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  Discussion on Older horse feeding
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New Member:
Ponsford

Posted on Sunday, Oct 10, 2004 - 5:06 pm:

My vet recomended feeding alfalfa flakes to my 23 yr old mare (who has poor, uncorrectable teeth and has been loosing weight). What my feed store has is labeled "dehydrated alfalfa". Is this the same thing? And is this a good choice for an older mare? She is also getting Purina Equine Senior, and medium quality brome hay. I have tried beet pulp, but she doesn't care for it. And lastly, does this need to be moistened or soaked like beet pulp does? Thanx for your help!
Member:
Hwood

Posted on Sunday, Oct 10, 2004 - 10:31 pm:

Charlotte,

How much Equine Senior are you feeding?

Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Oct 11, 2004 - 7:50 am:

I am not sure what alfalfa flakes are, did he mean pellets. Dehyrated simply means the moisture if removed but does not tell us much about the form. Often that in pellets is described as "dehydrated". Moistening pellets will make them easier to chew. For more on proper feeding of older horses including the role of alfalfa see, Care for Horses » Particular Situations & Procedures » Geriatric Horse: Problems and Care.
DrO
Member:
Canyon28

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 12, 2004 - 9:35 am:

Do not feed your mare alfalfa pellets or cubes unless they are first soaked in warm water. My stallion , Bill The Cutter will be 30 in a couple fo months. He has most of his back teeth missing, yet he is almost too fat. It isnt hard to take good care of an older horse with poor teeth as long as you know how to do it. If you have dont so already, have the mares teeth leveled up and floated as best the vet can.
Do no feed beet pulp unless it also has been soaked in warm water until completely soft. Choke is of a major concern in a horse with poor teeth. Go to Sam's club or Costco, Walmart, someplace where you can buy a large jug of corn or soybean oil. I get mine at sam's, they weigh about 28 lbs or so and cost about $15 maybe a little more. If you have a local feed mill , call them and ask if they have a senior or old horse feed mix you can buy in bulk. I buy from an elevator that makes it, I fill barrels, you could even use trash cans if you dont have barrels. this mix costs me about $12 per hundred. It is made up of oats, corn barley, like a standard 60-40 mix. It also has alfalfa pellets, which probably make up about 30%, the other part is soy meal or manna pellets. You can have molasses put on it, but I dont, it will spoil rapidly in summer heat with molasses on it. I used to feed Cutter about 3 gallons of this mix every day, 1 gal per feeding, with about 2/3 of a cup of oil on each feeding, all soaked in warm water to make a soup, which is how he likes his, very soupy. You will of course have to start out slowly and build up the oil, use only a 1/4 cup at first, and then increase slowly. I also shake out alfalfa hay, top quality alfalfa leaves , seperating them from the stems. He gets only the leaves, to cut down the risk of choking. I give the stems to some of my other horses. Cutters teeth are so bad he can no longer even graze, yet he is fat, because of the care he receives. Also dont forget to include a balancing mineral or vitamin if necessary. Cutter loves the alfalfa leaves, he could probably get along on just the senior feed, but he just loves to be able to eat alfalfa again. Now Cutter is eating 3qts of the old horse feed, plus one qt of nutrena senior in it, and the oil, two times per day for maintence. He gets some alfalfa leaves for every meal, three times a day. He never really like the purina senior, it is made up mainly of beet pulp and once I got his weight back up, he refused to eat the soaked beet pulp. Some horses just dont like it. anyway, it isnt hard to keep a horse with bad teeth fat. the main thing is to never ever feed them hard pellets or cubes, all feed like that has to be soaked in warm water to reduce risk of choke. I use an old 1 gal orange juice jug to carry the warm water to the feed shed. This disolves the pellets, soaks the corn and oats, and then when it is soaked good, I add more cold water to it to make it the soupy consistancy he likes. He likes to slurp it up, so it has to be soupy for him. good luck, and I am sure you will have no problem keeping your mare in good shape once you get a feeding regimen established. If you cant find an elevator, I would still add oil to the bagged senior feed you are feeding, which ever brand your horse prefers. You could also mix some three way grain into it and some alfalfa pellets to make your own senior mix. If you do this, of course you will have to soak it all, but it takes only a couple of minutes to soak the feed if you use warm water. I know that buying bagged feed is very expensive, that is why I buy most of my feed in bulk.
Member:
Obtunded

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005 - 10:20 am:

What do you suggest for an older horse that is missing teeth and needs to put on weight?

Dianna
Member:
Hwood

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005 - 11:12 am:

YIKES! Lots of discussions on this site about that, Dianna.

Whatever you feed, make sure it is soaked so the horse can mash it, and make sure you feed the recommended amounts. Many folks feed the senior or complete feeds as if they are feeding sweet feed, and only give a pound or so per feeding . . . which actually results in slow starvation for the older horse. The extruded feeds are lighter, so you need to feed more. If the horse is underweight, add in corn/vegetable/safflower oil at 1/4 c per feeding and gradually increase over a period of weeks. If more fiber is needed to keep the horse busy, soaked hay/alfalfa cubes are great. Some folks feed Dengi or chopped hay, but my old guys didn't have enough teeth to manage it. You will find lots of info in previous discussions if you do a search on "complete feed" or "smooth mouth."
Member:
Gafarm

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005 - 11:26 am:

We have two "Toothless Wonders" in the 30 plus age group that do great on Purina's Complete Advantage that is soaked with warm water before feeding. This is a beet pulp based feed that is high fiber. I think it's 25% fiber.
Member:
Canyon28

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005 - 1:48 pm:

I am using Nutrena Sr for Cutter now along with the old horse feed the elevator makes, and bagged timothy pellets. He never like the purina product because it is mostly beet pulp.
Feeding a little oil, 1/4 cup a day working up to about 1.5 cups a day slowly, will help get the horse's weight back up. If the horse has a lot of back teeth missing like Cutter does, it probably cannot even graze pasture with any success.
Follow the feeding instructions on the back of the bags if you are only feeding a bagged senior feed. Since Cutter is a breeding stallion, Ihave to really feed him a lot during breeding season to keep his weight up. I feed him about 6 to 8 pounds of the nutrena sr per day, along with about 6 pounds or so of the old horse feed, and then he also gets several leaves of screened alfalfa, no stems.
If you are feeding hay and the horse is leaving all the stems , then either you are feeding a poor quality hay, or the horse cannot chew the stems due to teeth problems. Choke and colic from impaction is a major issue if you continue to try to force the horse to eat hay that it cannot chew. The first thing to do is to get a good vet to look at the horse's teeth, and float them and level them up as much as possible. When there are teeth missing, the teeth that are opposite where the hole is, grow too long because there is no tooth in the oppposite place to wear against as they eat. So eventually if this is allowed to go for several years, the tooth can get really long and cause eating problems all on its own. The purpose of a float is to level the remaining teeth so that all the grinding surfaces are in contact with one another and the horse can chew its food properly.
It is also very important to keep clean water in front of an old horse at all times. That is why it is good to get the horse to eat soaked feed if possible, this will get several gallons or more of water into the horse every day, which can be critical in winter time.
you can also make your own recipe with calf manna, alfalfa or grass pellets, rolled oats,etc.
Extensive use of alfalfa is not good for many older horses, because their liver can be compromised from years of eating noxious weeds, and they cannot process all the high protein found in good quality alfalfa hay. Many toxins in poisonous plants are not excreted from the liver and build up over time, causing liver damage. Excessive use of alfalfa can make the problem worse. EAch horse is different.
Please go back and read the posts made previously about feeding older horses, which has been covered extensively. thanks, chris. www.canyonrimranch.net
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005 - 2:45 pm:

Christine - I just went to your web site,and took a peek at your Cutter Bill son. He looks SO much like his sire! Many years ago I used to pass by Cutter Bill's home on the way to my parents' and see him out in pasture. He was gorgeous.

I was reading this thread because I've recently acquired a 27 yr. old boarder who really needs to put on weight. The vet is coming to check him out on Friday. I usually have to worry about horses getting too fat, not trying to put weight on them. You've mentioned some good tips which obviously work.
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