Senior (30 year) rescue, not many teeth left

[ssherman1698]

Hi y’all!
We are struggling a little bit and hoping y’all could help or have some tips .We rescued a 30 year old horse from a terrible home near us with YEARS of neglect. She has MANY teeth missing.

She was severely underweight. Her weight has come up drastically but she is still underweight. It has been a year. We have tried maybe 100 different food combinations. We were hoping the cost we have been spending was temporary and just a cost we were accepting to get her weight up. Then HOPING to work on a maintenance level so the cost would go down. That has not been the case. We are in a pickle to say the least.

Current feeding:
One scoop Seminole senior wellness, 2 scoops soaked alfalfa pellets, 3 oz ultracruz weight gain oil
This is two times per day.

I honestly am looking to see if there’s a better way both financially and of course to put more weight on her. We seem to have hit a halting point. I am also wanting to make sure she is getting the most nutrient appropriate diet since she can not eat grass/any type of hay with her teeth.
As I stated we were okay absorbing the financial cost because we honestly thought the $350-400 per month was her “weight gain cost” but we are pretty worried this may be her minimum maintaining level. That is where we are panicking a bit. Especially with the burden it has put on us this whole year with our other horses. Don’t get me wrong, saving her was everything and more but phew we are feeling it. Poor girl is deaf as well but other than that her feet have improved about 90%, coat, weight etc. her blood work is also perfect now!

Hoping you have some advice! Any advice would be amazing. I know it takes precious time to answer things like this and I would be grateful for any suggestions.

[JB]

What size scoop? Even if it’s a 3qt scoop, that’s not a lot of calories. Much more food, you can feed pretty much unlimited processed hay. which would mean more feedings. 3oz oil isn’t a lot of calories, you can try to work up to 2c a day. Canola is going to be the cheapest, and then add in a few ounces of flax oil (which may be the UC oil, I don’t know it’s GA)

[bingbingbing]

I agree with JB. I was feeding a 30+ mostly blind and deaf Senior (I adopted) way more. She had a limit to how much she could eat. So I cut out the timothy pellets and she ate strictly Triple Crown Senior Gold four times a day. She had her front teeth so could make some use of my good pasture.

[ssherman1698]

Thank you! Yes it’s a 3qt so she is getting that current regiment twice per day (6qt grain, 12qt alfalfa pellets and then 6oz of the oil) I just went with the recommended dosage with that oil.

I will look up the canola oil and flax. It sounds like it may be a more cost effective solution vs increasing the UltraCruz

[ssherman1698]

Yes I wish she could be on our pastures. Unfortunately once she grazes on an area, it just falls out in clumps everywhere so she’s not able to digest anything from grazing it seems.

[ssherman1698]

How much grain were you giving at each feeding? Unfortunately with my work, I wouldn’t be able to feed more than 2x per day but I could definitely increase at each feeding

[jvanrens]

If you haven’t read it, there’s a post by @Heinz_57 and her experiences bringing back Bo that you might find useful.

Another New Horse - It's Bo!

Bought this sad guy from an auction house yesterday, picked him up today. He was brought in by a trader with ‘adult qh gelding’ as the only info. This makes 3 redheaded boys in my crew, now. I’m no teeth expert, but he appears to be maybe 8-10, about 16h or so. Vet has been scheduled for next Monday, the soonest they could get us in, so he’s going to be getting frequent small meals of alfalfa pellet mush until then (following UC Davis protocol). He quids pretty badly, and his sheath looks oddly …

[Angela_Freda]

Uc Davis refeeding protocol?
More frequent meals?
What does your vet say?

[Mango20]

@ssherman1698

How much grain were you giving at each feeding? Unfortunately with my work, I wouldn’t be able to feed more than 2x per day but I could definitely increase at each feeding

Can you get a third feeding in right before you go to bed? One before work, one when you get home and once before bed? I had to do that with a toothless pony, and even though the number of hours between feedings wasn’t consistent, it helped to spread it out more. It was more like 6am, 4pm, 10pm. Also on the weekends, I’d feed him 4 times per day. As spring/summer comes, you have to be careful about leaving a lot of wet food sitting out for hours at a time.

[ssherman1698]

That’s amazing thank you! I will dive into that now

[ssherman1698]

I have tried food formula website such as feedxl but not that one in particular. I unfortunately work during the day but maybe could do one more feeding around 9:00 after the 6:00pm feed.

I have had two vets with her and we have tried their suggested feeding schedules and formulas already and so far no luck on what that magic cocktail is that will work for her. Its been a little over a year. She has gained weight don’t get me wrong, but she is still thin. However, not starving and unable to move, so huge progress. Old gal even runs around now. I never thought we would see her canter.

[ssherman1698]

That may be an idea. I would do a 6pm and a 9pm and see how she eats down that 6pm feed. In the past when she was on a higher food amount schedule, she did always end up having leftover feed that did go rancid pretty quick (we’re in Florida)

[Angela_Freda]

@ssherman1698

I have tried food formula website such as feedxl but not that one in particular

UC Davis = University of California, Davis.
Excellent, free resource

[JB]

re-feeding isn’t the solution here. The whole idea behind that is to slowly increase nutrients and calories into a horse by providing first very, very small hay meals many times a day, and working up to free choice, before adding concentrates.

This horse has been eating, and simply needs more calories

[Lusoluv]

There are auto feeders that work on battery power or an outlet so she could get several feedings when you’re at work or overnight. We have a mare at my barn that has no teeth. I believe she gets 2x/day mash and a Purina Senior complete feed 7x/day. She looks great and is in very light work.

[ssherman1698]

That’s a great idea. I could do the mash morning and night and then use the feeder for the day as you suggested. Do you happen to know the amounts they provide her? I know this may be a bit experimental as every horse is going to be different but I’m just trying to figure out how far off I am here. We are already struggling switch the current regiment and how much it costs so I would be lying if the thought of doubling all of that didn’t scare me.

[Angela_Freda]

it was a refeeding situation.
Which is why I asked about it.
It seems like they didn’t seek the best sources for help doing that.

Bottom line, an older horse who started out neglected and “severely underweight” will probably take more effort and feed to get and keep a decent weight, if it’s even possible.

[JB]

But it’s been a year, so re-feeding isn’t required. And, doing so will be a step back in calories

@ssherman1698

then use the feeder for the day as you suggested.

The new UnBeetable Forage Only product is a small, soft pellet that might work for this. It also soaks incredibly fast. It’s around 1400 cal/lb, with more Omega 3 than 6, so one possibility is to soak enough of it at a time, let it dry back out, put that in the feeder, so it’s a meal-form and much easier to eat

[Lusoluv]

The senior mare at my barn gets 1 heaping 32 oz scoop of alfalfa/grass pellet mixed with water in the am & pm. She gets 6-7 heaping scoops of Senior complete throughout the day, basically every other hour. She’s a big boned 16h WB. They also feed her from a Grad-dual grain slow feeder from SmartPak.

[clanter]

that 6PM feeding could be reduced some say by 1/3rd, then the new 9PM feeding could be of the same amount fed at 6PM or that late night feeding a regular full feeding?

We had a pony who lived to be 45, those last years he was fed five or six times a day