underweight. what to feed?

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jezapie

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hi, i have a 6 year old 15.2hh andalusian gelding that until now has had to live out. he has a heavyweight rug on and as from last week he has haylege in the field.
anyway, he lost condition rapidly and the really cold weather hasnt helped. i have just started feeding him alfa a oil and some sugar beet. im giving 2 and a half double handfuls twice a day. and one mug (dry amount) of sugar beet.i t comes to about 1/3 of a bucket. i was going to get baileys number 4 but the shop only had number one so i got that and im going to start feeding him that tomorrow.
should i change to number 4 or is the number one ok for weight gain?
also his skin is very flakey and some parts have lost hair like rain scald, only he is totally dry and there are no scabs only very flakey skin. could this be helped by feeding?
thanks for any help.
 
That sounds like far too little feed for him to gain any weight. I would phone Bailey's helpline and they will advise you what products and how much to give. Alpha a oil is a good feed but you need to be feeding more than a couple of handfuls. I use bailey's outshine during the winter which I find good for adding extra calories. Also ensure your horse is getting enough hay, I would think he would easily get through at least 1.5 bales of hay a day? Good luck, and do give Baileys helpline a ring, they were extremely helpful when I spoke to them a couple of weeks ago (didn't just advise on their own products either!)
 
I would feed a lot more alfalfa in each feed. My horses get a big bucket full of fibre feed made up of alfalfa and equibeet. Keeps them scoffing for ages. To this mix I add Top Spec feed balancer, micronised linseed and extra salt and magnesium. For your horse's flaky skin I would make sure he is not getting too hot under his heavyweight rug and definitely try either the linseed of Bailey's outshine. My sweetitch horse has a great coat now but he was flaky and scurfy when I first bought him. The most important thing however is ad-lib hay or haylage.
 
Is he now stabled at night?

I really like Alpha A Oil - it's fantastic for condition, and you can feed quite a bit of it. I would feed it with a base of Hi Fibre cubes, with Dodson and Horrell build up cubes fed alongside (starting with a small amount, and building up to more if necessary). All fed twice a day. Although if it can be broken down in to three meals that's even better. Boiled barley is also great for putting on weight.

The most important thing is that if he's underweight he is given as much haylage as he can eat. So as well as having it in the field you want to ensure that there is enough in his stable so that there is always some left over in the morning.

The patches of skin could be lice - have a good look through his coat to see if he has any. If there are none obvious, it may be worth asking your vet to check him out.

Adding oil to the feed does wonders for their skin and coat. And soya oil is recommended as being the best - although I usually use corn oil.
 
Too little feed. Not much help now but if you are going to winter your horse out, you should try to send them a little fat into winter to give them back up. Another reason for ensuing you keep the forage element high is that this is what will keep your boy warm as well - its do with the breakdown in the gut.

You will see more impact if you can break the feeds into little ones often to build him up as well rather than overloading the gut with too much too quickly. The last time I had a seriously underweight horse was mine coming back home after surgical colic and he was a walking skeleton as a result of the surgery and the shock to his system. He was on 4 small feeds a day and as much hay as he would eat to get his weight back up
 
thanks for the advice.

i will feed him about a bucket full of the alfa oil and sugar beet morning and night and see if that makes a difference. we are moving house in one week and then he will have a stable and i will give him haylege adlib.

the vet will be coming out to do his flu jab soon so i will ask him about the coat problem. i will check for lice i didnt think of that thanks :) if not i will try the oil, how much oil should i put in??

one reply said they add salt. i thought this was only in the summer to replace salt lost in sweat. should i give salt now and how much should i give him? hes 15.2hh andalusian.
 
jezapie said:
thanks for the advice.

i will feed him about a bucket full of the alfa oil and sugar beet morning and night and see if that makes a difference. we are moving house in one week and then he will have a stable and i will give him haylege adlib.

the vet will be coming out to do his flu jab soon so i will ask him about the coat problem. i will check for lice i didnt think of that thanks :) if not i will try the oil, how much oil should i put in??
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I wouldn't feed a bucket of it.

You are much better of ensuring the adlib hay now in the field - and just two sensible amounts of feed.

You never want him without hay.

Andalusians are normally good doers - so hay will make a massive difference.

Don't worry about the salt. Just give him a mineral block in the field. Something like Rockies (not lickitts).

Are you quite new to horse ownership?
 
I would really really consider calling either Baileys helpline or Dengie who make Alpha A oil, they are all massively helpful AND there is no hard sell (certainly not from Baileys anyway). They will calculate exactly how much a horse like yours will need to eat from all the different food groups etc.

For general info I do the following for building condition:-

As much hay/haylage as they can eat at all times (esp overnight or if no grass)
In over night and well rugged
As many rugs as feasible to stop them using up calories keeping warm

Feed
Baileys conditioning cubes - widely regarded as one of the best conditioning feeds available.
Alfa A oil
Baileys outshine (for horses seriously struggling to put weight on)
Sugarbeet
A balancer if necessary

Please do contact the feedlines otherwise you are likely to be feeding too much of one thing not enough of the other, not enough minerals etc.
 
hi again,

i am not new to horse ownership, just have only had good doers and last winter this horse was in 24/7.... is weight was good then but this year he has been off recovering from and injury and i am amazed with how much weight he has lost. i have only fed good doers so feeding to gain weight is somthing i have never really had to deal with.

he does havehaylege put in his feild but the last 2 days it has run out, the livery yard owner is putting it in but in a week or so he is moving house and then i will give him ad lib haylege. but for the last 2 days he has had none.
 
My very poor doer is out 24/7 this winter. He has ad lib hay (he'll easily eat 2 to 3 bales per day) and 2 feeds of baileys top line conditioning cubes and baileys number 1. He is never going to be fat, but this has put weight on him even during this very cold snap and you can no longer see ribs - he has a nice covering all over. Make sure he is well rugged too, but don't go over the top - the base of his ears should feel warm.
 
i spoke to baileys and she recommends baileys number 4 and i can still feed alfa oil with that but i need to increase the amount. he needs 2 kg a day of the conditioning cubes and at least the same amountof the alfa oil. she says i can feed 250ml of soya oil for weight gain and to improve his coat but i can increase this to 400ml( that seems quite alot of oil!)

as for getting hay in the field there are 8 horses there and i dont have a tractor to put a big bale in myself.... if i put small bales in most of it would go to the other horses and not mine. there are 8 other horses in the field..... i cant afford to feed them all on my own. but the moving date is set at the 11 th of dec so he doesnt have much longer to wait. i will hae a word tonight about when the next bale is going in, mine isnt the only hungry horse there so im sure other owners will get on his case as well.

i felt under the rug this moning and he was not very warm at all. the wind is really bad in our area at the moment. i will check his ears tonight but i dont think he is too hot.....
 
Jezapie, I think you have a serious problem here.

If the hay is part of the livery costs - then the farmer needs to pull his finger out and put some in the field.

I can't quite see why it is acceptable to allow your horse (or any of them if there is no grass) to affectively starve.

Please take some immediate action - if only to bring your horse in over night so that it has access to as much hay as it can eat.
 
amymay said:
Jezapie, I think you have a serious problem here.

If the hay is part of the livery costs - then the farmer needs to pull his finger out and put some in the field.

I can't quite see why it is acceptable to allow your horse (or any of them if there is no grass) to affectively starve.

Please take some immediate action - if only to bring your horse in over night so that it has access to as much hay as it can eat.
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I completely agree with Amymay who as always gives good, straight, no frills advice. Hay, good feed and a warm stable and you should see your horse thrive. If your horse is cold then hard feed alone is not going to put weight on him.

Giving him adlib hay over night will allow him to keep warm through the day too. As Mike007 as reminded us. Hay heats twice. While being digested and calories used.

If you wait another 9 days, your horse may lose a serious amount of weight and you will end up spending a fortune trying to get the weight back on him. No good for you or him!

However, in relation to Baileys advice. They also recommended no 4 cubes for my pony and along with plenty of hay, she has put on a lovely amount of condition.

Good Luck and hope all goes well.
 
Jezapie, if you can get your hands on some micronised barley then try that. My horse is 18hands and is only 6 and is a poor doer but the barley is great stuff. He's been on it for about 2 weeks and he looks great. It's good value too.

I also feed Outshine and Baileys Stud Balancer. Great stuff.
 
we are moving on thursday now so he doesnt have to go very long with out hay. he livery owner says more haylege is being delivered this week well i dont know when that will be......
i think i might actually get barley rings for him, lots of people that i have asked have recommened them... i think they are dodson and horrell...

thanks for everyones help anyway
 
Micronized flaked maize and rolled barley are great conditioners,along with grass nuts and ad lib haylage.If he is getting bullied off the haylage ..then separate him ,it is`nt on to deprive him of food ,whatever the reason.
 
When I was trying to put weight on my horse he had :

As much as he could eat haylage
1 scoop of alfa oil, 1 scoop of A&P weight gain mix and speedibeat. You could try equijewel aswell as that is really high in calories and works wonders and you only need a cup full in each feed.
I would deffo up how many times you feed him, so try 3 times a day at least.
This put on a little bit of weight for mine which is extremly good because he has a malabsorption problem, which we later found out.

Good luck :)
 
jezapie said:
we are moving on thursday now so he doesnt have to go very long with out hay. he livery owner says more haylege is being delivered this week well i dont know when that will be......
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In the meantime get the horse in for a few hours every day to eat the hay that you will be buying.

The situation sounds totally unacceptable.......:o
 
there was a big bale of haylege put into the field yesterday so now he can eat as much of that as he wants to, he is pretty much the boss in the field so wont get bullied off it. should last them a few days there was still loads left when i fed him this morning. and i have already ordered a months supply im guessing that i will use about 2 small bales perday for 3 ponies and one horse. this might go up to 3 or 4 perday becasue i might have another 2 horses coming.. but not for another few weeks at least so i think i have ordered enough.

i would bring him in over night if there were stables but there are not. and the field shelter has my pony in it that took 5 people to herd up yeserday so he is not going loose again!
 
Bailys no way, ever wondered why its so cheap compared to other suppliers. Allen and page natural product full of goodness. I feed my mare Fast Fibre which helps keeps weight on and ride and relax. My last horse wasnt a good doer at all and weight would fall of him so rapidly so he was on Simple systems and I would swear by this product for any horse dramaticly loosing weight
 
2 small bales perday for 3 ponies and one horse
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Probably wan't to double that estimate - at least...... A horse will eat at least a bale and a half a day (if fed adlib).

Great news that the hay has gone in - It should last them around 3 days.
 
well i will give him about 3/4 of a bale overnight and will be out on grass in the day. should be ok becasue it hasnt been grazed yet this year. and i know there isnt much goodness in the grass now but he will be having 3 big feeds as well.

2 of the ponies wont eat much more than 1/2 a bale each im not sure about the 3rd as see is new but i will have enough to last a few weeks even if i ahve to feed 3 per day.
 
jezapie said:
we are moving on thursday now so he doesnt have to go very long with out hay. he livery owner says more haylege is being delivered this week well i dont know when that will be......
i think i might actually get barley rings for him, lots of people that i have asked have recommened them... i think they are dodson and horrell...

thanks for everyones help anyway
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could you not pyt him in a paddock on his own and get some small bales of hay for him??

also redi-grass is very good it's full of protein and if you fed him a couple of scoops of this a day that may help, some people say it can be a replacesment for hay is you really can't get some hay to him
 
Coolstance Copra meal

my gelding had exactly the same problem, after 3 weeks of feeding this non heating coconut based food he has piled weight on & has a shiny coat!!!


i am amazed!!!
 
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