what should i feed my old mare?

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tryingnotogiveup

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My Mare turned 21 last month. Shes already being retired for a couple of years due to severe arthritis in her hind leg. until recently shes not looked any older than 14 though. she has always lived out in the summer and then been brought in at night during the winter with unlimited hay and mollichaff bran and pony nuts for tea. coming up to this winter though I want to feed her something which will help her in her old age. she was my first horse and so is the first one that ive had that's old and there are just so many options I was wondering what other people recommend ? I was already thinking of changing from mollichaff original to veteran. and im also going to feed turmeric alongside whatever I feed to try relieve her arthritis a little. I don't want something with too much energy as even at 21 she comes out the stable like a racehorse fighting you. what do you all use ???
 
Depends what you mean by 'something which will help her in her old age'! Did she start to lose condition last winter, so you feel she needs something more calorific to help her maintain condition? Or are you just looking to give something that will help with her arthritis? How are her teeth, does she have any problems chewing at all? In which case she might benefit from soaked feeds, and finer textured chaffs. Any signs of Cushings at all - excessive drinking/urination, delayed coat shedding, fat pads over eyes, losing topline but developing a pot belly?
 
I've got all my oldies on Veteran Vitality (Allen and Page). If there's nothing intrinsically wrong with her, other than the arthritis, it's a cheap and cheerful way to get a bit more goodness into her without piling in the sugar that you'll find in most veteran mixes. My big lad is on a bespoke joint supplement from Hack Up as well - as he has arthritic hocks.
 
Sorry I could have been clearer yes she lost quite a bit of condition last winter and you could see the cold was getting to her for the first time, she never used to thank me for bringing her in or rugging her up, although this time she was reluctant to stay out and didn't attempt to take her rug off once (considering it was a warm winter) her teeth arnt too bad, she's not lost any and she can still chomp a carrot (slowly) no signs of cushins as yet just lost weight and muscle tone all of a sudden and in winter really struggles with her arthritis
 
I will sound like a broken record, but . . . speedibeet, copra and linseed (yes, all three). It's mushy so easy to eat, it's low in sugar so great for oldies who might be beginning to have metabolic issues, it's full of "good" oil so great for condition/coat/feet/joints.

My boy isn't old (he's 15) but he is quite stressy and I have to be careful with him in the winter, and he did great on these three feeds last winter (he was also hunting/competing and when he hunts doesn't eat up). The copra is incredibly palatable (it's a coconut-based meal and smells wonderful) and if you make it up warm the smell alone will tempt even the fussiest eater. Lastly, the oil and additional goodies (especially in the linseed) are great for joints.

P
 
My horse is 35, until recently he was on Spillers high fibre cubes, I tried coolstance but he didn't like it. He needed something to keep his weight on but as he had lami about 6 years ago I can't give him anything other than high fibre. He won't eat oil added so was looking for something high in oil. He is now on Saracen Re-leve which has less sugar and starch than what he was originally on. He seems fine on it, if I need to get more calories into him I can feed Equijewel with it as and when required. He also has the following

Equimins liquid joint supplement
Sachet of Danilon
Formula for Feet
 
Might be worth trying her out 24/7 over the winter, obviously make sure she has shelter and warm rugs. It definitely helps the arthritis to be able to keep moving. Remember, a test for arthritis is to stable overnight and see if they stiffen up! Is she on any pain relief? Might be worth trialling Danilon or similar; or even devils claw although it's not as effective as prescription drugs.

Sugar beet is good for weight gain, unmolassed as PS says. And the linseed too. Can you switch her to haylage instead of hay?
 
A friends TB is in exactly the same situation- arthitic hocks and suddenly losing condition in the last couple of months- she called spoke to the top spec people at Badminton, and they arranged for her to speak with one of their nutritionists- gave her samples of everything they recommended (fussy eater too!) and gave her a feeding plan for all 3 of her horses.

While I personally think that the other two were doing fab on the previous feed, so changing them all was excessive, their customer service was faultless and her TB IS beginning to gain condition again and she is looking much better.

Ax
 
HGA-12 said:
i too will sound like a broken record, speak to a feed merchant nutritionist, also read here >>http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/a.html
Click to expand...

If you are going to insist on linking to your website in virtually every post, can you at least sort it out first - it's virtually unreadable! Needs a proper proofread, re-formatting, spellcheck (and some recommendations that aren't for Flexijoint!) I would also suggest that you get the information published there verified by someone independent, as some of it is very dubious. I know you've worked hard on it, but it seems a shame to put people off staying on it by allowing it to become such a massive jumble. I can't stay on it more than 10 seconds because it makes my eyes bleed!
 
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