Question about feeding an older horse

new2thejourney · Question about feeding an older horse

I figured while I had the brains, why not pick them and find out as much information as I can, so I really appreciate all your help.

I had a wonderful play day at my friends house with another friends horse. 4 women, 5 horses, 2 ponies and a lot of fun. But that is another story.

I finish my wonderful day, go and pick up the kids, and long story short, I find out that my horse, who I always thought was 11 years old - IS 21 this year!! Oh my GooDNEss.....I was blown away! I have had trouble with putting on weight, and now I know why! I had previously decided not to rug him, but this winter I definately will be. And I need to change what I am feeding him and I would love some input.

At the moment I am feeding him:

Lucene Chaffe
Oaten Chaffe
Bran
Barley
Lupins

I had all the amounts written down somewhere but I can't find them. It's about 500grams of the chaffe's, about 1kg of bran, 800grams of Barley and I haven't weighed the lupins yet, but he gets a 2 litre ice-cream container of un-soaked lupins, then of course when I soak them they swell massivly.

He gets that every night for tea.

During the day he has access to some ok - ordinary free choice hay, and at night and in the morning he gets a little premium hay.

He has shelter from the rain, wind and sun if he needs it.

His feet are in the process of being corrected, but his lameness has held off his last trim - yet to be rebooked.

I am not interested in feeding pellets as the quality of them here are poor.

I can't think of anything else you may need to know.

Oh - we have just finished week 5 of Hill Therapy so next week will be the last week, but I have to add another for the week he had off lame.

We play on-line and at liberty a little bit, but as the weather is getting colder here, the playing is less.

Thank you so much for any help you may come up with for me,
Sincerely,
Karen.

HopeMissouri

Why do you need to change what you're feeding your 21 year old horse?

If he was doing fine with what you were feeding when you thought he was 11, he should continue to do OK.

Hope
w/21yo TWH and 28yo Spotted Saddle Horse

EDITED TO ADD: Oops! Read this too early in the morning, missed the weight problem. Unless I told someone that my TWH was 21, they could think he was 11 years old. So I assumed yours was doing as well.

My 28yo does drop weight if I don't stay vigilant. He does very well on Senior Pellets (Purina & Triple Crown) which include some pro-biotics and supposed to be highly digestable. He has very few teeth left, so I add water to his food to soften. The vet also suggested that I add vegetable oil to the older horse's food to keep things moving through his system.

oldmac_donald

I can't go past Feedxl.com - really, it's worth the $15 for a day's use. Seriously!

My "kinda hard to keep" mare, who is 8 months preggers (like no one can tell with my garish Egg signature

), is now on a diet because the program worked too well!

I took her out today, and mistook her for a percheron. She's an appy, built like an arab. Nice and fine... and now apparently morphing into a draft horse. My feed bill went WAY down. She just gets... hay. Hay and supps in a handful of chaff. Speedibeet when she has done some work (which is great for safely getting weight on these hard keepers, btw)

The amount of feed I've thrown down her throat in the past, to no avail, is taunting me...

The program takes age, work, diet-related diseases (I highlighted laminitis to eliminate high sugar-based feeds), grass type (tropical, temperate), quality, hay, hay quality, chaff quality, every premixed feed available in Aus, and most supplements.

Anyway, its the cheapest way to get peace of mind, IMHO, because now I know what I'm feeding. Oh, and because you only get a day/week/month to play with it, do several diets in preparation for things like holidays (agistment center, check!), spelling, retirement, conditioning. In my case, I did one for every stage of pregnancy, lactation, weaning and spelling.

It's also an eye-opener in terms of finding out what your supps really DON'T cover. Eek!

PasoBaby_CarolU

I can't comment on his diet, since I am unfamiliar with some of it. What I have found with my older horses are that you need to first check their teeth well to make sure they are able to thoroughly chew their food. You can check a manure sample and see if there are long, undigested stems. This is a give-away that they aren't masticating the feed well enough. Soaking helps with this and gives them additional water.

I feed my seniors (I have two) additional fat to maintain weight and probios to help in digestion. There are many feeds with fat in them, or you can add vegetable or corn oil to their feed.

new2thejourney

thanks all for your replies. I will check out that web site for sure. And I like the sound of the vegetable oil. His poos are fine and his teeth were done last year - dentist pulled out a wolf tooth! and I will get his teeth seen to again soon.

Karen

Horse Gypsy

I personally think that the best diet for weight gain- and what has worked for me is free choice hay, and soaked beet pulp/oats 50/50, at least 4 ounces of ground flax seeds or flax oil and a half cup of vegetable oil a day. Plus probiotics-made a big difference for my older TB. And make sure they have access to salt. IT also turns out that that diet at least here is cheaper than feeding a commercial premixed feed- I know what is in it- and there is no sugar or fillers. And it is a safe diet if you run into metobolic issues.

whisperingwindfarms

Most vegetable oil is rancid by the time it reaches your grocer's shelf. Just FYI . . .

Horse Gypsy

I think we have been through this before--That may be true but it is the only thing that puts weight on a bunch of older skinny horses. I have tried a lot of things. SO you do not use any vegetable oil in your house? What you don't have salad dressing? I admit I usually use Olive oil in mine-- but you would have to be a nut to feed horses fancy organic olive oil.
I have heard that Cocosoya is better- but not easily available. I would love to be able to afford to feed them cold pressed oils- but it is just not happening.

whisperingwindfarms

Horse Gypsy

Erin, I have asked Dr Kellon about this, and it is not true. Horses can digest oil and it doesn't do any damage. It does not damage the liver-- and the gall bladder thing is just some old myth according to her. They can and do digest fat in the stomach and small intestine. That is why adding fat puts fat onto horses. It is not a good energy source however-- so if you are looking to add calories don't feed more fat- add more digestible carbs.

It all depends on what kind of horse you have-- If I didn't have any TBs I would think people were crazy for feeding oil also-- For QHs and Drafties it would be insane to feed them oil. But When you have horses that have been so bred for speed- somewhere along the line the bodies ability to maintain fat has just been bred out-- and in this climate with these breeds you need to add fat. I have talked to Dr Kellon about this and she agrees with me. After having my Hano on oil for a year -- and he finally got the 5.5 condition score-- I took him off and tried just flax and other things- and he lost weight- back to being ribby-- so This is something that works everytime for skinny horses. And this is a horse that is on free choice hay/pasture that I have just mineral balanced.

whisperingwindfarms

You have your sources and I have mine. You trust yours and I'll trust mine.

HopeMissouri

RANCID! Vegetable oil! Gross!!!

Now I'm going to have to taste test

At least it doesn't reek, the horses like it, and the dogs can hardly wait to lick the bottom of the horse buckets to get the residual.

My vet suggested the vegetable oil to help prevent blockage since my old guy is bereft of teeth. He never mentioned the addition of oil to add weight, but possibly would have if my horse had appeared to be underweight.

Leah

whisperingwindfarms

Leah,

You and I have had this conversation before and did not change each other's opinions. I do not expect any different result this time. I do not advocate feeding a top dressing of any kind of oil and most definitely not store bought vegetable oil.

Erin

carefreegirl

whisperingwindfarms

My feeling is that they don't handle the big dump of fractionated oil well. The gall bladder is the organ that emulsifies fats so they can be digested. In nature, they get their fats thru seed heads of grass and the like. When the oil is intact as in still in the plant, they handle it pretty well. Because they have no gall bladder, they cannot digest a dump of top dressing oil.

Because we do take them away from natural forages that would contain their omega 3 fatty acids, and high natural vitamin A, E, an ounce of wheat germ oil can be a good thing if they don't have access to fresh grass. You can put it on the hay, and/or feed that at a separate time from the supplements, to prevent it from inhibiting the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins. If you do choose to feed higher amounts of oil, use cocosoya oil or another very high quality cold processed oil or expeller processed, organic oil so that it does not contain hexane (a petroleum related solvent that is used to extract most oils.)

Leah

Leah

Now I am confused-how do they digest cocosoya oil?

Isn't oil oil?

Horse Gypsy

I have been thinking of switching to getting coco soya in bulk. Because I have tried feeding oil seeds and it doesn't work as well-I have tried rice bran that doesn't work-- they are on pasture now-- that does help-- but it is the winter. I was giving my horse eight onces or ground flax and that didn't work the way the vegi oil does-- but I think the flax balances out any negative effects of the oil-- that is my opinion. Unfortunately some of my horses need concentrates or they will not eat enough to maintain weight-- I am trying to figure out why-- but I am leaning toward it being the harsh climate up here that they were not originally from or bred for. Because for whatever reason the horses I have that were born up here are fine with weight-- even my rescue TB mare- once I got weight on her at first she maintains, and I found out that she was born about 10 miles from here.

Leah

How does fax balance the negative effects of oil and what are these negative effects?

PasoBaby_CarolU

Horses digest all digestible oils fine, vegetable or fruit. Oil is oil - to a point. Mineral oil is an indigestible oil, which is why it is used in colic to move blockages. It is not digested and passes right through. I would say the proof is in the poop.....look at the manure and prove to yourself that vegetable oils are digested. Feed some mineral oil and see what happens. BIG difference. ROFL

I have had good experience feeding oil (I like corn oil) to older horses for weight gain and maintenance. I have two senior citizens here and both get 2 TBSP of oil on their feed twice a day. As they age I'll increase it to 1 C/day.

new2thejourney

Wow, what an interesting conversation. I have had some advice to feed canola meal to his feed for extra fat, but I'm against canola fullstop. So I asked for an alternative and was told that soya bean meal is just as good, if not better, just more expensive, so I bought some of that and Rocky seems to really like the taste, and so far, so good. What are your thoughts on the full fat soya bean meal?

I'm holding off adding oil until this conversation finishes...Oh, and I've also been told adding an egg in the feed can be good for condition. Is this an old wives tale or is it something to try?

Thanks,
Karen.

PasoBaby_CarolU

I've never heard of feeding horses eggs.

I don't see any problem in feeding soya bean meal instead. Fat is fat, and fat is what you are trying to increase. The oil is in the meal so the horse is still getting it along with digestible fiber. Kind of like feeding flax seed oil or ground flax seed. The nutrients are all there, just one form is easier to digest and the other has more fiber.

Now, if you were feeding whole beans or seeds, I'd disagree, since they are much harder to digest and most will pass through undigested, especially in older horses.

Nashama

If you are feeding wheat bran your problem may be that.

We went through this when our horses came back from a stud in 2005 poor. 2 had developed chronic azoturia.

The best combination we found for the mare was SpeediBeet, EquiJewel, white chaff, sunflower seeds, cod liver oil, protexin and a good mineral supplement, with a round bale of hay. We did feed her a seasonal blend of herbs and rosehips as well, but, basically, she could not keep any weight on not because she had a foal at foot, but because the triticale and barley was setting her off. We already knew wheat sent her to a weight decline, but it was a shock to be told she should not have barley by the specialist equine vet we were referred to.

Caution:- rice bran sometimes sends horses int the stratosphere, so when you feed, observe any behavioural changes. We used to feed Coprice G to this mare but they have changed the formula to mill run, so now it's the EquiJewel only we feed.

Just as an aside, your horse's stomach is only about the size of a 2L ice cream container so your feeds should not be any larger than that.

new2thejourney

Nashama

If there is nothing on the bag it is wheat bran.

The vet advised that in order of muscle, metabolic and temperament problems (ie allergies) from worst to best it is wheat, barley, other grains, oats and rice. In our instance when we leased the mare she was thought to be a barley horse, but the fact was she should only be given rice. We were also feeding some triticale, which is a cross between wheat and rye. Big fat red crosses all over her diet and that of the then colt! By the time she left to go to Queensland, nearly 3 days in transit and this mare did not tie up once. Vet 1: Jules 0. Lesson learned very well!

Yes, you can split the feeds, but they should be no more than about 2 litres at a time, which will aid digestion. Leaving damp feeds (feeds should never be fed dry due to dust) in the feeders promotes fermentation, which not really good if your horse has some digestive issues, so it is better to feed 2-3 small feeds than one big feed.

Horse Gypsy

new2thejourney

Clarissa

N2tJ You should go back & read all the posts in both threads. I replied to your original question second post I think. I said it was wheat bran you were feeding & not to do it & to break your feeds down to 2 or 3 times daily. On the next page of that original thread I replied again with a link that explains about flax, omega3&6.

I also mentioned that you should be including seaweed meal as it is a very good source of lots of things that will balance the Aussie pasture.

oldmac_donald

Ah, seaweed. I liked the liquid one.. til...

I added 10ml (the minimum dose) to my horse's "diet" on FeedXL - bear in mind I had used it a year or so ago, but had no finished off the container in the fridge as fridge and feedshed live apart... and I'm lazy.

Anyway, when I was playing with the macronutrients and minerals, I thought of this liquid kelp and added the RDI of 10ml. Holy. Sheet.

10mL took my iodine levels from normal to 1000% RDI. YIKES! 10mL is a cap full. No wonder Allure's got a goiter - doesn't that Essential stuff have seaweed in it?

Oh yes, there is this new horse/cattle product out - Superior. Everyone around here seems to like it, 'cept FeedXL, coz it tells me that feeding the amount needed to counteract bighead for a pastured horse (250g) puts your iron levels over 1400% RDI. I think the RDI of Superior is about 100g, which does... sorry... SHEET all. To get ANYTHING out of it, you had to feed a massive amount, which put the high iron content through the roof.

Sticking to my lovely KER products here :-) My girl is looking so lovely, and the feedbill has gone down. I've even dropped Speedibeet temporarily because she needs to lose weight, even with foaly and winter approaching.

Oh, Speedibeet was listed as having a low iron level I believe. Something to do with the way its processed. The program breaks down the DI levels of nutrients into %x, %y, %z - and SB hardly contributed squat to the iron levels. Very handy for finding those pesky products which bump up nutrient levels dangerously. Varmits!

Clarissa

Oldmac what brand of speedibeet are you using? Is it imported. I guess it would have to be as there is precious little grown here. There is a special bighead product that was made by Hi-Feeds I think from Towoomba. I used it for 2 of my horses while they were growing on setaria but it didn't work as well as the old fashioned mix.

old fashioned bighead mix:- ....... if I can rememebr it!

1 part DCP(DI-Calcium phosphate), 2 parts calcium carbonate, fed with equal quantity by vol of molassas. Mix together & serve

So cup for cup. A growing youngster needed to be got up to eating a cupfull daily minimum. The molassas was for the magnesium I think & also so the poor horses could actually get the stuff down their throats! It was really fine.

I used to buy the 3 bags & mix it all up in a big drum & store it in those 20lt white plastic drums & buy molassas buy the 20lt drum. I hated using the molassas as my horses were allergic to it. They would all get very itchy in the spring & summer when on it. I started feeding it with wetted breeda because I felt they needed other mins & vits to help digest the calcium.

All I could think of was all that lime sitting in their gut or ending up stored on the ends of their tendons because it overwhelmed the gut. But when Cassie came along I decided to go for the new to the market BH mix which was supposed to be youbeaut.

But it didn't work. Cassie had all sorts of BH problems whereas Jude & Sonny & several others I raised on the old mix never had any trouble & have reasonably fine bottom jaws which is the main indicator of a horse raised on calcium difficient pasture.

So I'm no wiser now about BH feeds than I ever was really. Best to just find better pasture I think. Particulalrly after all I had to go through when Cassie got BH. It cost me a fortune with vets & special feeds. And she's not worth a dollar now.

oldmac_donald

Hey Clarissa

I get the UK brand "Speedibeet" by British Horse Feeds. I don't feed anything with grain, molasses or copra as a rule - feet, feet, and coat object.

I use the DCP/dolomite mix of 2:1 and give 60g/day in 400g of lucerene chaff and 1.5k (very thin) bikkie of lucerene hay plus nutriquin. That is balanced. I'll re-introduce the speedibeet at 9 months (mid-June) and it keeps very well.

I've never seen a BigHead premix before. They OUGHT to stock it here, seeing as we live in prime tropical country, grr. Horrible disorder - a mate's horse had it. Scary stuff!

Prydes Easy Sport is apparently an acceptable feed for molasses-nazis like myself, as it only has trace amounts and even that is being phased out by June. It was listed in the whole of like four feeds available (according to Nerida's program) for laminitic horses. Speedibeet, copra (horse is intolerant), Easy Sport and ... no, that... oh! Extruded lupins by Mitavite. Even the "Laminitis feeds" Hygain Ice didn't make the cut, nor did Happy Hooves from Weight Lifter.

I suffer from "too much sugar equals illness" myself. I don't tolerate sugary things very well and am prone to... umm... get very cresty

So I figure I should treat my horse the same. Keep the sugars down as much as possible. You know, touch wood but her hooves are ring-free. I see a fair bit of hoof rings in horses around, change in diet, farrier, weather etc... but so far, Bella has maintained a nice smooth capsule, so I figure I'm doing something right!

oldmac_donald

Haha I see you addressed the molasses thing yourself - must of just skimmed your post!

I think my friend has her horses in similar country to yourself, from your description, and she feeds that mix with molasses - 250g/horse (powder) + molasses.

You could try mixing it with copra or a bit of chaff. Maybe give your most-prone horse a bikky of lucerene every other day or something - its 23$ a bale here for moderate quality, but lasts me two weeks on a daily bikky basis. Chaff? Two x two L icecream scoops with an Equilibrium cup of bighead powder (60g) and Ms Picky eats it fine with a bit of water.

Copra would probably be the best way of getting it into your horses. I love copra but my horse is intolerant and it increases the sensitivity of her skin - in full work and being fed on copra, she'd be rubbed by everything from the girth straps to the bridle to the rope halter on her nose! Never affected any of my other horses though, just her. She's SPESHUL

Nashama

Actually, seaweed meal is useless unless you have an iodine deficiency. You only have to look at a proper scientific analysis to see that. Never mind the one of the bottle, go look at a proper analysis. The claims made about it are incredible, but my friend, Ann Nyland, went looking and what she found when she went looking at the claims made were quite mind blowing.

Copra, is also not that good a feed for horses - poorly digestible proteins and does trigger a lot of allergies. I am currently watching someone founder their horse on it. :p

Horse Gypsy

OK- I asked Dr Kellon about Seniors and feeding oil. And she said not to do it. Don't feed oil--
She gave me a recipe for a Complete Senior Feed.

A Complete Diet for the Senior Horse or Pony
This diet with the custom mineral/vitamin mix was approved by Eleanor Kellon, VMD.
It is suitable for equines with controlled Cushing’s Disease but NOT for equines with Insulin Resistance.
Base Feed Ingredients by Weight:
2 parts plain alfalfa pellets (for horses not livestock)
1 part wheat bran
1 part beet pulp shreds (rinsed, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, rinsed again)
1 part steamed and flaked oats
A 1,100 pound (500 kg) horse would need to eat between 12 and 15 pounds of this mix per day,
divided into 3 or 4 feedings. Re-calculate the amount to feed based on your horse or pony’s
actual weight. Once you have mixed these ingredients together for a feeding, it needs to be
wetted with warm water to make a mash. They do not need to eat any hay.
For example, to feed 12 pounds a day you would need:
4 pounds 13 ounces of plain alfalfa pellets
2 pounds 6 ounces of wheat bran
2 pounds 6 ounces of dry beet pulp shreds, then rinsed, soaked, rinsed
2 pounds 6 ounces of steamed and flaked oats
To complete this diet, you would add:
2.5 tablespoons iodized table salt, divided into 2 feedings
4 ounces freshly ground flax seeds, divided into 2 feedings
2000 IU Vitamin E from an oil capsule, divided into 2 feedings
Custom Mineral Mix ordered from www.horsetech.com 800-831-3309:
In a stabilized flax base (calculated for 12 pounds of feed per day):
P - none
Ca - none
K - none
Mg - 10.62 gms from Mg Carbonate
Cu - 587 mg from poly copper
Z - 1627 mg from poly zinc
Mn - 1474 mg from Mn sulfate
Se - 2 mg from Se yeast
Iodine - 3 mg
Biotin - 10 mg
B6 - 100 mg (no other B vitamins)
Folate - 10 mg
Vitamin A - 10,000 IU
Always change your horse or pony’s diet slowly and
contact me with any questions before you begin feeding it.

Leah

Did she advise those mineral amounts based on a forage test?

If not-how odd.

Horse Gypsy

That would be a complete diet no additional hay. I you were going to feed hay you would have to calculate how much you were getting form you hay and then figure out hay much more calories/minerals you wanted to supplement with feed- Maybe I posted prematurely-- I am going to work all of this out for my older horse with her help- and will keep you posted. I am getting my pasture tested now- so I will see what I need to add with my conditions.

new2thejourney

Clarissa

Great to see your horse is improving tho not sure about the injections. I think a few carrots would do him a deal better!

The seaweed is only good in certain situations so if he doesn't want it he doesn't need it.

Remember you can use other hays apart from premium too. Fresh cut rhodes is a very good filler hay. This time of year it is grown under irrigation at Bowen & is cheap enough by the round bale. It comes down this end of the state by semi trailer loads. My horses which are on grass mostly, do just as well over winter on rhodes as they do on lucerne.

You can also get good results from barley hay before it starts to head. It gets these things called sties (I think it's called) & they are really sharp bits sticking out from each grain in the head that get under the horse's gums & cause infection & inflamation.

Nashama

Great to hear, Karen.

I am not too sure on the injections, either. We do find VAM Chewables good for a quick boost, though.

new2thejourney

You guys either have HEAPS more choice over east than we do, or I just don't know enough yet

.

We get what we are given here, or whatever we can find as we are in a small farming community. If you know someone, you can get hay cheaper, but I'm sure it's all oaten hay around here. I have had great success with the premium hay so I'm going to stick with it. All summer I was feeding him oaten hay from someone I know, and some other oaten hay from a different farmer, and it all seems to be much of a muchness, except the price. And even though we have a massive hay export business just out of town here, they were not selling to the locals - until recently, which is when my friend and I have been able to access the premium hay. It looks so much different to the other hay and it has been wildly successful.

I'm afraid, clinics, clinicians, food, education etc. etc. don't come to Western Australia very often, so we make do with what we have.

I haven't even SEEN the chewable VAM tablets for sale on our local stock feeds shelf. Mind you, we are in a backwater town, so that really shouldn't suprise me too much....LOL....

Nashama

Hi Karen,

I know what you mean, but yes, we have a pretty good racing supplier 60km away in Wagga Wagga. They don't have everything we use but they do have most of it. The rest we order from www.horsesuppliesdirect.com.au, and they will ship to Western Australia.

VAM you can get either as a paste or a chewable treat style handout. It's one they raced Vo Rogue on. We use it for horses that need a vitamin B boost or ones a little down in condition.

We also order any herbs from www.countrypark.com.au. I do have an herbarium of my own but mostly I can't be bothered growing anything except culinary herbs and herbs I can't buy as these ladies are fabulous. Steer clear of feeding garlic and apple cider vinegar to your horse with his sensitive tummy. Some rosehips though, might be quite beneficial as they are good for rheumatism and arthritis.

Stick with a good oaten hay for your fellow. The two sensitivities I see the most when getting around are wheat and lucerne. If you want to try him with a little lucerne chaff and see if he is sensitive to that as well, that is a better option for you. If he is inclined to scour, lucerne is often a regular culprit. Horses are just like people - sometimes there are foods they just do not tolerate well.

new2thejourney

Thanks for the links, they will come in very handy.

And I didn't know that about the lucene chaffe. I have been feeding him the lucene chaffe for a little while now and he hasn't scoured at all. I do only feed him a little bit, so I won't mess around with the amounts. BUT, he does suffer from runny eyes, a lot. If I let him drink Yakult for around 3 or 4 days in a row it goes away, but then in a couple of days if I don't feed it to him, it comes back. Any ideas on that one?

I am feeding him apple cider vinegar AND garlic, so maybe I will stop adding that to his feed

. Golly, there is so much to learn. I have a question for you about the rosehip. I have heard that it should be soaked in hot water first. Do I need to do that or do I just add it to his feed? And how much should I add?

Thanks,
Karen.

Horse Gypsy

IT may be a good idea to find an Equine Nutritionist to work with. OR you could take Dr Ellenor Kellons on line nutrition courses- like me! She is very generous with her information, experience and advice. www.drkellon.com

new2thejourney

oldmac_donald

Karen

If nothing else, use FeedXL. It's FREE TIL JUNE 10. It's hell of a lot easier then wrapping one's brain out the many many books and theories out there. It is Australian. It's unbiased towards feed companies.

Did I mention that it is free?

new2thejourney

Oh my, why didn't I see the free thing the first time I visited??!! I feel so daft. The first time I saw the link, I went and had a look at it, but then I saw the fee and thought my husband would have a pink fit if I signed up for that, so I saved the link to 'talk to him about it later'. If you hadn't have told me AGAIN that it's free, well, lets just say I went back and had a good look around for how it can be free, so THANK YOU! from one dumb arsed bushwacker...

I have entered his details and found out that he needs more iodine, more vitamin E and less protein. Other than those few changes, we are doing okay with the feed. I did guesstimate how much hay he was eating per day, and I may have over estimated, but that's okay. He has free choice, so who knows how much he really eats??

It doesn't really explain what to add to the feed in what amounts to have an optimum diet. I have tried seaweed meal for the iodine with him, but he doesn't eat it and I don't want to add it to his meal if he doesn't like it...what a pickle. Is there an alternative? I've been scared off seaweed meal, seems lots of horses have died due to overdoses in it.

And vitamin E....from which food is high in that?

Thanks for bearing with me everybody, I really appreciate it.

Karen.

Leah

I don't understand with this obsession with seaweed meal. It can be VERy high in iodine and quite unsafe for horses.

What is the reason for feeding it?

The last time I looked, horses do not naturally gravitate to seaweed as a main food source.

Clarissa

As a teenager I had a horse I used to take home to my parents place for holidays at the beach in nth Qld. It was a very small beachside village & BoBo was allowed to just roam free. He often went onto the beach & he liked to swim & roll in the sand (as did I

).

After some bad weather there was seaweed all over the beach & in the morning when I went looking for BoBo he was on the beach eating it!! He would pick up a great big long train of it & flap it around maddly to shake off the sand then rub it on his front legs like he was eating mangoes (which grew there by the hundreds).

Ever after that when I took him to the beach he would run along the sand high up near the dunes looking for seaweed!

Perhaps it was just the salt. But he also had access to saltweed, pigweed & other salty beach loving plants which would have been salty. His normal diet would've been defficient no doubt. I had no idea that many grasses & weeds were bad for them or that horses needed different diets to cattle!

new2thejourney

Horse Gypsy

I don't really ever feed seeweed meal-- but it does have vitamins and minerals in it. I try to eat some sea weed in my diet-- it helps the body deal with toxins- according to chinese medicine. I actually use more spirulina then anything else.

cory

Dredging up a very old memory here of something I read a long time ago about seaweed. The study was done in Australia/New Zealand and the reason feeding seaweed was because the minerals from the land was washing down into the ocean and what the pasture land was deficient in minerals was found in the seaweed. So feeding seaweed in those areas made sense.

Don't know how scientific or truthful all this is as I read it on the internet a long time ago. Could have just been someone else's opinion and we know there are lots of those.

tchofclas

Something to think about re no gallbladder in horses. When my mare colic-ed at the University of Guelph, they took her off feed, and she'd already gone 24 hours without as her surgery was delayed. Over a course of 4 days she had very little to eat. They removed a garbage pail of bile from her, so it is obviously not produced in the gall bladder. Unlike people, who produce bile when needed, as in when we eat, horses produce it 24/7 because it would be normal for them to eat that way. Incidentally, when I picked her up on the 5th day, they did not want to release her, and still weren't feeding her. I used grain to get her on the trailer, and a full haynet for the 5 hour trip home, and she never colic-ed again!
Also, if we get bile from the gall bladder, do humans who have it removed have to stop eating oils? Not that I've ever heard.
Charlotte