What do you feed your hard keeper?

[wildoak]

I've had pretty good luck in the past with Ultium for hard keepers. I'm struggling with a mare now that has me baffled. She started losing weight in the spring and I've tried everything I can think of, from Stomach Soother & Gastroguard to Fastrack, BOSS, Platinum Performance and all kinds of feed. She eats some alfalfa but won't touch grass hay, and I'm letting her graze in the yard. What seems to be working the best for her lately is Body Builder. She's also on Succeed but since I added the Body Builder about 10 days ago I've seen a good uptick in her appetite. The weight has been really slow to come on - and I'm sure the extreme heat we've had isn't helping - but for the first time in ages she actually seems to want to eat.

Jan

 

[Leeana]

I have had several hard keepers, one that was a super super hard keeper as a yearling/2yr old....then now gets OBESE if she looks at a full scoop of grain.

Right now, most all of my horses are "medium" keepers.....i've been feeding regular strategy but it seems that Purina lost interest in keeping Strategy the same quality that it was 4 years ago when I started feeding it. So, I am now feeding the Strategy Healthy Edge (high fat, but only 12% protein)..all the ponies look good on that. I don't intend to do a lot of showing anymore, so I am actually looking into going back to a 12% sweet feed (purina horsemans edge) and feeding that as its a bit cheaper by about $5.00 per bag and they always looked pretty good on that.

I also feed spelts, its sort of like oats in a way and its made them all very fat..and its a filler (sort of like beet pulp). I mix it almost 50/50 with their grain. My stallions get corn oil (just mazolla corn oil from walmart)..Spelts is about $8 for 100lb

 

[DrivinTime]

I have a 32" mare who is 24 years old. When I first got her, she was 15 and would clean up her grain. She was fat and sassy! Nowadays, she eats really slowly and is picky (just like her mom was at that age). I had been trying to pack in the calories, including sweet feed (her favorite) and a ration balancer, but she just wouldn't eat that much. She will usually get through a decent meal at night.

My new vet suggested we try a week of Gastroguard (I think - it was the prescription dosage, anyway) and she did not show any difference in her eating habits. So, probably not ulcers, vet says.

Vet suggested more fiber, in easy-to-chew forms, increasing that instead of the grain. So now she gets a quart (soaked) of beet pulp at night with 2 cups sweet feed and half a cup of ration balancer, and half that in the morning. She does eat grass hay, but I keep some soft alfalfa pellets and/or Poulin Mini-Bites in a bucket in her stall. Sometimes she cleans 'em up, sometimes not. I also found that she likes the taste of olive oil (ran out of Cool Calories) so I've been putting that in her supper.

(Poulin Mini-Bites is a small, soft hay replacer pellet. She likes it, it's easy to chew, and it has some sweetness to it. It dissolves quickly in hot water, so sometimes I make a mash with it instead of the beet pulp.)

She's been eating more consistently since we made this change, and though she's still not where I'd like her to be, she's at a 4 instead of a low 3 like before... Sorry this is so long-winded; hope some of it will be helpful!

 

[Becky]

Chanda, have you tried Omega Horseshine? It's ground stablized flax seed, will put the weight on and safe for horses with 'issues'.

 

[wingnut]

Here's what I feel about my hard keeper most days when it comes to what to feed her vs. what she'll eat on any given day:

What we finally come down to was 1lb of Omolene 300 twice a day with a weight supplement (SmartGain 4 from SmartPak) and UGuard powder. With this combination, we were doing pretty well. Until about 3 weeks ago, when she started turning her nose up at the Omolene. Now she wants the Strategy I'm feeding everyone else.

She is 33.75" and 197lbs (as of a mid-July weight check on a portable scale brought to our location). She is *just* a 4 on the body score scale, in my estimation. She has a defined spine ridge and her hips don't have a nice rounded look to them like my other horses. Her ribs do not show.

We have tried many other things but she will walk away from ANYTHING in her bucket she descides she doesn't like (i.e., vegetable oil, beep pulp, molasses, rice bran oil, etc.). If she would eat it, I would have her on Purina's Ultium because of it's high calorie concentration. We can barely get her to eat the 2lbs a day that we're giving her. Trying to add more would be useless.

After 2 years of fighting this fight, I'm planning on having the vet come out to do some blood work in the next few weeks. Just to be sure there isn't a metabolic or other reason for this.

Also, I give her as much alfalfa mix hay as she'll eat. They have limited pasture time right now for a variety of reasons, but on days when the weather cooperates, I plan on putting her out there more than not. The rest of our herd though can't be out there all that time.

 

[Miniv]

We've had hard keepers, mares who've been pulled down with nursing, and rescues...... and our usual recipe is LOTS of local grass hay, 4 to 6 cups of Senior Complete Grain (we buy a locally made brand) twice a day. Then, we either mix some alfalfa pellets into the grain, or we top the hay with fresh alfalfa.

The above is for minis/ponies.....

 

[Ashley]

I was just going to ask if people are making sure their "hard keepers" dont have ulcers. I found in most of the hard keepers I had, if treated for ulcers and then put on daily amount after that they went back to a normal eatter.

Now my true hard keeper who is my old gelding gets Front Runner Summit. Now that he is the only one I am feeding grain I might go back to adding in beet pulp as well. He cant eat hay so gets lots of grain.

 

[chandab]

Chanda, have you tried Omega Horseshine? It's ground stablized flax seed, will put the weight on and safe for horses with 'issues'.

I don't have him on Horseshine, but do have him on stablized ground flax and a weight supplement (he's only been on the weight supplement a short time). I may have to increase the amount of flax he's on, he's not getting that much right now.

 

[chandab]

What we finally come down to was 1lb of Omolene 300 twice a day with a weight supplement (SmartGain 4 from SmartPak) and UGuard powder. With this combination, we were doing pretty well. Until about 3 weeks ago, when she started turning her nose up at the Omolene. Now she wants the Strategy I'm feeding everyone else.

I have U-Gard pellets on hand, so might add that to his diet and see if it helps. Although, I can't imagine his life is stressful enough to cause ulcers, but it won't hurt, so might as well try it.

 

[Ashley]

I have U-Gard pellets on hand, so might add that to his diet and see if it helps. Although, I can't imagine his life is stressful enough to cause ulcers, but it won't hurt, so might as well try it.

You would be amazed what would cause ulcers. The one gelding I had was nothing but a pasture pet. He did maybe one or two fun shows a year if that. Otherwise he lived in the pasture and did nothing but eat.

My stallion also had them, much worse. He was 2 and had a few mares he lived with, no other horses around to cause any issue.

Another breeding stallion that had them. Again he lived with his mares, no other stallion around.

 

[chandab]

I should also mention with my guy, that he eats extremely slow; if it weren't for the fact taht the equine dentist (she's very qualified) was here and floated his teeth about 6 weeks ago, I'd guess he had teeth issues. Perhaps it is ulcers and they are making him feel allover "icky"; I did give him some U-Gard with his dinner, so I'll probably keep that up and see if it helps. Dispite the inconvience, I might also start soaking his feed and see if that helps any. I've gone through some feed related issues of some sort with him every year since gettting him, I think we are going on four years (he was given to me, and will stay here, long back story). He is out all day on grass/alfalfa pasture, so has access to as much forage as he wants during the day; at night he shares grass hay with his buddy.