Weight gain feeds

TeamWazz

TeamWazz

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My TB has wintered terribly, never had this bad a winter before with him (partially due to lack of turnout and good quality hay at the old yard which meant he went into winter skinny and he's never really had a chance to catch up). I've basically turned him away for winter though he's still brought in at night, getting haylage and hard feed. However monitoring him he's now horrendously skinny.

He's getting his teeth done next week alongside the vet coming out but I'd like suggestions of a good, fast weight gain feed? Has to be non heating. I've heard a few good things about coprameal. My other horse has been in constant work and whilst skinny hasn't dropped this much weight and I'm actually quite worried.
 
Same with my tb. He's on ad lib haylage, speedibeet, rolled barley and conditioning cubes.
He's nearly back now. Just needs some muscle and a little more weight.
 
My TB mare is on two scoops of dengi hi fi molasses free, one scoop spillers cool mix. Tiny scoop of garlic powder and approx 100g of micronised linseed.

she is fed the above twice a day and has two haynets whilst in at night and adlib hay in the field as its just mud now!

The vet was out for her MOT on Friday and apart from the clear lack of muscle she said she looked great and had a lovely bum :o

I've not had her long (week before Xmas) but apparently she is a poor doer in the winter :confused: I think she will come out of it fatter than she went in and now the lighter evenings are here and we can start hacking out it wont take long to get that muscle on, lol :D

Micronised linseed is your friend. Highly recommend it. :D
 
I think the starch levels in copra meal are quite high so I'd avoid.

Keep it simple, I'd go for bulk like, a big trig of ultra grass he can pick at maybe with grass or alfalfa nuts mixed in. I use ultra grass as its coated in soya oil, I mix my chaff into it and my balancer and they have maintained their weight ok. Also feed good quality hay/Haylage as much as he'll eat.
 
If your not too bothered about starch/sugar then ad lib haylage, a scoop of Baileys No4 topline cubes, scoop of dry speedi beet (then soaked) and 2 mugs of linseed did not fail to pick mine up. That's split into two or three feeds. Fenugreek is also good as an appetite stimulant supplement and you need a vit/min supplement aswell with that.
 
I find with any horse that keeps it condition in spring/summer but drops off in winter then soaked grass nuts & micronised linseed are your friends.
I have a naturally size 0 chap who is never going to look round. Keeping condition on him in the winter could be a nightmare but I find.
Ad lib haylage at night & access to hay when out in the field.
Being well rugged.
Alfa-a oil
Soaked grass nuts
Micronised linseed
Stud balancer
Have got him looking as good as he's going to get.
 
If starch levels aren't at the top of your list of things to avoid, then Readymash Extra by Rowen and Barbary put the weight onto my TB who came home after 3 months in hospital looking like a neglect case. Within a few weeks of having this she looked a absolutely fantastic. I think it's about 17% starch though, so it's not something I would feed permanently but I would feed it again as a short term measure.
 
I cant rate linseed enough tbh. Put condition on my highly strung fizzy mare without adding to her energy levels. Combined with a forage only diet and ad lib hay, doing fab!
 
Ulcers?

My elderly, Cushings chap dropped some weight in Dec. He has dodgy teeth too, so he was already on large feeds.

He WAS on Fast Fibre, Speedibeet, linseed, Pro Balance + once a day.

I kept him on the above and added a second feed of it.

I gave him a course of Protexin and UL30REX (now gone onto yea-sacc).

I also added a scoop of Spiller's High Fibre Cubes and Coolstance copra.

He stayed in for a week, out of the weather (he refuses to wear a turnout rug).

This was him on 16/12/12

Obidec2012a_zps7ab9b3d5.jpg

Obidec2012f_zpsdc0d4ab3.jpg


And after 2 weeks on the new diet

ObiXmaseve2012_zps369fa72d.jpg
 
Ulcers in stomach and hind gut disruption are very possible. Lots of (ad lib) low sugar forage and something like unmolassed beet with mineral supplementation and micronised linseed is a great base diet imo. My tb gained a bit too much weight last summer with soaked hay and no grazing. lol
It does take a bit of time for the gut to right itself and treatment of gastric ulcers might be needed. Gut disruption stops them absorbing nutrients so a healthy gut is vital to keeping weight on.
 
You don`t say what 'hard feed' he is getting already?

I would be another who would be looking towards possible hind gut disruption and favouring the high fibre option, good quality protein and a gut balancer to help the 'friendly bacteria' I`ve had good results with pink powder but there are many on the market now.

Sugar beet is an excellent cereal replacer, has good energy value, moderate protein and is extremely digestible. My T.B reacted badly to mollasses (sent him crazy) so I fed everything un-mollassed. so speedibeet would be good.

AlfaA (mollases free) or AlfaOil are both good conditioning feeds which also contain good levels of essential amino acids important for the horse to utilize the protein.
And as others have said micronised linseed is great for condition without heating.

And be sure to make any changes to the diet very gradually to give the bugs in the gut time to adjust so as to avoid further disruption.

You could also up the oil content of the diet for extra calories by adding a mug of oil to the feed.
 
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How much micronised linseed are people feeding for weight gain - does anyone know the weight of an average mugful? Can you overfeed it, any problems associated with this?
 
Readymash extra, alpha a oil, fenugreek and haylage! My TB did very well on this and put on a lot of weight in a short space of time :)
 
Blue chip didn't make my hanoverian crazy and made our resident mouse the fattest thing I've ever seen! Barley rings may also help lots.

My top idea is ad lib hay, worked best IMO when my boy was a toast rack :( having been unrugged over winter before I took him on loan.
 
When our elderly mare had a prolonged colic a few years ago, we started to feed her soaked speedibeet and grassnut mash with linseed oil and a glug of molasses mixed with Graze-on chaff to stop her bolting her feed and choking. She also has a trug of Graze-on as well as ad-lib haylage.
6 yrs on, although retired now, she is a healthy weight and in good condition.
 
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