Thursday, July 30, 2009

How would I put weight on my aging mare?


Answers:
Try soybean meal and linseed, 1 cup of soy bean meal and 1/8 cup of linseed, put it on her oats you may want to feed her sweet feed if you are not already doing that. Watch her feces though she could have too much oats and start crapping them out which is not helping her. Make sure she always has food, such as hay and some grass, and dont exercise her, hope that helps, you can also put water in her feed not a lot but it will be easier for her to chew they also have senior horse food and Bran mash is good for weight gain. Also look at her teeth they may need to be floated or deworm her to make sure the worms are not eating all her food.
i guess just feed it more
sweet feed.
Talk to the Vet about supplementing her diet.
Make sure she doesnt have any hooks on her teeth, then feed her rice bran and beet pulp. My horses were losing weight and getting thin a few months ago so we increased their intake, and de-wormed them and they had no hooks on their teeth and they were still losing weight and we couldnt for the life of us get any weight on them, so we started feeding them rice bran and beet pulp with their grain and they are putting the weight back on. We soak the beetpulp all day and feed it at night with their grain and feed the rice bran in the morning with their morning grain. They are still on the rice bran and beetpulp now but when they get to a weight we are comfortable with we are gonna stop with the rice bran and continue with the beetpulp. The rice bran is expensive, here it is 22.99 a bag for a 40lb bag and that lasts our two horses about a month. The beet pulp is cheaper and is 7.49-8.99 for a 40lb bag and that lasts us about 3 weeks.
Beet pulp and senior feed work awesome.
If you use beet pulp, soak it before (I usually did an overnight soak to make sure it was finished) as to not cause choke.
In the winter, it would swell up faster in hot water and the old mule loved it like that.
It puts the weight on as long as their isn't an underlying condition such as congestive heart failure etc that would be causing the weight loss.
Beet pulp works wonders. And they love the taste of it! =] My horses will eat it before their grain. It's also a good source of fiber and other nutrients.
I feed it because I am only feeding one flake of hay twice a day. They are keeping weight and building muscle.
I had a problem with this too awhile back. I show my horse and she was a little underweight.
Try vegetable oil. It seems to fatten them up as well as shines up their coat a bit. It's pretty cheep too. It's not bad for them, I promise.
Just mix it in with her grain. Start off with 1/4 cup for a few days, then 1/2, then 2/3, then finally 1 whole cup. Feed it twice a day. This should fatten her up just enough.
put her on a senior feed. Like purina's equine senior. It works wonders :)
good luck
First things first, have her thoroughly checked by your vet. Make sure that her teeth are in good condition and floated regularly. Keep up on her worming schedule.
Aged horses need more easily digestable feed and depending on her general health and physical condition, you will need to make changes to her diet. Again, talk to your vet about what feeds are best for her. I've found that many older horses do very well on a senior feed but again, every horse is a little different. If she's missing teeth, she may need her food to be softened so she can chew and digest it. Older horses generally don't digest protein as well, so you need to be careful about giving her too rich a diet, or feeding her too often.
i have a 26 year old gelding that was loosing alot of weight. This is what I did and it worked. He's great looking now and very healthy and feisty.
1: Get her teeth check and floated.
2: Worm her every couple of months. Change wormer brands each time.
3: Give her 3-5 gallons of Purina Senior Feed daily.
4: Give her a couple cups of shredded beet pulp w/molasses daily.
5: Make sure she has plenty of good grass hay.
6: Make sure no one else is driving her off her feed. I have to seperate my two horses so that my 26 yr old gets all of his Senior Feed.
Senior Feed is best for old horses, better than grain or cob because its easier to digest. Its not overly expensive and works great. It also prevents colic according to my vet.
my older gelding lost all his weight when we moved to a new barn
so we put him on senior and weight builder
he gained it all back
it worked wonders=]
sugar beet well soaked wet condition cubes hi fi mixed in well 2 times a day in winter my old chap liked plentry of carrots and good hay get teeth checked and wrom reagley can all so use any sinior feeds good luck
give it some grass and feed it in the morning and night

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