Feeding senior pony with no teeth

[twhs]

Our 13-hand senior pony is not able to eat hay or chopped forage. He quids grass, so doesn’t get much of that either. Last month, we started feeding him a soupy mix and are trying to get more weight on him and then have him maintain that weight. What a challenge! During the week, I feed him four times a day and five times a day over the weekends when our granddaughter is here to ride her beloved pony. I’ve had to jiggle around with the recipe, in order to avoid loose poop and have finally got it worked out to two parts TC Senior and one part TC Low Starch plus Rice Bran for more fat. He got the runs with 100% TC Senior. The recipe is easy enough. In 5-10 minutes it absorbs the water and is the right mushy consistency. But it’s still alot of feed and I’m concerned that I may be giving too much and don’t know what to do. I cannot add oil for calories as that loosens things up way too much.

Also, and I feel guilty saying it, but this recipe is awfully expensive. If there was a way to feed him more economically without compromising his health, that would be nice.

Here’s what I’m feeding and I’ll appreciate any help and/or suggestions!

TC Senior - 1 3/4 lbs
TC Low Starch - 1 1/2 lbs
Rice Bran - 1/2 lb

[davistina67]

What about soaked hay pellets?

[PRS]

Can he eat soaked alfalfa cubes? I give my old mare the following recipe and she has maintained both firm poops and a good weight:

1 full heaping scoop alfalfa timothy cubes well soaked
1/2 scoop plain beet pulp pellets well soaked
1/2 scoop senior feed
1/2 scoop alfalfa pellets

I use a 3 quart scoop. I’ve weighed the amounts out but don’t remember what the weights are at the moment.

I feed this twice a day through the winter. She is still able to eat some grass so I back off to only one time a day while I have grass.

[kasjordan]

Well, my Walker has been on plain old oats, beet pulp shreds and alfalfa cubes for a few months now. He’s PACKED on the weight- and he doesn’t get much! I haven’t weighed it but I bet I’m pretty close in saying he gets about 1lb of each twice a day- I soak it and it fills up a 2gallon bucket. (If you put it in a bigger bucket, you could add more water and soak longer to make it even mushier for your oldie) I think between them all, I spend $49 total every 3/4 weeks…he gets a handful of flax and his scoop of VitPlus vitamins in each feed also… He eats way less hay this way. I buy rounds and normally go thru one every 2 and half to 3 weeks with him. I’ve been peeling this last one off and feel like I’m not giving him much at all but I’m going by how much he eats and how much he leaves…it was a month on Sunday for this last round and there’s easily a week if not two left…

[hundredacres]

I had an old pony with no teeth and I soaked alfalfa pellets and cubes in addition to the senior feed. He was very particular though and expected the pellets separate from the alfalfa or he’d get cranky. Of course, we obliged him. He lived to 38.

[alto]

Lots of basic information on hay pellets here.

[My_Two_Cents]

Our 37 year old ate soaked beet pulp, alfalfa pellets and senior grain for 7 years. He was fat and sassy the day we had to put him down because he slipped in the mud. We fed him twice a day and he thrived.

[Somermist]

I would add some beet pulp and alfalfa cubes or pellets.

[Highflyer]

My old guy is a solid 13.3 grade pony with only two pairs of teeth that meet. He gets 10 lbs of our local feed store’s senior feed, unsoaked, split into 2 feedings. He picks through my horse’s alfalfa in the winter and gums grass a little the rest of the year. He looks FABULOUS. The senior feed was a last ditch effort to keep him going-- almost 12 years ago.

If you feed a complete feed and it’s basically the only source of calories, you’re going to have to feed quite a bit.

[twhs]

Thanks. We can’d do hay cubes because that always starts “the squirts” but we can certainly add beet and hay pellets to the senior feed. I have timothy pellets already on hand and can try a little tomorrow.

But the TC Senior and TC Low Starch have so many more calories than the beet pulp pellets or hay pellets. I’ll have to feed almost 3 times as much pellets to replace whatever grain I eliminate.

[My_Two_Cents]

The beet pulp adds fiber to his diet. Horses need the fiber. Too much grain causes too many issues. I’m not sure you can over feed beet pulp (but check with an equine nutritionist) but grain can be over fed easily. You will need a lot less costly grain. Beet pulp shreds in our area are really a cost effective feed for horses that are unable to chew hay effectively. SOAK before feeding.:yes:

[Tehzebra]

Sometimes the runs will sort themselves out over time of consistent feeding. The bad weather delayed the hay delivery of some Timothy one time so all the horses had to have alfalfa and all the ones not used to it started out with the runs but after a few days it solidified. The gut just has to adjust to the changes.

[Mozart]

We have a senior pony with not great teeth and he gets the following feed 2x day: 1 feed scoop of Senior complete feed (Cargill Life Design), about half a gallon pail of soaked beet pulp and about half cup of canola oil.

He can still eat fairly soft hay and gets one flake at night in his stall, most of which he finishes.

He could use just a bit more weight (he was really, really thin when we got him) but I am loathe to add more because it is a lot of feed as is. I would like to add a 3rd feeding but schedule at this point does not permit it.

I was going to suggest beet pulp to you but I believe that TC senior has quite a bit of beet pulp in it already (I might be wrong about that). I don’t think you would go wrong by giving more though and gradually adding some oil to the feed as well.

The only other thing I can suggest is soaked alfalfa cubes and more of the senior feed. Also, senior complete feeds have different amounts of fat; I would compare the labels of those available to you and pick the one with the highest fat content. In reading the labels of different senior feeds it struck me that some might be aimed for at easy keeping older horses as they had a fairly low fat content.

[D_Taylor]

Oil and alfalfa cubes causes loose poop? Did I read this correct?

And on the formulation you are using now his poop is normal? Or just better?

[M_O_Connor]

Our old Cushings pony had bad teeth, so couldn’t eat hay, or cubes, and at one point did lose quite a bit of weight coming out of the winter.

We fattened her up and kept her going beautifully for years with breakfast/lunch/dinner feedings of soaked beet pulp (no molasses type), alfalfa PELLETS (very palatable, nutritious, easy to eat when soaked), and Releve (high fat/low starch, click link below for more info on it). She also got a handful of black-oil-sunflower seeds on each feeding (all ours get that, and I swear by it).

The beet pulp takes a little planning. We just kept soaked beet pulp on hand (kept it in a fridge in the summer, inside in the winter) all the time, and used a 1qt scoop of each of the alfalfa (measured dry) and soaked beet pulp (measured wet), with a scoop of Releve distributed evenly between am/pm feedings. The alfalfa pellets soften up quickly, so we would just put an extra dip of water in to get them soaked after we measured them into the bucket. In winter we used hot water, in summer cold. It was delicious and she slupped it all up every day.

I would say she went another 8-10 years on this program, and stayed in very good shape, for any pony, let alone “for her age.”

[SwampYankee]

The Old Guys . . .

Hi!

Coming to this thread late, lots of great suggestions already here.

I’ve had wonderful results for many of the Thirtysomethings at my retirement farm with TcSr; but the price is heinous, and they do sometimes get tired of it or scatter it about. If I had to guess, I think the fat content of it may sit heavily in some of these horses’ stomachs. Cutting the Triple Crown Sr. 50/50 with “Trotter” solves both problems.

I can also suggest Blue Seal’s “Hay Stretcher.” Highly palatable, it’s a hay pellet soft enough to literally chew yourself. Bite a pellet; it falls apart in your mouth. And it’s tasty! (Aw, c’mon, we all took a nip of sweet feed when we were kids, no?) If our pathetic little predator teeth can chew it, you know theirs can! They can nosh this with their gums, as need be.

Many of these guys, being idlers, don’t need true “grain”–indeed, they’ll get in metabolic trouble on it, particularly ponies & Morgans. What they need is a “pre-chewed” forage and Hay Stretcher is the best I’ve found.

Many of the quidders can eat soft mixed-grass pasture in season. Even if they “roll cigars,” you’d be surprised how much they process. I have a filly who follows the geezers around and EATS the cigars, if you want to get grossed out.

Watch the “output,” the manure tells the tale for what they’re really able to process. :winkgrin:

Swamp Yankee

[Tardees_Cinderella]

I am feeding a 32 yr young Morgan, suspected of Cushings & 21 yr appendix qtr. PROBLEM, moved to new barn a month ago, still wont drink the water. I feed TCS & orchard pellets with 2-3 gallons of water each time 3-4 times a day. Weight good, hydration pretty good, $$$ bad, it is becoming very difficult. I have tried every trick there is to get them to drink. So now trying to figure a little less expensive eay to feed so many times per day. Thought of reintroducing hay but concerned about colic without enough water in the diet. I have read all the posts whuch are Great, but all bagged products are at least $20 go thru 2 bags ever 2.5 days .THANKS for any more ideas to get us thru this. I KNOW A NICE GRREN PASTURE!!!

[Pennywell_Bay]

Have you tried bagged chopped hay? or Denji?(I may have missed that) My old guy quids, even with regular dental care but does not on soaked chopped hay (or hay cubes but they take longer). He also gets pelleted hay in the winter.

Mine is always prob going to be slightly ribby. He’s never been a porker and is built slight anyway. His manure is good, he chows his soaked hay stuffs and senior feed. Oils give him the runs. He also gets a fat supplement with no sugar or low carbs.