Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

 We have done the panacure purge, he's blanketed. He does get free choice  high quality grass hay and until spring around 8lbs of alfalfa, But he is a slower eater and our five yr old mare is going to start jiggling when she walks cause she's therefore getting free feed hay as well with 1/4 the work he does and same amount's of feed :-) His teeth are good (checked 1 months ago by a vet during his well horse exam)  He gets selenium (checked and was low last yr) he is also currant on worming. We take him out to get "spacial foods" He will not eat very much beat pulp (of course our fat horses would eat it ALL day long) only a pound or two if i break it up into two feedings . he does love rice bran but i only give him 1-2 lb of that.I was just looking for a way to give him fat that I could easily add to the BP/rice bran since he turns his nose up at oil's (corn and canola as wall as veggie).He is a good weight right now but I don't want him to start losing like he has the last 2 years when he does more then light work.  That was why I asked about the weight gainer,someone mentioned black sunflower seed's , so maybe i will try that along with the flax seed. :-)

Thank you!

Jamie

"Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM" <suendavid@xxxxxxx> wrote:

As has already been suggested, I?d do a panacur purge for five days, make sure his teeth are well balanced all the way back with no sharp points (and that requires sedation, a full-mouth speculum and someone who is actually trained to do all this, not just the shoer who wants to play junior veterinarian) and make sure he?s standing knee deep in good quality forage 24/7 (I?m continually amazed by people that want to add supplements and concentrates, but are surprised at the idea of feeding more than two or three flakes of hay a day---but that?s another rant for a different day).

 

The weight gainer stuff is fine, but it?s essentially just ground flax seed and some probiotics---both of which you can provide yourself without the gee-whiz packaging for a lot less at probably a higher quality.  I don?t have any major objections to sea weed meal, but I don?t think it?s providing anything significant, either.  I?ve seen a few horses with some borderline iodine toxicity from overdoing sea weed things, and I?m pretty sure horses on average can survive very nicely without a daily kelp ration.  If that turns out to not be true, let me know, because every time I go diving, I have a world class talent at getting about forty yards of kelp hopelessly tangled up in my equipment, and would be happy to bring some home.  I always come out of the water looking like Swamp Thing.

 

If you prefer the idea of feeding a vegetable-based fat source over an animal source (personally, I don?t mind either one, and most horses don?t care, either), you can look into Cool Calories, which is a prilled vegetable based fat.  Some horses prefer the texture of a prilled fat over a liquid oil.  A lot of other horses will accept liquid vegetable oil provided it isn?t rancid---which it will be if you repeatedly expose it to light, heat or (primarily) air for about 10-14 days or more.  There are also some different oil sources (corn, soy, cocasoy, some cherry-flavored oils, etc) that some horses will accept more readily than others.

 

And, of course, you can grind up some flax seed yourself, and eventually work up to feeding buckets of the stuff.  It?ll also start to oxidize fairly rapidly unless you keep it in the freezer or refrigerator.  The fat calories will remain intact, but you might as well try to keep the omega-3 fatty acids in play while you?re at it.  You can add some probiotics to that as well, though I doubt the addition or non-addition of probiotics either way will make a significant difference.

 

You might also try the high-energy soybeans (or something similar to that) that I think is carried by Dynamite.  I haven?t used it myself, but hear good things from people I trust, and horses seem to like it a lot.

 

Unless the loose stool is projectile diarrhea, I wouldn?t worry about it too much, it usually isn?t clinically significant.  If you suspect that there might be some underlying inflammation of some sort in there, then try adding some psyllium or beet pulp, both good sources of soluble fiber---they both ferment to butyrate, the preferred substrate of the enterocytes lining the intestines, which can promote more rapid turnover (that?s a good thing).  Between the two, I prefer beet pulp (no surprise there, eh?) because you can feed lots of it, therefore lots of calories.

 

You can always just try feeding Purina Ultium---a nice, high-fat, balanced ration, good percentage of beet pulp and most horses really like it (mine sure do).

 

Susan Garlinghouse, DVM

 

From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of jamie ward
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 7:28 PM
To: ride camp
Subject: [RC] weight gainer

 

I was looking into weight gainer's and digestion aide's for a hard to keep gelding who also has loose stool's . He does not like oil all that much no matter what i put with it. so I ran across this stuff it had the pro.prebiotics  that the digestion stuff has and the fat base is oil not animal fat. I was wondering however about the protein level and also if it is OK to give the digestion stuff (AERC drug rules etc)  since from my understanding it is not OK to give ulcer med's I was not sure if it fell into the same category. and finally what about seaweed meal

 

this is the company's spiel about it and content:

The high energy density of Ultra-Elite Weight is derived from premium quality vegetable fats to help maintain blood glucose levels, improve endurance and stamina, reduce gut fill and maintain proper skin, coat and musculature. Ultra-Elite Weight also contains direct fed microbials for gut health and lecithin, which is a source of phospholipids and bio available choline to promote shortened recovery time after exertion

 

It has a base of sea weed meal, flax and veggie oil/fat

It is 40% fat 14% protein and omega 3 & 6 it also contains Contains
Pro/Prebiotics

 

Thanks in advance

Jamie

 

http://jamers1220.tripod.com/  for info and ride story's .

 

Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you, and the ground.

 

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http://jamers1220.tripod.com/  for info and ride story's .

 

Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you, and the ground.

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