Thin tb

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emmilou

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Hi all,
Need some advice again on the little tb. She wasn't doing too bad but seems to be dropping off again and really looks little a all be it shiny toast rack. Tried various diets recommended by people over the past year and nothing bar good grass helps. The yard she's at is trashed so zero grass and her weight is dropping.

She's currently on ready mash extra, sugar beet, linseed by the cup full and chaff all twice a day (3 if she's saying if for the weekend)
Tried pink powder with zero improvement :(
Ad lib hay and haylage and is in for around 8 hours although she stays in for most of the weekend as I'm around to walk her out.

Her legs swell badly and she wind sucks so don't like her in too long. Weekends she's fine as she can be walked out several times and fed small frequent feeds.

She's not sore round her tummy or girth and not showing any signs of ulcers, been wormed, teeth done. Happy in herself, belly looks normal but her back, hips and tail bone don't look covered.

Anyone tried anything else?
 
She's been treated once and cleared and vet (last time he saw her) said she was clear although I suppose they may have come back although It was obvious last time she was in discomfort.

Thought about grass nuts. Feed in a big bucket or replace sugarbeet?
 
Milk pellets have helped cover my girl nice he was on box rest , I am using the expensive ones in a small tub, but you can get big bags apparently. I'm on 100 g a day and she's piled it back n, she was stressy on box rest and dropped off even on 7 kg a day of had feed, she's n half the feed now and no more conditioning cubes after this sack , even with a change of yards from home t a livery she's looking good :)
 
Try yea sacc or brewers yeast as it really helps my boy (he cribs), I also cut the beet and that helped and I feed alpha a oil instead of chaff :)
 
My tb is a big rangy sort so takes quite a lot to put a good cover on him - he used to in his youth do really well on endurance mix and barley but needed a lot of riding to keep the fizz under control. He has just come back from Rockley and is now on oats,grass nuts,linseed and sugar beet and looks the best he has ever looked at this time of year - not massively quantities either - small square scoop of oats,nuts and linseed in the am and 2 scoops of sugar beet,one of oats,linseed and grass nuts in the pm plus his vits and mins plus at least two Haynets a night
 
Ok that's reassuring that I'm not miles off. I've tried oats and she liked them but I think there more goodness in the readymash.


What if I feed the readymash and substitute the sugarbeet for grass nuts?
 
To me that reads as a lot of fibre, and not a lot else.

Personally don't rate sugar beet, of any form. What is the chaff she's getting? If there's no grass in the fields, is she out with ad lib hay/haylage?

Fig is on winergy conditioning, rolled oats and micronised linseed (and mollichaff calmer for fibre):

1555575_452405531549649_1559974358_n_zpsb04d7ffe.jpg


Looks like a right little rolo at the moment. Esp for an ex racer is moderate/hard work, during winter. He puts on a lot of weight when he moves onto the summer grass, but there's no way I could keep him on his summer feed rations during winter. We are lucky and have lots of grass still, but at this time of year there's not much in it.

On the other side of the coin, feeding a starchy and cereal based diet is working wonders for the other OTTB, CS. Havens slobbermash, winergy high energy, alfa-a and micronised linseed:

Screenshot2013-11-30at194924_zps79d4c2b4.png


We have recently had a fiddle with the above and CS is now on the slobbermash, winergy high energy, rolled oats and micronised linseed and is still looking like a right porker.
 
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Ready mash extra isn't just fiber, with linseed and alpha a that shouldn't be a terrible diet?

The diet of oats, linseed and chaff/alpha with a conditioning cube has been tried already and she didn't improve or eat much of it hence the change to ready mash extra.

She's in no way a good or ever moderate doer.
I have another tb who thrives on the soaked oats and is on much less feed.

She is a tiny tb even during the summer when she's fat and happy!
 
emmilou said:
Ready mash extra isn't just fiber, with linseed and alpha a that shouldn't be a terrible diet?

The diet of oats, linseed and chaff/alpha with a conditioning cube has been tried already and she didn't improve or eat much of it hence the change to ready mash extra.

She's in no way a good or ever moderate doer.
I have another tb who thrives on the soaked oats and is on much less feed.

She is a tiny tb even during the summer when she's fat and happy!
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Neither Fig or CS are good or even moderate doer's either :) In fact, I frequently describe Fig as a show pony he is so dinky in proportions! They are completely different horses though. Fig needs condition with ZERO fizz, CS needs condition with ALL the fizz. Fig is also intolerant to alfa and rice bran. He is very fussy too, unlike CS and wouldn't entertain the idea of eating any kind of cube but he loves the winergy oil/fibre mix.

That's a thought actually, have you tried a higher oil diet?
 
With linseed and alpha oil she's getting a high oil diet I would have thought?

She's had ulcers so can't have to much starch or cereals :(

So is it a vote against ready mash extra? Seemed a great mix of vitamins, minerals, oils and milk powder along with high kj too?
 
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emmilou said:
With linseed and alpha oil she's getting a high oil diet I would have thought?

She's had ulcers so can't have to much starch or cereals :(
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How much of the above is she getting?

The winergy conditioning could be worth a try as oil and fibre based?

Re: ulcers/starch/cereals. CS suffers from ulcers and the slobbermash has a ridiculous starch content, as it's processed differently to our feeds over here it does not seem to have an adverse affect on his stomach (or his feet, barefoot). In fact his behaviour has improved hugely since introducing this feed.

So that might be worth a shot too :)
 
Grass nuts are fantastic for those that do well on grass, my lot are on them. They are very palatable and provide high quality protein and fibre
 
She gets a scoop per feed.

Winergy seems a little higher in oil but she's getting linseed to top it up. Where do you buy slobber mash from? Seems impossible to source?
 
Hi, I assume your horse has been wormed too ? My daughters TB was a hat rack when we bought him a year ago. We struggled to put weight on him, but have found Baileys stud balancer has worked a treat. The protein content is high but doesn't add fizz. He also gets alpha oil, sugar beet and linseed. The other major player is good quality forage - he gets ad lib haylage and or good quality meadow hay 24/7. We are lucky that we make our own, the fields for haylage are limed/fertilized, so we know where and what goes into making good quality fodder.
 
emmilou said:
She gets a scoop per feed.

Winergy seems a little higher in oil but she's getting linseed to top it up. Where do you buy slobber mash from? Seems impossible to source?
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So is that per day 1 scoop ready mash extra, 1 scoop sugar beet, 1 scoop alfa plus linseed? Or does she have 2 feeds of that a day?

Either way, to me it just doesn't sound like enough for a really poor doer. Esp at this time of year.

For comparison, whilst in moderate/hard work, Fig has (split over 3 feeds) 2.5 oats, 2.5 winergy conditioning, 1.5 chaff plus 2 mugs of micronised linseed. He is out on grass all day and comes in to good quality ad lib haylage.

Re: slobbermash, we buy privately but H&F feeds will tell you where to buy locally.
 
Simple Systems ... definitely give them and ring and talk to them. They sorted out one of my horses for them.

I always use their feeds now, best ever and all my horses in fab condition, and do not hot up, cant recommend them enough
 
emmilou said:
She gets a scoop per feed.

Winergy seems a little higher in oil but she's getting linseed to top it up. Where do you buy slobber mash from? Seems impossible to source?
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Try doubling the ready mash, my 16.2 hat rack (literally :( ) got 1 x dry scoop readymash, 1 x scoop Alpha A Oil, and 2 x mugs linseed per feed plus pro balance (use it for my gelding so just gave it to her as well), she also got 24/7 ad lib haylage. 2 months later was looking loads better.
 
Whole oats were the secret ingredient for my skinny TB with alfalfa a good supplement and hay. I treid heaps of weight gain diets (with slow transition periods) and this was almost miraculous he bloomed before I had even finished transitioning him.
 
Whole oats (soaked) do the job for my stressy poor doer, along with micronised linseed (are you feeding the maximum ration?) And a supplement containing yea saac (pro hoof from progressive earth)
 
Please don't feed milk powder/pellets to horses. They are not designed to digest lactose feeds over the age of 3 iirc. Feeding this product can cause digestive upset.

One of my friends swears by grass nuts. As your horse is in I'd offer them alongside ablib hay as an alternative forage. Remember to introduce them slowly and gradually as per any new foodstuff. I now someone who started their horse on buckets of grass chop as "it's just like grass so won't make any difference" and the horse had a massive colic.

With an ulcer horse I'd be looking to feed a high fibre and high fat diet. Personally I'd take a look at Coolstance http://www.stanceequine.co.uk/uk/index

If your horse tolerates Alfalfa I'd look at the Dengie unmolassed Alfa-A or the oil version.

I'd also feed linseed and would start off with a good supp/balancer like Forage Plus Winter range http://forageplus.co.uk/product-category/winter/

Have a read of the Stance Equine and Forage Plus sites as they both contain valuable information.
 
I've had my ex racer for a year and a bit now, however, he is in coming into moderate work. I had the nutritionist out in the summer who suggested outshine,spillers cubes and apple chaff, he has only just noticeably put on weight around his belly but again his back,bum and top line are very thin. I've had the physio out who said his muscle can not form correctly even with the best food in the world which was what the problem with his top line was, his back is already starting to look better and he is currently on a high fibre diet. However,they are all different!
 
emmilou said:
Thanks everyone.
Going to try grass nuts and see how that goes! I'll report back x
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In addition to or a replacement of?...

Regardless, that is very similar to what you're feeding at the moment which isn't keeping the weight on your mare currently.

Sorry, but not quite understanding the theory here!
 
Just one question... is she warm enough? It might not seem like a big thing but if she is cold then that won't help her keep weight on. Might be worth thinking about upping the rugs.

Hay or haylage in the field while she's out? There is nothing in the grass ATM (if you are lucky enough to even have any!). You could switch your chaff to Dengie Healthy Tummy - it's alfalfa based (so assumes she gets on with alfalfa) and has Protexin Gut Balancer added so should help with any potential tummy probs. How much linseed are you feeding? You could increase that to a couple of mugs per day. Maybe get a worm count and blood test for tapeworm done, just to be absolutely sure. Also agree with the post above about feeding grass nuts alongside your hay as an alternative forage source. When you say you are trying grass nuts - are you giving them as extra, or swapping something for them?
 
My tb mare is on winergy growth - similar to the conditioning but just has less starch to blow her brains, micronised linseed, alphabeet and corn oil (recommended by vet). Alongside that she is on haylage and is out 24/7 as stables are currently being rebuilt. Again make sure yours is warm :) x
 
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