Soaked Feed

AdorableAlice

AdorableAlice

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I am losing the plot researching soaked feed, plus I am 3/4 of the way down a bottle of wine so the print is starting to look a bit odd !. So I am going to ask for help if I may.

The maxi cob has just had a third trip to horsepital with gas colic. Home after 5 days and everything tested, no ulcers, belly tap good, ovarian tumour testing negative, bloods perfect. The only thing that is not perfect is the bank account and my stress levels - the wine is helping :rolleyes:

The cob is sensitive to the flushing autumn grazing and her management is being micro managed. She has never drunk enough water from her buckets from the moment I had her back in 2012. I am advised to keep her fluid intake up, grazing time down, sugar levels down and exercise up. She has soaked hay in a cube, circa 12kg dry weight which is pretty much adlib for her as she normally has a little left in the mornings. After the withholding food period when she was admitted, the horsepital feed her Spillers Fibre mash in a soup through the re-feeding period before reintroducing soaked hay, then limited grazing. They want me to maintain the mash feeding.

Spillers Fibre is fairly high in sugar. Allen and Page Fast Fibre she isn't keen on and will leave it. She loved the sample pack of Saracen Recovery Mash. VV is too fattening, speedy beet makes her M&S worse. She is 700kg and could drop a bit although not vastly overweight.

All thoughts and ideas gratefully received.
 
I suppose you have tried to simple beet mashes? Alternatively you can get a simple fibre cube and soup the heck out of it if she will eat it. Most feeds will "mash" if let.
 
Pink mash? I feed Topaz small amounts at coat changing time, doesn’t seem to put lots of weight on and she likes it.

Or grass nuts soaked to a mash consistency?
 
I’m sorry to hear this, AA. My doppelgänger late maxicob used to get recurrent spasmodic colics on grass flushes, too.

I have since heard that recurrent weird colics can be a sign of PSSM. Sadly it was too late for him, but I wish that I’d tried the PSSM management changes on him, especially elevated vit E. I hadn’t known anything about it at the time I had him, but he was a very similar stamp to yours.
 
I think the main ingredients in lots of mashes are sugar beet and micronised linseed. I now use Speedibeet and Micronised linseed plus vits and mins which is cheaper for me. It might explain why some mashes don’t work for your maxi cob.
Hope one of the other posters suggestions will.
 
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I was on livery with a lady whose mare kept getting repeated bouts of colic on box rest for a tendon injury. Big buckets of soaked grass pellets were given to her.

Would kwik / speedi beet be an option?
 
Been through a few soaked feeds the last few years on vets advice due to diastemas, this is my rundown.

Grass nuts: took ages to soak in cold water, horse bloomed on them though and looked fab on box rest, conscious of sugar content which may have contributed to fizzyness, but as mentioned horse was on box rest so hard to really tell.
Topspec fibre mash: fed for about 6 months, quick soaking, very tasty, horse looked a bit too well on this so looked for a lower calorie alternative (fast fibre)
Fast fibre: Helped lose some of the weight that had piled on whilst on topspec (though this was largely due to being out of work I think, not the feed) however she looked crap on it, very dull coat and also not great guts and spooky on top as well.
Pink mash: switched to this after fast fibre (had fed pre-diastemas hoping it would help with loose droppings and dropped it when it didn't help, have fixed this with other feed adjustments) lower sugar and startch than FF, hasn't piled on any weight, soaks quick and really expands in volume so don't feel bad about feeding meagre amounts, also good to add powdered balancer to as contains no additional vits/mins. It also contains protexin so helpful if you're needing extra digestive support. Only downside seems to be the price but not feeding a lot so takes the sting out of it.

I've also fed the green bag Rowan Barbary mash to my old horse years ago who was also a very good doer, marginally higher in starch and lower in fibre than pink mash though, though I think they are both soya based which I know some can be reactive to but fortunately not an issue for us (and she is a very sensitive soul)
 
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