Veteran really struggling with weight

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MagicMelon

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Thinking about changing my 26yo lusitano x TB's feed. He's never been fat, he's a slim type and always drops weight over the winter no matter what I do. However hes come out of this winter worse than ever. He really has lost all weight round his back end especially. Once he loses his very fluffy coat which is covering his thin-ness he's going to look truly awful come spring. He's on good quality ab lib hay all year round as I dont have much grass, yes more grass would be ideal but the farmer is unwilling to let us rent any of his (I only own 1.5 acres with 2 horses on it). Gets 2 feeds a day of Calm & Condition mash, alfalfa, a local vit & min supplement and veg oil. His teeth aren't fantastic however he still eats perfectly fine and hasn't been dropping his feed at all from watching him regularly. He's never been a major eater but he always finishes his feed and does pick at the hay throughout the day. He lives out 24/7 with open stables to use (which he never does) and is always rugged appropriately.

Can anyone recommend any other feed (that doesnt cost a fortune) I could consider giving him? Is linseed particularly good? He just needs loads more calories! Whats the Big Mac version of horse feed?
 
My 20 year old lost weight end of last summer and I put him on D&H Cushcare. He doesn’t have cushings but it ticked the boxes for what I wanted. It seemed to work really well even feeding their maintenance level at that time. He’s now just on a handful of it. I think it is often trial and error as to what works. I used Equijewel in the past as well and that was good.
 
Agree with checking for cushings.

I start with as much fibre as I can get into them then add fats and proteins if it isn't enough. If you can switch to haylage that should be higher protein. You can also pour oil over your hay to trickle extra fat into them.

You could add in a nice big fibre mash, soaked hay cobs and grass nuts with a good mug of linseed.

If he gets bored eating then you will need more concentrated feeds, copra is definitely work a look. More alfalfa if he tolerates it, higher calorie grass nuts (simple systems red nuts, they deliver to your house for free).

If you're going to have grains then good old barley is fab. I've had some that did well on oats, easier to digest than wheat. Used to cook them in boiling water like porridge for the oldie!
 
Agree, if he has lost muscle and is fluffy I would get a cushings test before giving him any more hard feed. Maybe more chaff in his feed as a temp measure . Equijewel is very good for upping weight but I wouldn’t want to feed it without a cushings test just in case of lami. I also used fast fibre to supplement the hay when my cushings mare lost weight
 
Same issues as you noted with my 29y.o. Couple of winters ago, he dropped an alarming amount of weight, but appeared to be eating fine. Changed dentist around that time, and it transpired that his teeth were not as good as I had been told, and he needed extractions etc.. Changed his diet to 50% soaked fibre food, mainly soaked sugar beet mixed through damp dried grass. Two big trug buckets per night plus one in the morning, alongside his haylage net. He put the weight back on after last summer at grass, and this winter looks good. Hope you can work something out.
 
Equi jewel works for my 30 year old big TB, but the only way I can keep him vaguely covered at this time of year is feeding 4 times a day. I also use Spillers senior mash, oats and proper sugar beet. He is a treated cushing horse. There is no doubt his diet is not acceptable in terms of sugar and starch content, but at that age and over 17h we take each day as it comes and if he is happy so am I.
 
MagicMelon said:
How much grass nuts do you feed in a day / per feed please?
Click to expand...

I soak up 1 dry stubs scoop for the two oldies in winter. They get that split between them in 2 feeds. They then have a mug of linseed each meal with a handful of grass chaff.

Summer they still the same but a reduced amount
 
My30 year old with hardly any teeth has fast fibre, speedibeet, micronised linseed and a slosh of soya oil as well as veteran vitality or spillers super mash. He also gets a tub of soaked grass nuts last thing at night on the colder nights through the winter. He can no longer have hay though and only short grass but any of these feeds are good for weight gain.
 
Soothe and Gain (I think they do a Care and Gain now too for horses at risk from laminris). My old Freisian mare was the same. She just never looked amazing after winter. Soothe and Gain was amazing and I didn’t need to feed much either. She went from the full recommended amount of Calm & Condition down to half a stubbs scoop of Soothe and Gain per day.
 
Equijewel and micronised linseed fed with Saracen Releve cubes kept my oldie fat and shiny. As he couldn’t chew hay properly he also had a trugs overnight of Simple Systems Haycare and Pure feeds Meadow mash.
 
I am another fan of Equijewel.
But from experience, get the vet to blood test for encysted redworm and for tapeworm.
If they're present, no amount of feed is going to help, and sometimes they can be there despite faecal testing being clear etc.
 
If he is only picking at haylage then you probably need to start in a replacer.

Soaked grass nuts, 5-6 times a day
 
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My 30 yr old does pretty well on Ease and Excel cubes, Veteran Vitality and Linseed. He still has decent teeth though and eats haylage like it's going out of fashion.
 
For my 26 year old who I really struggle to keep weight on I give micronised linseed all year round and then sugarbeet as well from around October to March. He has come through winter pretty good.
 
Vet recommended Top Spec Veteran, which certainly improved his coat no end, he went from not shedding his winter coat despite grooming, bathing to having quite a decent summer coat in the end.

Not the cheapest I know.
 
MagicMelon said:
Thinking about changing my 26yo lusitano x TB's feed. He's never been fat, he's a slim type and always drops weight over the winter no matter what I do. However hes come out of this winter worse than ever. He really has lost all weight round his back end especially. Once he loses his very fluffy coat which is covering his thin-ness he's going to look truly awful come spring. He's on good quality ab lib hay all year round as I dont have much grass, yes more grass would be ideal but the farmer is unwilling to let us rent any of his (I only own 1.5 acres with 2 horses on it). Gets 2 feeds a day of Calm & Condition mash, alfalfa, a local vit & min supplement and veg oil. His teeth aren't fantastic however he still eats perfectly fine and hasn't been dropping his feed at all from watching him regularly. He's never been a major eater but he always finishes his feed and does pick at the hay throughout the day. He lives out 24/7 with open stables to use (which he never does) and is always rugged appropriately.

Can anyone recommend any other feed (that doesnt cost a fortune) I could consider giving him? Is linseed particularly good? He just needs loads more calories! Whats the Big Mac version of horse feed?
Click to expand...
Silly question but is he warm enough? Since we upped Lari's rugs to a 350g and 400g he's put on weight. I was getting very worried about him, I do think the Rowan Barbary ready mash has made a difference, but clearly he wasn't warm enough. Trouble is he always chews rugs if he gets to warm so its a thin line between warm and not overwarm.

Maybe upping your horses rugs might work?
 
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