veteran health

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nicolagray

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my welsh b section pony is 34 years old and last winter dropped alot of weight i have since had her on senior hi fi speedibeet twilight mix vegetable oil and natural yoghurt ,she is very thin and i cannot put weight on her have tried copra mix and various other feeding regimes advised by horse experts i recently have had stables built in my garden to keep a eye on her. i bought her home yesterday and she is illustrating a huge amount of discharge from her nose her appetite is very diminished and i am not sure what to do with her i feel her fluid intake is not enough. she is does not appear to be in pain and although rests a lot has been intermittently grazing on the garden quite happily any advice would be appreciated.
 
she has lost a few but for the 21 years i have had her has been a typical greedy pony i have started to feed her little and often but she still had some of her tea left which i gave her at half past 4 at 9.25 she has not touched her haylage. just so off character for her am going to get vet out first thing.thankyou for your response just am so worried and tomorrow seems ages away
 
Sounds like you are on the ball, the oldies are a constant worry, aren't they? You have obviously not done much wrong to get her to 34 - well done :)

Hope all goes well tomorrow x
 
I've never fed copra so can't comment on that but I would look at the different elements of the diet. Hi-fi is quite low-calorie, as it has a percentage of straw. I'd consider changing it for Alpha-A or dried grass. We put weight on/maintain it for our oldie with speedibeet, grassnuts, dried grass and ad-lib haylage. We add PinkPowder and a dollop of molasses to tempt her, along with apple and carrot.
She doesn't sound healthy, so I'd get the vet's opinion and probably have bloods done.
 
am getting the vet in the morning just not like her she has always been so greedy and am feeding her little and often but at half 9 she had not finished her tea from 5pm or touched her haylage. thank you for yor reply
 
she is 13.2 i feed her little and often 4 feeds a day i gave her one at about 5 and went to check on her at 9ish and she had not finished it.she has constant access to haylage but has not touched it am going too ring vet first thing in morning. thank you for your response
 
sounds like she's not feeling all that well. :(

with regards feeding for weight gain, and fluid intake- i now feed my oldie (40) on allen and page veteran vitality and fast fibre. both are soaked for a couple of mins in twice as much water (so increacing fluid intake) and are soft and palatable.

tego was very reluctant to eat her bucket earlier this year, as i had been adding conditioning fibre (chaff)... and its too much hard work for the dentally challenged to eat. she eats two big buckets of the vv and ff with oil now with no problems as it is like sloppy porridge, and she has put on a good covering since being fed on it.

she will eat hay/haylage... but you can see that it is very hard work for her to chew it, and a lot just balls up in her gummy spaces and gets spat back out. :(

i hope your pony is feeling better soon. they are always a worry at this age. ;)

xx
 
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