What to feed to help 4YO to put on weight

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Eira

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Sol has dropped an incredible amount of weight recently , so was wondering what you would be feeding her
ATM she is eating - 2 scoops of Alfa-Oil , 2 scoops build up , 2 mugs of equilibra 500 , 2 scoops of sugarbeet and 1 scoop of barley rings and 2 scoops of pony cubes per day split into 3 feeds and she also has corn oil , seaweed and garlic in her feeds too
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Thanks in advance for all your always useful advice
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Need to have some idea of the weight of the feed as on first glance this looks a lot of feed. What height and weight is she - again this needs to be taken into account.

One thing you could try is feeding equimins pro-bio. This made a huge difference on my TB mare and saved me money long term as I was able to halve the hard feed she needed to keep weight on. It makes the gut really work efficiently.

Has she been wormed and had her teeth checked just to rule out these possible causes of weight loss. You could also try rugging to stop weight loss but also avoid over rugging as you don't want her sweating.

Does she have hay or hayledge? Ad lib is best and hayledge is normally better than hay for putting on weight.
 
Is she living in or out? Does she get adlib hay/haylage? If she is getting adlib forage and all that hard feed and still losing weight I would be very concerned and would be calling the vet out to investigate.
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Have teeth been checked? Does she eat all her feed? Is she properly wormed?

That aside, I wonder why you are feeding the things you do. It would make sense either to feed the Equilibra alongside the straights (ie Alfa A/Beet/barley), or just to feed the recommended daily amount of Build Up (contact manufacturer's helpline if unsure of amount). By feeding the Equilibra alongside already supplemented feeds such as Build Up and pony cubes you are doubling up on vit/mins, which is as best wasteful.
 
She is 17.1 and an ISH (mainly tb)
She lives in by night out by day or in bad weather in also in the day .
She is on adlib hay
She is wormed / had teeth checked and wolf's down her food
and ATM is lunged or ridden for 30-45mins 3 days a week .
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She is currently on full livery so I don't see her everyday and was really shcoked when I saw her last time , I assume that she is correctly rugged etc but can't be sure .
YM reckons that its her going through 'gangly' phase and it should correct itself , but I'm not too sure
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There is gangly - my chap is doing this but he is not skinny - just looks a bit leggy and not much top line.

If she really is dropping that much weight fast, I would be tempted to have a blood test and vet check just to be happy that there is nothing wrong.

Is she fizzy or stressy or has her workload changed recently?

As said above - if she is on adlib hay and all that feed I would be concerned as to why the weight is coming off.

At the risk of sounding horrible, are you 100% sure that she is getting the feed you think she is?
 
i feed my four yr old calm and condtion and it made all the difference although had to feed quite a lot, but then he was worked more than your! he all round now!
 
Oh no doesn't sound mean - thats another query - I don't know if she is or not . I buy the feed in myself so there is no reason why they should be feeding her any differently to how I have requested but I'm not sure will definately investigate that
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Workload wise - it has gone down from 5 days a week to 3 days a week
Will be giving the vet a ring also to do bloods
 
just as a comparable for you my 16.2 4yo SH is on,
4scoops alfa a oil
2scoops conditioning cubes
4scoops sugar beet
pink powder
adlib hay, and portioned hayledge

he is in reasonable condition for the time of year, could do with a teeny bit more on him, but hes not too bad.
i would speak to your yard and ensure he is getting everything they say he is, and if he is really really skinny then maybe a bllod test would give you a few ansers if theres something going on inside. hope hes ok
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I have heard equilibrium growth is v good, ive just started on it so cant comment but havnt heard any bad thing about it cept its expensive but from what you are feeding it would probably be cheaper
 
Have you had a blood test done for tapeworm? On that amount of feed (assuming your scoop is a purchased one and not a small plastic container) plus ad lib hay she shouldn't be losing weight.
If she's on livery it's difficult to have haylage instead of hay but it does put weight on better than hay.
I would get her blood tested, and for now add some pink powders to her feed (I know I bang on about them but they do work!)
Sometimes 4 year olds don't look great until the summer of that year when they have access to plenty of grass, I know ours don't.
I think that's what your YM means.
The grass is coming now so get her out as much as you can.
 
My rising 4yo has dropped a massive amount of weight over the last couple of months. In that time he has grown 2 inches so I think that accounts for most of it.
We don't feed him nearly as much as you are though, he gets adlib haylage and 1 scoop build up and 1 scoop SB twice a day.
Can't wait for grass to come through!
 
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