Feed for boxrest.

[shikari]

Just wondering what to feed podgey whilst she is on box rest (fell in trailer,sliced open knee,stitches,long story), she is still overweight but not quite as obese as she was. She currently has 2 x a day a cupful of lo-cal and a few handfuls of dengie hi-fi light, she also has a haynet of haylage that she hardly touches and lots of apples carrots and swedes hidden in her haynet. She is grazed in hand for one hour a day. Is there anything I can give her, to bulk out the feeds without gaining excess weight or energy??? I was thinking fibre cubes,pony nuts of alfafa pellets but am unsure of what they actually are/do!! :D

[Hesseybabe]

If she is over weight, why do you want to feed her at all? Can't she just have a haynet of hay twice or three times a day, with or without treats.
I would continue to graze her inhand as a bit of a daily treat.

[shikari]

Because she will not eat her haylage and she requires daily medication.

[Mehitabel]

do you know why she doesn't eat the haylage? perhaps try feeding smaller amounts more often - so instead of the haynet, try a large bucket of hifi for breakfast, then a small net (will she eat hay, if not haylage?) to see her through the morning, then more buckets of hifi over the day instead of hay or laylage? often if you feed them from a bucket they thik it is a bit sexier than boring old haylage, and if she is feeling sore she will need tempting.

[nat17]

If it was me then, due to not eating haylage, I would give her a large bucket of good doer or similar a few times a day, it is a good hay replacer , something to chew and very low in carlories. I would still add you feed balancer as well and just the fruit and veg as treats. If you can could you call dengie to get some advise? They could also send you one of there bucket measurers ( they are brillaint!) to check the amounts of chaff you give ( i was so suprised how much weighs what)
When Min was on box rest I also went a pulled nettles and stuff ( with gloves on :D ) and put them in her hay net for added interest :)

Hope she gets better soon :)

[Big Ears]

I suppose I would work on the basis that if she were hungry, she would eat the haylage and I would only give her that, as it would get the weight off her as well. When she is hungry she will eat it, or try to replace with hay. Usually they prefer haylage to hay but perhaps she is the exception.

For medication, I would hide it in an apple or piece of bread (is it bute so tastes bitter - maybe a piece of bread with treacle to mask the taste or in a small handful of feed doused with beer again to mask the taste).

[shikari]

Bute,penecillin (sp) and glucosamine, it's an awful lot to get in an apple :o guess I will just carry on with current rations and hopefully she is just sulking and will start eating the haylage soon.