feed a conditioning cube or mix. doesnt neccesarily need to be brand name, some of the feed barns do their own make which is just as good. (unfortunately this would mean another change in diet)

would also split the feeds into 3 small ones daily if possible.
 
If this horse were mine I would worm the horse with Equest Pramox ,which kills lots of worm types including tapeworm, and I would first weigh the horse to get an accurate weight and make sure I gave the right amount of wormer and didnt under do it.
Then I would feed a build-up feed, eg Spillers Condition mix at the levels stated on the bag for the size of horse, split into 4 feeds a day and ad lib hay or haylege.
remember to introduce the new feed slowly, ie build up to full amount over a week or 10 days. within a month there should be a big improvement, if there isnt get the vet out.
this method ensures correct calorie content, protein and vits and minerals and is a simple method to follow,and it works. There is no requirement for added things like Pink Powder or whatever with this regime.
 
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