Concentrates for the Ulcer Prone Horse

[floppyammy]

I’m trying to make some positive changes in management for my ulcer prone horse.

The commercial grain that my barn feeds is a locally manufactured pelleted performance feed 14% Protein, 2.5% Fat & 16% Fiber, NSC is 24%.

I am welcome to feed a different grain, at my own cost, if I set it up for the barn staff.

I’m trying to find a solution that would be reasonable to manage in both cost and volume, if anyone has any suggestions. My horse is a growing 5 year old. in moderate work, on what I would consider the higher end of caloric needs.

I would not use a service such as XLFeed, as our hay comes by the tractor trailer load, and probably varies in profile. It’s not feasible that I could test it and expect any kind of consistency.

[walkinthewalk]

You probably have a few options, depending what would best keep weight on your horse.

Rolled oats added into a grain-free ration balancer is doing wonders for the hardest keeper I have ever owned BUT he is a 26 yr old WB and a retired show jumper. The critter chiropractor told me to remove part of my brain from managing metabolic horses and keep this fella like he is a race horse😳

Of the ration balancer options that are available within my driving distance, Nutrena Safe Choice Senior seems to be the best, looking at the ingredients.

I only added the ROLLED (not crimped) oats a few days ago and I can already see a difference. There are zero oats in his manure, so I know he is digesting everything.

I feed the rolled oats at a 20% ratio to his Nutrena Safe Choice Senior.

OATS FOR HORSES - THE PROS AND CONS - CEN Nutrition

You can also add Succeed or Egusin 250 to the feed pan. Egusin 250 is pellets so may be better in your boarding situation; it is, however, $12? more for nine days less product.

I add Succeed to both my horses feed pans. The WB does have ulcers, which I went thru H-e-l-l with him when he first arrived. He went completely off his feed, lost ~75# and boy was I scrambling trying to find something he liked that was reasonably healthy. Thus the Nutrena Safe Choice Senior but it doesn’t have enough fat calories. Since the WB is no where near the word metabolic, I’m feeding him the maximum recommended amount of rolled oats and so far it’s working to add weight. To reiterate, ROLLED oats, not crimped.

He is not fizzy either.

I hope this helps:)

[blob99]

for my ulcer prone horse I ultimately had to take him off concentrates in order to keep the ulcers away. After a lot of trial and error I realized nearly every concentrate even ration balancers seemed to cause stomach issues. I’m not anti-concentrate in general, my other horse gets a performance grain and does great on it.

The ulcer prone horse gets beet pulp (but you could also do alfalfa pellets) and then a vit/min supplement. I currently use Horse Tech High Point, but I’ve also used Vermont Blend. If you need to add calories you can add in flax or another fat source. I supply the beet pulp to my boarding barn and it is generally low-cost. I also make sure he has free choice access to hay and/or grass.

I know folks who have had good success with copra coolstance as well. But it is a bit harder to find.

[JB]

It will help to know what brands of feed you can get. Also, how many pounds of this local feed does he get a day? If you only know quarts, that’s fine, it puts the weight in a ballpark.

I would definitely keep NSC 15% or less, and as low starch as possible

@walkinthewalk

Of the ration balancer options that are available within my driving distance, Nutrena Safe Choice Senior seems to be the best, looking at the ingredients.

Nutrena SC Sr is still 20% NSC, so I wouldn’t use that, as well, it’s not a ration balancer, it’s a regular feed

@walkinthewalk

To reiterate, ROLLED oats, not crimped.

In terms of digestibility, processing oats doesn’t increase that in horses, though it does increase it for the other cereal grains

[floppyammy]

Daily he gets:

• 3 quarts 1400 Performance pellet AM
• 3 quarts 1400 Performance pellet PM
• 1 lbs Purina Enrich Plus ration balancer
• 25 lbs+ grass hay per day (hay fed 3x per day, plus small hole feed net in stall)
• 3 quarts alfalfa cubes
• 1 cup oil

[JB]

Ok, so 6 quarts is likely in the 6lb range, especially since it’s a pellet. It could be slightly more, but that’s good enough.

I wouldn’t add 1lb of a ration balancer on top of that though, as info going forward.

We still need to know what brands of feed you can get.

[floppyammy]

These would be the easiest brands to source locally:

Blue Seal
Nutrena
Purina
Poulin
Sentinel
Triple Crown

[lenapesadie]

I think TC Senior Gold is a good choice for horses that need calories and tummy support.

[JB]

Assuming you can’t get the Triple Crown Gold (only independent dealers), then Triple Crown Senior (regular) would be my first choice. The low NSC (11.7%), higher fat, decent calories, 6lb min feeding rate, will all work to be relatively similar but an improvement. You can add a fat supplement if you don’t want to feed more grain, but I wouldn’t add a ration balancer.

Triple Crown’s pelleted rice bran supplement has gut support in it as well

[floppyammy]

Thanks @JB! Most helpful.

I do have Triple Crown Gold available to me locally. That sounds like a reasonable switch.
Although the $32+ per bag price tag is an ouch. But so is paying to treat ulcers.

[Live_Wire]

I’ve had great luck with Poulin Fibre-Max (on the low side of the feeding rate) supplemented with beet pulp and timothy/alfalfa cubes. I’ve found shredded beet pulp and cubes yield better results for my horse than the pellets do, probably because it’s long stem. He also gets a 1/4 cup of chia seeds per meal.

[luvmyhackney]

I’ve had good luck with Ultium Gastic feed with my sensitive horse. He gets loose poop, gassy colics, and ulcery acting when on other feeds.

TC Senior was great for a couple months, but he had some gas colic episodes and vet had me switch. So far so good since the switch. It’s high octane but it hasn’t impacted his behavior.

[mmeqcenter]

My ulcer-prone lady went from “hard keeper” to not needing any grain with a switch to free-choice alfalfa hay. I’d make your 25+ lbs of grass hay at least half alfalfa, if not all. Then find a low NSC feed with a higher fat content; I prefer one with no corn and no molasses.

[floppyammy]

@JB

What are your thoughts on doing 2lbs of the Purina Enrich Plus RB, with alfalfa pellets and oil, instead of the Triple Crown Senior Gold?

[JB]

Enrich doesn’t provide the gastric or hind gut support that TC Sr Gold has, but if it provides enough calories, then since it’s also covering the nutrition unless he’s just ginormous and in intense work, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it.

[Amy3996]

@mmeqcenter

My ulcer-prone lady went from “hard keeper” to not needing any grain with a switch to free-choice alfalfa hay. I’d make your 25+ lbs of grass hay at least half alfalfa, if not all.

My ulcer-prone TB gelding is similar. We’re not quite grain-free, but we’ve been able to reduce his intake by 50-80% (depending on season and workload) by adding alfalfa. He came to me on 14lbs of Seminole Dynasport per day. We treated his ulcers, and switched his hay almost exclusively to free choice alfalfa. He probably consumes somewhere in the neighborhood of 20lbs of straight alfalfa per day. For about the last 6 months (even through a harsh NY winter) he maintained on that and just 3lbs of Ultium per day. It made a huge difference for him.

His workload has ramped up and he’s getting more like 18-20 hours of turnout in the summer as opposed to 8-12 in the winter. That also means we have fewer hours to get that alfalfa into him, and frankly he’s more interested in the grass right now anyway. So we bumped his Ultium up to 6lbs per day and so far he’s been doing super, even with the increased concentrate.

[RSEventer]

I have a 15.3 WB mare with ulcer tendencies. I had her on Ultium and KER Ritetrac, when she was on full board, but the hay was so inconsistent in quality that I switched to partial board. Now I feed her lots of straight Timothy hay and one flake of alfalfa per day, and she is on poor grass turnout at night. I have tried to switch her to TC balancer and she hates the taste. I added alfalfa pellets soaked) and she still hates it. I like my new hay, but I think I need to switch her back to a concentrate. I found Seminole Calm and Cool (https://cdn-6047aa83c1ac18116c8af2d0.closte.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/WellnessCalmCool_ProductSheet.pdf) and I wonder if this is a good alternative to the Ultium.

[MissusS]

I had good success with alfalfa pellets with mineral, salt, and oil added - plus mad barn visceral+. Once that meal became less palatable I added a local product that is primarily ground flaxseed https://equinepower.com/

[emeraldcity]

Mine did well on TC senior, until we moved states, he now eats Poulin Fibre-max which is pretty similar and seems happy. He gets supplemented with straight beet pulp. He was initially taken off all concentrates and on a hay-cube only diet after his initial diagnosis, but he doesn’t do alfalfa (I didn’t actually believe this was a thing before this experience, but he was NUTS on it. Lost weight because he ran so much in turnout, and was so anxious as to be barely rideable. Never again.), so he really needed something more.