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  Discussion on Nutrition and winter blankets for 30 yo Gelding
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Member:
Mleeb

Posted on Thursday, Aug 10, 2006 - 5:35 pm:

Hi,
I have a horse here who's probably 30ish, we've owned him for a 1+ years now. He's 14.1 hh and belongs to my son, who is 8, and rides him lightly maybe 5 times a year. Other than that, he lives in the pasture with 4 other horses year round. I'll give a bit more summary, then post my questions.

This horse was not carrying any extra weight at all when I bought him in early spring last year. I kept him on 1 ice-cream bucket (1 gallon) of oats (whole) daily throughout the summer, and into the winter. He has free choice salt and mineral, but they are in blocks, not loose. I don't have a barn, just some bush and a windfence, and we live in Manitoba, Canada, so you can imagine the winters.

Last winter around Christmas I began to suspect he was losing weight. By the end of January I was positive, and took him to the vet to get a check-up and have his teeth floated. His ribs and hips were easily visible at a distance even with his winter coat. The vet did his teeth and recommended doubling the amount of oats (he was on free choice hay all winter) but splitting it into two feedings, and adding vegetable oil to his oats, gradually increasing to 1 1/2 cups of oil per day. I did this, and he continued to lose weight. I bought him a wool blanket liner and put it under a windproof sheet and he spent any days below -15 Celcius wearing that outfit, and it stopped the constant shivering he had started. On two particular cold and windy days, I cleaned a spot in my hay shed and put him inside, fully blanketed, with a buddy, until the weather improved. On warmer days, I removed one layer. It was hard to keep him blanketed just because it wore the hair off the high spots - hips and withers. Whenever we had a warm sunny day, I took the blankets off, and put them back on at night. I seriously thought he was going to die on me.

In early spring, I finally managed to catch him doing his business, and noticed oats in his manure. I switched him to rolled oats, but being a picky eater, he wasn't sure he liked the molasses, and wouldn't finish them. For the first time ever in my life, I bought a bag of sweet feed (kind of accidently) and thought, what the heck, lets try it. He ate it and licked the bucket clean. Who knew? I changed his oats to 1/2 sweet feed, 1/2 rolled oats, and 1 1/2 cups of canola oil, and within 2 weeks he was gaining weight. However, he hit a plateau and quit gaining weight, and I cut out the second feeding of oats since it seemed to make no difference. He is in nice condition, albeit slim, but it is taking 1 gallon of this mix each day, plus 24/7 summer pasture to keep him there. When he eats grass hay (occasionally we travel), he just seems to roll it up in wet bunches and spit it back out. I bring along hay cubes just for him and soak them in water. Fortunately, he loves them, and this past week I've started mixing some of the soaked alfalfa cubes into his oats. I've tried getting a dentist here, but there are none locally, and the guy who apparently arrives once each spring, for some reason, didn't come this year.

Ok, now the question part.
1. Should I be considering a change in diet to increase his weight before winter hits?
2. Should I be adding more hay cubes, or beet pulp, soaked, to his diet (or winter diet only) as they would take less chewing? He's obviously not chewing well.
3. Should I be blanketing him as soon as the cooler weather hits, or will this prevent him putting on a winter coat? If so, what guidelines do I use for when to blanket and when not to?
4. Should I add loose salt to his oats to increase his appetite? (I worked at a horse barn previously where this worked well with yearlings and 2 year olds.)
5. Should I consider a daily de-wormer on his feed?

Thanks.
Member:
Erika

Posted on Thursday, Aug 10, 2006 - 7:55 pm:

Hi Michelle,
You will find all the info you need in the article here: Care of horses>>Management and procedures>>Geriatric horse:Problems and care

Erika
Member:
Stevens

Posted on Friday, Aug 11, 2006 - 10:14 am:

Hi Michelle,

I also had a 30 year old gelding. He had it much easier than your boy as he was in a barn in So. California. We did have a year where he DrOpped alot of weight, however, I was able to get weight back on him with a couple of things.

First, we took away his salt block; I suspect he was bored in the stall and found out from the barn staff that he pretty much licked on it all day, in between trips to the waterer. He had the runs pretty bad.

Second, I increased his senior feed, extruded sweet feed basically so that it's easier to eat and digest, and started giving him hay pellets.

My guy also got oat hay, but pretty much wadded most of it up and spit it out as you describe in your post.

Good Luck,

Chris
Member:
Boomer

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 15, 2006 - 5:52 pm:

When I was trying to put weight on my TB I fed her a pelleted high fat feed three times a day. Along with free choice grass hay. I suspected that she would eat a little more if I split up the feeding. I used corn oil as well and it really worked. Omelene 200 was a good brand and Safe Choice. But being a senior you may want to try a good senior feed. Beet pulp is wonderful too and economical. Good luck!
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