Getting Weight on a Clydesdale

[Chief2]

My favorite feeds for putting on weight and maintaining a draft horse are Triple Crown Senior, alfalfa pellets or haystretcher, canola oil, Ration Plus prebiotic or a good probiotic such as Probios or Uckele’s AbsorbAll, and lots and lots of warm water, both in the food and in front of him. He also has 24 access to hay, water and a salt lick.

One dry quart of TCSr weighs 3/4 of a pound. You will have to weigh out alfalfa pellets if you decide to go that route in order to get the mix or your choice to 5 pounds per feeding. Someone here may be able to give you the weight of 1 quart of alfalfa pellets to make things easier for you. You can do several 5-pound feedings per day, which helps to boost the calories and weight. I would also consider that your project horse may need more hydration, which will also help to keep him warm, and look into some beet pulp sources. A fast, non-GMO source is Speedi Beet, which fully soaks in 10 minutes. Beet pulp is also counted on the fiber side of the diet.

I use canola oil in the winter with my horses. I consider my draft to be a big eater and a bit of a burner when it comes to food. He gets just over 1/2 cup per day. I used to use Cocosoya, but at $30 a gallon it was too expensive to keep up, so I go to the oil sales and get canola instead. He loves it.

My horses live in a place where it is cold and gets hammered with snow. To get weight on or keep it on a struggling horse, I take the daily total weight of feed and hay and divide it over three to four meals per day. By splitting it down that way you are able to keep the gut filled and them hydrated throughout the day and night, so they are continually processing food. I also add Ration Plus once a day. It works okay, but I will say that if ulcers are not an issue, at your point in the process I would consider using Uckele’s Absorb All or Probios instead, which will more powerfully help him break down his food in the gut, making it easier for him to digest as much of his nutrients as possible. Smart Gut may also be a way to go here. The more help you can give him here, the better off he will be.

Good luck with your project horse!

[One_Two_Three]

[QUOTE=findeight;7872507]
Bringing this back to the original issue…it is a mistake to try to pack pounds back on malnourished horses, you can create a colic episode. Good quality food in proper quantity will get the job done but it’s going to take a good 90 days to see any real improvement and more like 6 months to get him back. Most people have the best luck with alfalfa or alfalfa mix hay, divided into small amounts fed several times a day. Soaked cubes or pellets in you cannot get the hay. Not too much grain or concentrated feeds…and I like corn oil. But there is no Majikal potion that will speed up a healthy return to normal weight. Just time and regular feed at regular intervals.

But you also have to look at a regular worming program, get the dental work up to date and have a vet look at general overall health so you don’t end up wasting feed trying to feed up a sick horse who needs medical intervention before it can gain anything.

I am a little confused, do you own the horse or is he your “project” and owned by the barn owner who handles all the feed selection, delivery and determines how much how often? As well as schedule and pay for vet, dentist and farrier?

Makes a difference in advice you get.[/QUOTE]

He is owned by the barn owner, and is my project. She buys his food, feeds him, does the vet, dental, farrier, etc. I do the grooming, stall care, eventually riding, etc.

I’m currently trying to still sift through the 4+ pages that arrived over the weekend! whew!

[SuckerForHorses]

[QUOTE=Doctracy;7870863]
Look up PSSM AKA EPSM. It’s a metabolic disorder effecting the muscles…[/QUOTE]

PSSM/EPSM is not a metabolic disorder.

It’s a genetic muscle disease.

[findeight]

[QUOTE=One Two Three;7873525]
He is owned by the barn owner, and is my project. She buys his food, feeds him, does the vet, dental, farrier, etc. I do the grooming, stall care, eventually riding, etc.

I’m currently trying to still sift through the 4+ pages that arrived over the weekend! whew![/QUOTE]

Take your time. There will always be things you can use and things that are not going to work in your situation. But there’s always things that keep coming up repeatedly whether you agree with everything in a particular post or not. Here I think you have go slow, split feedings, worming and probiotics to help the gut with absorption coming up most often.

The rest you’ll need to sort through and see if they’ll work with your BO/HO in your situation or not.

Good luck, enjoy the journey with him.

[sascha]

[QUOTE=SuckerForHorses;7873540]
PSSM/EPSM is not a metabolic disorder.

It’s a genetic muscle disease.[/QUOTE]

I think you’re mistaken. From this link http://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/2000/winter/pesm.shtml

“Equine polysaccharide storage myopathy (EPSM) is a form of rhabdomyolysis classified as a metabolic disease that results in the accumulation of high muscle glycogen and abnormal polysaccharide in skeletal muscles.”

A quick google will show you that pretty much all definitions of EPSM contain the words metabolic disease.

[JB]

yes, EPSM is the inability to properly metabolize “starches” (in simple terms) for fuel for muscles. It’s not a muscle disease, exactly, it’s a metabolic issue which causes problems with muscles.

I suppose you can even call HYPP a metabolic issue - the inability to properly metabolize potassium.