(Another) Feed Question for Ulcer Prone Horse

[PiranhaBoy]

Hi all, I know there’s many threads on feeding the ulcer-prone horse grain and non-grain diets and I have looked through them! I’m having a difficult time deciding how to update my horse’s current diet based on change in workload/turnout.

Background: 7 yr OTTB gelding, ulcer-prone, sensitive to high NSC/corn, slow and picky eater, has a very healthy inflammatory response (accident prone, so ask how I know :lol:). Now that winter is over, he’s transitioning from individual day t/o to 24/7 group t/o (we’re in NH, so minimal to moderate grass in paddocks). His turnout group is a band of young geldings so there’s plenty of playing/energy being burnt. I work him 5/6 days a week - 1 jump school, 1 day lunged, 1 day hacking, 1-2 days polework, 1-2 days dressage.

Current diet (split into 2 meals, dry weight, fed soaked)
20-25lbs Mixed grass hay (BO weighs AM and PM hay but free throws lunch hay)
1lb Poulin Etec Ration Balancer
3lbs Standlee Alfalfa Pellets
1.25lbs Standlee Beet Pulp Shreds
1lb Buckeye Ultimate Finish 25
3oz Omega Horseshine
2oz Cool Calories (in the winter) or 2oz Canola Oil (summer)
Plus supplements fed 1x/day: MSM, salt, SmartHoof, Thia-Cal, Animed Brewer’s Yeast, Elevate (in the winter)

I’ve played around with his feed, and this is the cost effective winter version of what keeps him in good weight, good muscle, and happy. The ration balancer was a change made in the fall to up the total calories he received (at the same time we tested his ability to sanely handle alfalfa).

I did just recently add the MSM, so that’s still on trial whether or not it’ll aggravate his stomach or not. Now that he’s expending much more energy in turnout + more opportunities to go on long hacks/increase schooling intensity I’m looking to bump his feed slightly to keep him in good weight. With the current program though, I feel that I’ve hit a bit of a wall with the protein levels (hay has not been tested, so guessing on FeedXL) but I’m trying to keep it as cost effective as possible. BO supplies Poulin Grain, and he was on Fibre-Max when I bought him in 2017 (caveat, out 24/7, underweight, under-muscled, and fairly recently off the track).

So if you made it through this novel :lol: what would you do?
Option A: keep current diet and bump up canola oil (most expensive, but safest as far as ulcer side goes)
Option B: replace Buckeye and Cool Calories with canola oil, keep everything else the same (middle of the road for $ and ulcer side)
Option C: transition to Fibre-Max + alfalfa pellets, oil, and possibly flax (cheapest option, but most iffy on ulcer side of things)
Option D: something else entirely? (keeping in mind my BO supplies Poulin, otherwise I can easily access TSC and Chewy. Feed stores that are out of my way but doable carry TC).

[Texarkana]

Is there a neuro reason he needs all the B12 & vitamin E (sorry if I missed it)?

I think you’d get more bang or your buck transitioning to a fortified feed. I suspect you’d be able to drop several of those supplements, as they have the prebiotics, B12, vitamin E, salt, and what’s necessary for a healthy hoof included in the formulation. All the “parts” you are feeding tend to be WAY more expensive than the “whole” fortified feed anywhere I have ever lived.

You have so many different fat sources in there: Ultimate Finish, Cool Calories/Oil, Omega Horseshine. Again, it would be a lot cheaper to go with a feed that is already higher fat.

If it were me, I’d drop all the supplements except maybe the MSM since it isn’t for nutritional purposes per se. Aim for about 5-6lbs a day of Fibre-Max or Triple Crown Senior. Fibre-Max is higher NSC than Triple Crown Senior, plus it sounds like he didn’t do well on Fibre-Max, so TSC would be my first choice.

If the horse is eating it, then I’d re-evaluate at that point and see if you need anything else at all. If that isn’t enough to sustain him weight-wise, then choose one of the fat supplements to add in. If he looks like he needs topline and muscle, keep him on a half serving of the RB. If he still needs further weight with both of those things, you could re-introduce a pound or two of the BP or AP.

It shouldn’t aggravate his ulcers. If it does, you may be dealing with a sensitivity to something in processed feed.

Also, one more big point that I probably should have asked first-- how is he eating his hay? Since you have little to no grass, take a good look at his forage situation. Does he scarf it all down quickly and stand around for hours with no forage? Does leave a large percentage of it behind because it’s unpalatable to him for whatever nonsensical horsey reason? Because no matter what you’re feeding him, you’re fighting a losing battle if the forage is what is ultimately contributing to the ulcer problem.

Good luck!

[PiranhaBoy]

@Texarkana I didn’t include any additional info on mag/B1 or vit E, so no worries! I bought him in 2017, so it’s been trial and error with this horse haha. Late fall of 2017, I tested magnesium after doing a full course of ulcergard (the symptoms returned two weeks after tapering off the course) and noticed an improvement in his muscle relaxation and temperament. On the recommendation of my trainer I tried B1 shortly after (she had had a horse that needed B1 in the winter) and that also helped - albeit not as much as the straight magnesium. As for the vitamin E, I tested his levels in the fall (while still on some grass) and he was on the low end of normal. So for the winter I stuck him on Elevate as a precaution (the last of which ran out in March).

For the hoof supplement, that’s a hold over from when I bought him. He had kinda crappy hooves but change in farrier + supplement and he’s good to go. I’ve kept it on as a precaution, with my farrier’s blessing/“don’t fix what ain’t broke”. I am taking him off the brewer’s yeast since he’s now being given msm, purely from a cost perspective. He’s less gassy on a pre/probiotic, but I don’t know if that was due to fortified grain or the “grain-free” diet.

I know, it’s a lot haha. He does do well on a high fat diet, and esp. when I didn’t know how he’d handle alfalfa, it was a cost effective option of getting in protein + high fat. The Omega Horseshine was primarily due to the ant-inflammatory aspect of flax more so than it as a fat supplement (plus it’s much easier to get a hold of than TC flax).

He’s good about his hay surprisingly - doesn’t hoover through it and eats hay at a pretty normal pace. As a side note, his teeth are up to date and he’s usually the highest/second highest in herd hierarchy, so I’m not worried about him being chased from hay in the group. He doesn’t act ulcery now - it’s more prevention however I haven’t scoped so I don’t know for sure :lol:

I’ll definitely look into the Triple Crown Senior, thank you for the suggestion and the in-depth reply!

[islgrl]

I am a HUGE fan of Fiber Max. I think its the best high fat food out there. My TB thrives on it…

[DinkyDonk]

I’d simplify his diet–ie., pick one fat supplement and feed more of it (I use flax, and vary the amount per season–1/2 cup total in summer, 1 1/2 cups in winter); use a vit/min supplement and add more alfalfa pellets and beet pulp (both very easy to digest); a prebiotic like Diamond V yeast will keep the digestive microbes in his hind gut happy and healthy for maximum digestion of fiber; 2 oz of aloe vera juice with 2 tsps of slippery elm bark mixed into pm meal has made a world of difference for my ulcer prone PPID senior gelding–he licks his bucket clean with them added…don’t know if he loves the taste of the slippery elm, or if it makes his gut feel really good as straight aloe vera juice didn’t seem to help at all. It’s trial and error to see what works best for your horse.

[Palm_Beach]

@PiranhaBoy - so what does it cost per day to feed that horse? Doesn’t seem to be very cost effective to me.