Weight Gain (again)

[Bondama]

I want to bring this weight gain topic up again. I have an older mare, she's 22, who just WON'T gain (enough) weight. In addition to increasing her senior feed, over the last year, I have tried the following: A powdered product called Weight Builder, peanut hay, corn oil, alfalfa, black oil sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, rice bran pellets, calf manna, and lastly, rolled oats. By no means is she skinny, but she needs more than what she has. I can not, for the life of me, get another 100 pounds on her. Her teeth are fine, she's regularly wormed, and I even did the Panacur 5-day wormer. I just don't know what's left to try......I did ask the vet, again this week, and she said to try brewer's yeast and sprinkle some in her feed.

Question 1: Has anyone ever used yeast for weight gain? Results? How much to use for each feeding?

Question 2: Are there ANY other suggestions? I know there's beet pulp I've yet to try, but not sure if it's good for the older ones.

Or is she just one of those, like humans who can eat anything, everything and who only gain so much then stop and never get really "fat"? Totally can't relate to that!!

I wouldn't be as concerned if she weren't in foal. She was bred about the 3rd week of January, so is about halfway along. I need to make sure she has enough reserves for this foal.

Any input will be appreciated. Blessings,

[ragsdaj1]

There are some commercial products you can buy to provide a more complete digestive aid at reasonable prices. Digest Aid, Invigor, Opti-Zyme to name a few. Some of these products claim to help with diarrhea, cholic, stress, and other ailments as well. You can also try grinding her grain.


JonR

[kezeli]

This may or may not work but long ago people use to feed potatoes, boiled and cut up, may work woh knows but I can't immagine it would hurt :wink:

[TBLADY]

Yeast is a great help! I would also be feeding Platinum Performacne and bio spong to help her absorb. I have had great results with BUCKEYE SR FEED when other Sr diets didnt help.

Adding rice barn is a good idea as long as it doesn t cause digestive upset in older horses...Ricex aka Maxi Glo is the best for older horses.

[Bondama]

I got a big bottle of yeast, and sprinkled about 3 tablespoons in her last night's feeding. She refused to eat after smelling and lipping. <sigh> The yeast really does smell bad. So, I'll feed the yeast to the dog! He eats anything.

And move on to the next thing to try.....

[madelyn]

Beet pulp is GREAT for adding weight. But it should be "reconstituted." Currently I have a 2yo that I shipped out to "get broke" and he came back broke but starved (actually there are two of them). Anyhow, he is on beet pulp and just one week put 100 lbs back on. I use one feed scoop, set in a bucket with water to cover for about half an hour. The pulp absorbs the water and fluffs up. I would NOT feed it plain/unsoaked.

[Bondama]

Thanks, Madelyn. I knew about the soaking. Beet pulp is actually the one thing I haven't tried yet because I wasn't sure how okay it would be for an older horse. Looks like it may be the next effort, though! Thank you!

Keep the ideas coming, though, please!

Blessings,

[Bondama]

So had the vet out today for everybody's annual vaccinations/coggins, etc. She looked at subject mare (Nottingham Lace a/k/a Lacey) and agreed that she didn't look bad, but does need another 100 lbs. She knows the history and I told the doc I just started her on beet pulp and she laughed at all the other things I'd tried that didn't help! She checked teeth and they're good, so we'll watch her reaction to the beet pulp. She does seem to like it and even drained, it moistens her senior grain, which may aid in digestion.

How much should she get? First feeding, I gave her about 2 measuring cups in her grain. Second feeding, I gaver her about 4 cups. Is this okay, or should she get more, less?

Blessings,

[madelyn]

Oh my gosh.. yup, they LOVE beet pulp, usually. I take one feed scoop, put it in one of those smaller Fortiflex buckets, cover with water (it fluffs up to nearly the total capacity of the bucket), and feed the whole thing with 3-4 scoops of oats to my 2yo's

[cewright]

Madelyn

How big is your scoop? Have you calculated how many #'s of oats per feeding? How many times a day do you feed this mix?

Thanks

Chuck

[Bondama]

Yeah, you know, I was wondering that too! If I gave that much to mine, using the scoop I have, they'd have to have a trough and not a bucket! Is it too personal to ask "how big is your scoop"??

B

[griff]

Stay away from peanut hay, even the green "not rained on" grows a fungus that causes mares to abort.

It's great for cows and thats where it should stay.

griff

[madelyn]

It it a standard plastic feed scoop that gets about 3 lb of oats in one go, maybe 4 lb of broodmare mix, but probably only about a pound or a pound and a half of dried beet pulp (that being big fluffy stuff). Me being an engineer and density being what it is.

Totally depends on the horse, but right now my skinny 2yo's that came back from being broke looking like hatracks get that twice a day.

[LKMote]

I feed beet pulp to my mares. The oldest of which is 19. It has helped her to keep her weight up. I also have her on winners daily and Equinal CM.

We feed her a cup of beet pulp in the am and the same amount in the pm.

Also remember if feeding beet pulp it MUST be soaked. Never feed it dry.

[Bondama]

kezeli said:

This may or may not work but long ago people use to feed potatoes, boiled and cut up, may work woh knows but I can't immagine it would hurt

Works for me, especially with like amounts of homemade gravy.