What do you feed your oldie during the Summer?

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southerncomfort

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Struggling a bit with my little old mare.

She is a 25 year old Welsh B. She has cushings so I have to be very careful what I give her.

However, I think she's recently lost another tooth (she'd be missing 10 teeth now) and she is struggling to eat grass.

I'm making her up a 'soup' twice a day (Fast Fibre/pony nuts) and giving her a small trug of dampened Hi Fi Lite alongside her soup.

She has stopped losing weight but isn't putting any on. She also cannot cope with even the lightest rain as she shivers the weight off bless her.

I'm loathe to try a conditioning cube due to the cushings so I'm wondering about either A) increasing the amount of 'soup'/hay replacer, B) changing the pony nuts for something else, C) adding oil to her feed or D) changing the Hi Fi Lite to Senior Hi Fi which has a few more calories but should be safe for her.

At the moment I'm erring towards either C) of D).

I'm hoping the grass will finally be topped this week which will at least make the grass less stalky/tough for her to eat.

Any/all advice suggestions welcome. :)
 
What about Allen and Page Veteran Vitality? Same idea as Fast Fibre in that it soaks and can be fed as wet as you like.
My 29 year old has that plus Calm and Condition in the winter if she drops weight.

I'll be honest and say I'm not sure how this goes with the Cushings but I'm sure if you rang Allen and Page they could help. I don't work for them, I just like the feeds!
 
I would also suggest swapping the fast fibre for veteran vitality; Allen and Page are very helpful if you need to ask if its safe for a pony with cushings.

If you want to add some oil, ERS pellets or Outshine are both oil based feeds.. ERS really helped my oldie get back into condition after she was poorly. You can feed very small amounts with your pony nuts and it is very palatable.

You could also try a chopped grass like Graze On or Readigrass rather than your chop if she can manage that, I feed it by the bucket full. I would prefer to feed something like that than a chop with molasses in it.
 
Thanks all. :)

I do use Veteran Vitality for my welsh cob during the Winter, I wondered if it might just be a bit too high in calories for a cushingoid pony. Think I'll give them a ring and ask. Maybe I could swop half her pony nuts for VV and see how she goes. Will look in to linseed too.

Thanks again. :)
 
Spillers high fibre cubes can be soaked into a mash, I also recently started to feed coolstance copra as that can be soaked too and will help with any weight issues.

Also if she likes alfalfa you can soak dengie alfalfa cubes

Also Rowan and Banbury (sp) do a Readymash range might we suitable
 
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