Sounds like my hay this year. When tested, the nutrition levels were also really down. May or may not be her teeth. I do suggest supplementing with Unbeetable Forage only - low (below 9%) NSC and really put the weight back on my mare.
Straight alfalfa pellets are around 9% NSC and higher in protein, so I’m not sure what the advantage of the Unbeetable product would be? We are using TC Senior because it’s high in fat and calories…
The other mares, all big WBs, are staying fat on this hay, but they aren’t wasting as much of it.
I didn’t think you were supplementing feed. Just trying to give you some ideas since your hay nutrition seems poor for your mare and what worked for me. Each horse is different - by gelding is fat on the hay. Both are appendix QH. We have to adjust for each horse, especially when they get older.
Ok thanks. She’s currently getting 1 pound of TC ration balancer and 4 pounds of TC senior per day. Vet wants her to get more protein.
Tribute Essential K RB is 28% protein. Maybe add a pound of that to her feed.
Triple Crown’s balancer is 30% protein. All ration balancers are high protein. What would the point be of adding a different brand of feed, instead of just increasing the ration balancer already being used?
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I wasn’t telling her to change feed (see previous posts) except amount. I don’t use TC as it is very difficult to get here for some reason.
She is already getting a pound of ration balancer. It’s TC because that’s included with board, and that’s the only one my BO’s mare with colitis can tolerate.
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Beautiful pair
Ok… the “carrot test” was weird. I realized that she isn’t trying to bite through the carrot at all; she’s grabbing it hard and expecting me to move my hand down so she can snap it off. Admittedly this carrot was huge.
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I got a glance at her incisors and one of the lower ones looked a bit grotty, but she was not in a mood for having me messing about with her mouth. Leah (the dentist) is coming on January 2nd, so I’ll see what she thinks.
Barn owner gave her some hay loose in the tub today, and she gobbled it down. The whole reason for using nets with her is that it takes this horse about 10 to 15 minutes to demolish a flake of hay if it’s loose.
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Well the old lady mare sure loves that 1 3/4 inch hay pillow… it’s a bit too easy to get the hay out of. She’ll be mad if I switch her back to the 1 1/4 inch.
Adding alfalfa pellets seems to really help her. She’s getting 2 pounds per day. If anything needs to be changed, I’d probably drop the TC senior by 1 or 2 pounds.
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Today she looks so much better than she did even a few weeks ago. Note she does have pretty bad arthritis in her knees.
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She looks pleased with herself.
Does she have any issues standing for the farrier because of her knees? My old boy does a little on his left side but we’ve adjusted. Letting him find his own spot to hold his foot helps, plus a dose of banamine the morning of the farrier “takes the cuss off” for him.
No issues with the farrier so far.
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“Pleased with herself” is a good way to describe her. Little horse, big personality. Used to have people guess her height and they’d say at least 16 hands (she’s a smidge under 15 hands.) Just quirky enough to keep things interesting.
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Update: the horse dentist saw her today, and said her incisors and molars look fine, but her premolars are getting pretty worn. No signs of EORTH! As long as she isn’t quidding hay or showing a lot of undigested hay in her manure, things are good from a teeth standpoint. Horse dentist also said that she’s had a horse that converted from easy keeper to hard keeper around the same age, with no obvious cause.
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New update: she’s getting fat! We will be stopping the senior feed entirely (she currently is down to 1 pound per day) and probably cutting back on the alfalfa pellets. It’s really weird because we’ve had a cold winter, and she’s been unblanketed during the daytime unless it’s really cold and/or windy. And mostly just wearing a 100g at night unless it’s below 15 degrees. This is the lightest she’s ever been blanketed. She shouldn’t be getting fat!
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