This is Missy. She is a 20 year old Welsh Pony. As you can tell, she desperately need to gain weight. I am suppose to be getting her this weekend as the owners are unable to care for her like she needs. (they work alot, and kids do sports on weekends) They are giving her to us. Missy's problem is she does not have very many back teeth so it is hard for her to get the proper nutrition she needs to keep the weight on. Her owners did not realize she was like this when they got her and she quickly lost weight do to the fact. They have since taken her to the vet and had her teeth floated and Missy was put on a diet of Senior Feed and Alfalfa cubes, soaked 2 to 3 times a day. My question is....What can I give her that will put some weight back on her quick before she starts loosing muscle? I know I cannot just pour the food to her because you run the risk of founder, but is there anything out there that would put weight on her quick enough to get her out of the danger zone. Missy has a clean bill of health and is up to date on her shots, worming, neg. coggins, etc. Any information you can give me will be greatly appreciated. I would like to have Missy in our little herd for a while if possible.
Fat is the key. Feed her high fat foods to begin with and you can add vegetable oil (or some type of vegetable oil like corn oil) to her grain. You can increase it by 2 table spoons each time to gradually get her up to 1-2 cups with her feed.
Fat has a ton more calories in it than protein or carbs, but is safe so you don't have to worry about the issues that go with overfeeding grains. Not only that but it is FAST! You'll see the effects in about 10 days once the fat in the diet has been increased to a good portion (closer to the 1 cup mark).
Currently she is getting fed two and a half (large) coffee cans of senior feed 2x a day and a handful of alfalfa cubes that have been soaked. Her current owners said that she really needs that 3x a day but they are unable to do that because they both work. Is this too much, not enough, or enough for her? It sounds like a lot of feed to me...
It's hard to tell without knowing the weight of the feed. Is there a way you could get a rough estimate on how much a coffee can weighs? I don't want to tell you anything that could be wrong.
That is certainly a lot of grain. Coffee can should estimate around 5# per can. So 12.5# twice a day. Holy crap.
What has put the most weight on Froggy is free choice hay, a hay based feed with Flax, Beet pulp, Ricebran, corn/veg oil, apple cider vinegar. He gets 5# of that mix twice a day. Free choice forage is best to slowly gain weight.
That is a little on the high end for concentrate, but not necessarily too much. If you could tell me what exact senior feed you are feeding I could see more accurately if it's too much.
Free choice hay would be great, but since she doesn't really have back teeth that won't work well. My friend has the same problem and has them on beet pulp along with the senior feed.
But like I said the best way for fast weight gain without worrying about all the feeding problems of over graining is a high fat and added fat diet.
I would try alfalfa pellets, or alfalfa\timothy mix pellets, to help supplement the senior feed. I am going to assume that the senior feed is a complete feed? That would explain why they would be trying to give her a little more, than say, a normal feed, that is not designed for complete feeding.
Again, though, I would try supplementing the senior feed, or mixing the alfalfa pellets with the feed.
If you are going to just supplement with the soaked cubes, you may need to up the amount she is getting; a 'handful' doesn't sound like a whole lot.
I would try the beet pulp, as well; I know here, there are beet pulp pellets (so much easier to feet than the flakes, if I had to feed them!); they can be fed soaked or unsoaked.
Considering she doesn't have good back teeth, I would try soaking ALL of what you feed her, though...even the senior feed may not be benefitting her much, since they use the back teeth to grind everything with.
Thank you all for your help in this matter. I have wrote down all your suggestions and I have an appointment with my vet Saturday to speak with him on this matter and have Missy examined.
Keep up with the soaked senior feed and alfalfa cubes. Add to each meal 1 cup of flax meal for extra fat calories. To two meals, add a digestive aid like Fastrack or similar.
If she'll eat more feed, and you're at the max recommended senior feed for her target weight, then you can add as much alfalfa cubes as you want. Make a 4th and 5th meal of more of those. Or if you don't want to add more alfalfa, you could try soaked beet pulp shreds with a little alfalfa for flavoring, or Timothy/Alfalfa mixed cubes.
What i was told was to crumble up 5 slices of plain bread in its feed at it fattens them up because if you feed it lots of carbs it fattens them up quicker than if you where to feed it fatty foods,
Hope this is of some help to you
Wheat based products are not a healthy choice for horses, and 5 slices of bread is hardly any calories. You'd have to feed the horse a whole loaf a day, or at least a half of a loaf.
when i got my little Arab she was pretty under weight. I started giving her about a 1/4 cup of olive oil with her evening feeding and i swear it seemed like thats when her weight really came on. it seemed like almost overnight she went from a body score of 3 to a solid 41/2. (5 is supposed to be perfect) she rounded out over her her hip bones and the spine no longer stuck up at all. I feed her probably a big coffee can and a half of stradigy mixed 1/2 and 1/2 with 14% sweet feed twice daily plus severall carrots and our pastures have been green for aobut 2 months. so she has all the grass she wants to eat. i really think the olive oil was what made her turn the corner into being a healthier weight. you could use any veggie oil
When I moved to Florida my Belgian mare developed a liver problem. Could be there was something in the hay, not sure. She lost a lot of weight. You don't want to see ribs on a Belgian or anyother horse. Vet looked at her and told me to put her on Red Cell and Empower plus her feed. Red Cell is a vit. and the Empower puts the weight on. She gained very rapidly. Red Cell is a supplement and can be continue forever. Look Luck
I have had several of these rescue type horses in the past and the best solution that I found was similar to what the vet suggested to you. I added 6lbs of Total Equine to the alfalfa pellets and soaked them in water with baking soda and whole flax seed. This seemed to work best for most cases. If your horse fails to eat the wet mash then just add a bit of pancake syrup to the mash. This mix should do the trick and add weight at a rate that is healthy for the horse.
Pancake syrup? LOL. Thanks everyone. I'm also dealing with his White Line Disease. My farrier gave me some copper sulfate and vinegar, so I've been soaking his feet. I hope it works.
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