Skinny horse, advice needed.....

[BayBeau]

Hi,

this isn't about my horse - she's a fatty :D......

My friend's horse is 22years old, he has never been great at keeping his weight on but when I was changing his rugs to put him out the other day I noticed how thin he's got...I want to suggest things to my friend but I've never had horses with weight problems so thats where you may be able to help me out!

He gets 2 regular hay nets of an evening, out all day but there isn't a great amount of grass.
Has 2 feeds a day:
1 scoop Senior Hifi
1 scoop barley rings
1 Scoop of Conditioning Mix
Oil, Garlic.

When I turned him out the other morning I put some hay out for him but as he's not my horse I can only suggest ideas to her....does his feed sound right for a horse thats trying to gain weight? Do you think it should be changed/increased?

He's not really doing much exercise at the moment, at peak he would be ridden probably 3/4 times a week schooling/hacking, nothing too strenuous.

Advice I can pass on much appreciated! :)

[Afellpony]

Firstly, is he regularly wormed? Has his teeth been looked at just lately? If this has been done and everything is ok, then I would get the vet to look at him. May be he needs a change of food, or somthing added to what he is already getting. As animals get older, the digestive system cannot cope with the sort of food they have been getting (nor can their teeth). How does he cope with hay? It is quite hard to put weight on, or keep weight on an old horse.
Does he have diarrhoea?

[BayBeau]

Thanks for your reply.
Yes he has been reguarly wormed.
One thing I forgot to mention, he wind sucks a lot, so his teeth aren't in the best condition, she put a collar on him once but he choked one day and she refuses to put one on now....so he does that while he eats, and takes AGES to eat.

He doesnt have diarrhoea, although his droppings smell really bad.
He seems to get through his hay, some days he has some left over but that depends how early/late he has been turned out/in.
I think getting his teeth checked would be a good idea.

[Sexy Sietske]

If you can get hold on Simple System feed then feed that, most of it can be soaked to a mash for horses with bad teeth and the feed can replace all forage.

There is also someone here that feeds grass nuts for horse and cattle and they are ment to be really good for weigh gain, and these are also fed soaked.

[skyejaye]

hi
i would try soya oil..works a treat for putting on weight

[Pink's lady]

Definitly get his teeth looked at! Either a very good EDT or an experienced horse vet. At his age serious dental disease is very possible.

His feeding sounds about the right amount but I would swap the senior Hi-Fi to Alfa-Oil, which is much higher energy and add some sugarbeet.

He also needs fibre and lots of it. Does he finish the haynets over night? I would expect them to only last a couple of hours, so if there's still something left in the morning it might suggest he's having problems eating them.

When he's in at night he could be getting a bucket of high energy fibre instead off/as well as the hay. I would try him on a big bucket of Readigrass as well as his hay. It's very high energy and ideal as a hay replacer for older horses.

[Tessa42]

Hi, a good weight gainer feed for older horses is mids, it is a great feed its very easy to eat and can be mixed with sugar beet is great for the older horses as its easy to digest.

[NZdressage]

Extruded barley is great for gaining weight and bulking horses up.

[coss]

NZdressage, is extruded barley the same as cooked flaked barley? thats what i would suggest, worked well for me last year, my mare doesn't want to eat it this year as much. soya oil is generally good (but sends some horses loopy and my other horse is allergic to it)
getting teeth checked is really needed especially in the older horse. my mare had unlevel teeth, back teeth were lower than the others (or higher, can't remember) so dentist had to work on leveling them off :eek:
both of my horses don't get through much hay overnight. some horses just don't seem to like hay that much i think.

[Big Ears]

my ex racehorse tb was getting through 20lbs of hay overnight easily plus 3 feeds per day of

1 scoop beet
1 scoop barley rings
1 scoop Old Faithfully
oil

he was on rest at the time and on very good grass but overnight he demolished a lot of hay.

being a windsucker is probably the main cause of his thin=ness as he will have air in his tummy and has probably worn his teeth right down so he may find it hard to crop grass and grind hay.

maybe she needs to feed more regular small feeds plus get more fibre into him with chopped hay that he doesn't need to chew so much.

[NZdressage]

NZdressage, is extruded barley the same as cooked flaked barley? thats what i would suggest, worked well for me last year, my mare doesn't want to eat it this year as much. soya oil is generally good (but sends some horses loopy and my other horse is allergic to it)
getting teeth checked is really needed especially in the older horse. my mare had unlevel teeth, back teeth were lower than the others (or higher, can't remember) so dentist had to work on leveling them off :eek:
both of my horses don't get through much hay overnight. some horses just don't seem to like hay that much i think.


Yeah I think it is, its steam extruded or something like that but I have found it to be very good for gaining weight and bulking up on all sorts of horses, from retired ponies to top dressage and showjumpers, and it doesnt seem to make them fizzy.