What to feed a horse with no back teeth!

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spottydottypony

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My 36 year old gelding has recently stopped eating his chopped hay. He has senior chop but this last week he is leaving it and has dropped weight. He also gets soaked grass nuts, barley rings and sugar beet but it does not seem enough for him. What can i give him to replace his chop as a hay replacer. I don't think the bucket hay replacer would work because of its chop content?
 
Fast fibre - brilliant stuff and the horses love it. You can add soaked other nuts and stuff but it can be as sloppy as you like - almost a soup. It has all the vits and minerals, its non heating and good for laminitics. I fed it to our 28yo and she was great on it and also used it at the same time for our youngster and he is great on it too. You can add unmollassed beet as well for flavour and bulk. It is cheap too:D
 
i agree with allen and paige fast fibre. Just started using on my 29 yr old with missing teeth, minimal chewing required. Great stuff, my fussy mare loves it, good for those prone to choke. Soaks down to a soggy mash in seconds, so easy to use.
 
I would strongly urge you NOT to feed any significant quantity of Fast Fibre.

The reason I say that is because despite their claim on the bag that it can be fed as a partial or total hay replacer, if fed as a total hay replacer it would provide nearly double the maximum level of selenium considered "safe" by the National Research Council. And that maximum level is in itself 5 times as high as the general recommended level.

If you feed above the recommended level of selenium, you risk selenium toxicity - liver damage, hoof and hair damage amongst other things. And of course with liver damage, by the time you see any signs of it, it's gone too far to be reversible.

I only found this out by chance as I rang Allen & Page earlier this year to ask what concentration of selenium was in Fast Fibre. They said 0.88mg/kg. I rang back the next day to double check, because I couldn't see how they could advise it as a partial/total hay replacer at that concentration. The girl on the phone said something along the lines of "oh, but people won't really use it as a total hay replacer".!!!!!!

So the sums for a 500kg horse are:
NRC's recommended selenium intake per day: 1mg
NRC's maximum "safe" limit of selenium intake per day (this takes into account those supplementing higher levels of selenium for any reason): 5mg
Fast Fibre's selenium content per kg: 0.88mg
Fast Fibre's selenium content in 10kg (so if you were feeding nothing else, no forage, nothing to a 500kg horse): 8.8mg/day!!!!

I don't have a problem with the idea of feeding small amounts of Fast Fibre just as something to be able to put other supplements in, but do be careful if you consider feeding any significant quantity of it.

One of these days I must take it up with A&P again, as I just don't see how they can make the claims of partial/total hay replacer about it.

Sarah
 
A good quality hi fibre cube- i use balanced- with boiling water on and left to soften then stir to mash! Ours love it fed warm.
 
Perhaps you could try feeding part fast fibre and part veteran vitality....or something along those lines. the Vitality has more vits and mins to help support the oldies
 
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