Summer Grazing & Feeding for Cushings Horse

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Northern Hare

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My 23 year old (but still on amazing form and behaves like a 5 year old!) tb x wb gelding is on 1 Prascend tablet per day.

He has one feed a day of Topspec Original Balancer (at the full amount for his size), Alpha A Molasses Free, and a Stubbs scoop of Baileys no. 4 Conditioning Cubes.

He is out in a field overnight with others which has plenty of grass so he wears a Greenguard Muzzle. He comes in 9am-3pm.

He is quite fit and gets hacked and schooled regularly including plenty of fast work around the fields. His coat is beautifully shiny.

My problem is that he is still looking more on the lean side than I would like for him. Obviously with his Cushings he needs to have his muzzle on, but he struggles to keep the weight on. All the other horses in the field with him are looking terrific with just the right amount of weight.

Any suggestions would be very gratefully received on getting some more condition onto him but at the same time avoiding the dreaded laminitis?

Thanks for reading!!
 
You could add micro linseed which is suitable and try splitting the feed to twice a day instead of just piling it in once a day. Just thinking if your gonna add more the meal size might get to big.
Personally I'm a very big fan of equimins advance complete and if he was mine would swap the topspec for that, its far better spec and less crap added and if it don't help with his condition they will refund all your money. It really works
 
Micronised Linseed is very useful for condition and is suitable for laminitics
 
Hi thatsmygirl - thanks very much for your reply. I actually have half a bag of micronised linseed so will try that again. He is on full livery and the horses get just the one feed during the summer, but agree with you that it would be best if he has two feeds - I will ask the YO tomorrow. He is just getting to the end of one bag of Topspec and I have already bought him a new bag but will certainly take look at the Equimins. Thanks again!
 
Topspec lite balancer or the TENS daily balancer plus salt, and micronised linseed are recommended by TLS ( the laminitis site, info re feeds that are suitable, ie low sugar/starch for the PPID horse). If you are trying to get/maintain topline, whey protein isolate targets muscles without putting horse at risk of lami..
 
I have a cushings pony on one prascend a day. She was diagnosed a few years ago. She is hard to keep weight on and has free access to grass and is fed a full ration of hard feed. She is retired for other health reasons so only gets whatever exercise she chooses. When I need to add more I find hay is the best thing to add weight. The extra fibre is good for her and less risk than grass. She has never had lami. You may not need to muzzle now.
 
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