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Expert
Posts: 1586
  
Location: west of East Texas | Greetings! I've been feeding RG and alfalfa hay/cubes/pellets for several years to all age horses, 5-30yo. They are also grazing about 22 hours a day. They are in the barn to eat in their own stall or to be ridden. I keep hay out in the winter but most of the time the grass is abundant. I'm in an area of Texas that winter lasts about two months.
I have a 26yo retired show horse that has not done well through this winter. She looks like she's aged about 10 years in the last two months. I've upped her RG to 1.5lb/day and keep alfalfa in her stall. She started pushing the alfalfa pellets around a week ago so I started soaking them a little. She didn't care one way or the other and would eat the dry pellets out of my hand. A couple of days ago she quit finishing the RG but walked out straight to the hay and started eating that. She's a very dignified soul and doesn't get pushed around in the pasture so usually if she claims a hay bale, it's hers. (They all get their own so that the pasture B can't claim all of the hay.) Any ideas on how to bulk her back up? |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
 
| I'm sure you have checked teeth, worming, etc and all the standard stuff. Might take a temperature on her, she may have a low grade bacterial infection she can't quite shake due to age??!!? Viruses usually resolve in a few days time, but some bacterial infections can just brew for months at a time. Pulling blood for CBC would probably be the best idea and go from there.. Then there is just AGE, happens to all of us and our bodies become less effiecient. |
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Veteran
Posts: 233
| Add in 5-10 lbs of a good senior feed to what she's getting now, split into two or three feedings. |
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Expert
Posts: 1586
Location: west of East Texas | Yes, to the first stuff but no..... duh.... I never even thought she might be sick.... just thinking about her being such a grand old dame! |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| When were her teeth checked last? If it hasn't been in the last month, I'd do that again. Old teeth can go down hill in a hurry, or she could have broken one or something making her sore so she's not interested in harder grain to chew.
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | chasendacash - 2018-02-01 10:53 AM
Yes, to the first stuff but no..... duh.... I never even thought she might be sick.... just thinking about her being such a grand old dame!
Sometimes as they age they just don't digest as well. I love the Active Senior from Purina. I don't think they are the best feed company out there, but their senior feed is amazing. The active has more fat. I got started on Forco because of an old horse we had. He just never looked thrifty and had the poos all the time. It's good stuf. Nevertooold on here sells it. Very affordable. |
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Expert
Posts: 1694
Location: Willows, CA | If there is no underlying heath issue I would suspect something in the mouth has changed making it uncomfortable to properly chew the roughage portion of the diet. As said above, this can change very quickly in an older horse. Overall diet should be working fine, so something is getting in the way. Check temp first. I also like FORCO for horses that eat mostly Coastal and have an inefficiency in hind gut function. There is a really good prebiotic in RG, but some horses can use additional help. That said, if the horse was maintaining on your current diet and suddenly is not, something has changed. |
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Expert
Posts: 1586
Location: west of East Texas | I'll check her temp tonight and I just set a vet appt. I've had her 10 years and this is the first time she has ever left food. It's sad to see them get old. She was a beauty back in the day.
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Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| We did have a mare that went down hill quickly at 27. She had kidney issues. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Beautiful girl. . . .
Dan (39) has hardly any teeth, so hay is pretty much out of the question for him. He gets Purina Sr Active, beet pulp, and rice bran twice a day along with Platinum CJ. He has arthritis so we walk a fine line between what I consider a good weight (probably a little too fluffy) to where he actually needs to be (what I consider too thin). Everyone that sees him can't believe he's 39. . . . |
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