Siaga's gained about 25-50 lbs since I've changed up his diet and had his teeth floated. Considering all the changes we've made, I may never know what caused the issue in the first place, since we've treated him for parasites, both external and internal sorts, I've had his teeth floated, upped his grain intake (Well. I'm giving him 5 cups of timothy pellets along with 3 cups of grain, no sunflower seeds, a weight boosting supplement, a calming supplement to help keep him from burning off calories before he stashes them as fats and muscle, and an Omega-3 oil supplement.)
Anyways, he's almost back up to par, maybe another 50 lbs or so and he'll be back to normal.
The next cause for concern is that he has a reaaaaally thick layer of dandruff. Its thick, really flaky, and oily. In places, the winter hair is coming out faster and so those areas feel really gummy where the dandruff is more easily felt and seen. Boy needs a bath. A really good one. I also cut his mane short, to make scrubbing it clean easier.
I used to work with polo horses in their late teens...possibly the hardest horses to keep weight on. Here are some things that worked well for me. These horses of course got free choice hay, but they couldn't possibly get all the calories they needed and actually take in that much hay.
ReplyDelete1. Beet pulp: super safe to feed, easy to eat (pellets soaked overnight). Most horses love it, and you can feed quite a bit of it without causing any problems. It is basically a "forage" but it is very easily digestible and thus provides more energy per pound than hay.
2. Oil: The sweet spot is about 1 cup of oil (canola, flax, corn). This is the most bang for your buck as far as a source of calories goes, and if you work up slowly most horses don't mind the taste.
3. High fat concentrate feeds (e.g., Ultium, Empower). These feeds are expensive, but they pack a punch so you don't actually have to feed too much. And I personally think they are more worth the money than weight building supplements. Likely though you actually don't even need to feed these. It sounds like you have room to increase the calories in your pelleted ratio by adding beet pulp/oil.
I struggled a lot feeding those polo horses, and these things definitely helped me a lot. Hopefully they help you, too :)
I don't give him beet pulp, mostly because every horse I've seen given it... didn't like it, and it sat in the bucket and went uneaten, and since my horse is picky and I have a limited budget, I don't want to waste money on something he won't eat.
ReplyDeleteI am giving him timothy pellets however, actually about 10 cups of it a day, along with 6 cups of whole oats. He gets fed twice a day, so half of that in the morning and half in the evening.
He is also getting an oil. I would prefer flax but it's expensive. I stay away from corn and sunflower oil because of the major difference in the Omega-6:Omega-3 ratio. The oil is a blend of canola, soy, and olive, bought from the grocery store, not the feed store.
And then, he gets a scoop of Dumor Weight Booster each meal, and then a scoop of a calming supplement to help keep his reactive side down a bit so he doesn't burn it all off before he stashes it as fat. Such a jittery booger he is.