Should I add oil for weight gain, and if so, which one is best?

[Chestnut_Mare1]

This is a spin-off from my other post about my more losing weight.

Mare has lost 70 lbs in 3 weeks at a new barn. She is on pasture getting local hay. I am working with the BM to sort out that part, but in the meantime I’m desperately trying to figure out what I can add to her ONCE DAILY bucket to help her gain weight.

Right now she is getting:

• 10 lbs alfalfa cubes (soaked weight)
• 1 lb matrix fat smart complete feed (will keep increasing amount slowly up to 4 lbs)
• 1 cup flax seed
• mineral/vit & joint supplements

She hated the oils I tried to add in the past: canola, corn and olive. Would coconut oil do any good?

[Scribbler]

The basis of a good diet for a horse is plenty of good quality forage. You need to solve the hay question at your barn, or move barns. If your horse has a major calorie deficit in the amount of forage she is eating (pasture or hay), there really isn’t enough oil you can feed her to make that up. Horses can tolerate a little oil, but you can’t feed her a bucket of it without giving her diarrhea.

they tolerate oil better as part of a high-oil grain or seed (like flax) or a commercial product, like your matrix feed.

The best thing you can do is to give her free choice hay 24/7 until her weight is where you want it. If that is a problem, if it can’t be done where she lives, then you need to move.

coconut oil is a wierd saturated fat; I know it is the fad of the day, but I wouldn’t feed it to a horse, or eat it in quantity myself.

[csaper58]

If you live in the north, coconut oil becomes solid at about 50 degrees and is a pain to feed.

As said before horses need adequate amounts of good quality forage. The process of digesting forage is what keeps a horse warm

Horses that are lean, don’t have a fat layer to insulate them and retain the heat generated by digestion. They burn more calories to stay warm. Does your horse need a blanket?

10 lbs of alfalfa cubes soaked weight is useless info. You need to know X lbs dry weight. They could be feeding 3 lbs alfalfa and 7 lbs water for all that tells you.

Lastly is are the horses separated for feeding? Be sure no other horse is pushing your mare away from her bucket and hay.

[Simkie]

If you have one bucket to give her daily, I would make every ounce of that bucket count and put her on the most calorie packed senior feed you can find–which is, I think, Purina Ultium.

10 lbs of soaked alfalfa cubes is probably like 3 lbs dry, which just isn’t worth a whole lot when your horse needs weight and you get that in once a day. Better to “spend” that volume on something with more calories.

So go with Ultium, your joint sup of choice and maybe add in cocosoya, which is extremely palatable, if you’re still not seeing the improvement you’d like and you haven’t been able to change her day to day arrangements.

Loading a horse up with as much grain as you can in one sitting isn’t ideal, but sometimes it’s the only piece you can really control.

[GotMyPony]

For her aged Standardbred my sister used “Healthy Coat” to keep the weight on and it did a great job. So we tried it for my husband’s 32 yo QH, who wouldn’t eat anything with a lot of oil on it and it worked really well for her, too.

Your initial reaction will probably be that it’s very expensive compared to corn oil, but we just fed 1 oz. per day on her grain instead of multiple cups a day as people sometimes recommend for the corn oil type things. We even found a bottle-top contraption that pumps 1 oz. at a time out of the gallon container which made it even easier.

You can get Healthy Coat at Valley Vet and I’m sure other sites like that. Good luck!

[ladyj79]

Is the flax ground? I’d feed a ground flax which is more easily processed.

With my riding students and even with my friends when they ask what they should be feeding, i ask what, barring other issues, is the best was to ascertain whether a horse’s nutritional needs are being met?

Look at the horse.

You seem to have done due diligence and ruled out medical issues so id say feed the horse more. It doesn’t really require a precise answer; you’ll know it’s enough when the horse starts putting on weight.

A few years ago I moved to Florida, and a friend had my horses until we could go pick them up. It ended up being seven weeks. They all lost weight. I won’t describe how much but let’s just say I cried for the whole drive back to Florida and three veterinarians were shocked one of my horses was still alive. A horse who people had regularly asked “is he always so fat?”

Bygones.

After a moderately gradual refeeding program he was eating the following daily:

Free access to coastal roundbale
Approximately 10lbs alfalfa
20lbs cheap sweet feed
5lbs quality high fat feed.
Two cups omega horseshine (ground flax)

He was also on ulcer meds for a few weeks.

So that’s a lot. Yes we worked up to it, but that’s what he was eating. He regained weight pretty rapidly and no longer had to be hidden from public view after about six weeks.

Now your horse isn’t starving. So just up the hard feed.

[Chestnut_Mare1]

Thank you all! I will skip the oil and just feed more of what she is already getting.

No, the flax I feed is not ground, just burned out a 3rd coffee grinder and gave up.
Will look into a stabilized flax product in my area.

BM said I can bring her into the paddock at night and feed tonnes of hay. Super happy about that.

[Foxtrot_s]

I’ve brought on two emaciated TB’s and what worked the best for the was tons and tons of best quality hay I could find, plus some, not an awful lot, of pelleted feed with oil in it - provide calories and not heat. Within six weeks the result was amazing, and one wonders how a mare can gain so much so soon. It was a few years back, so did not write down quantities.

[JB]

[QUOTE=Simkie;8858710]
If you have one bucket to give her daily, I would make every ounce of that bucket count and put her on the most calorie packed senior feed you can find–which is, I think, Purina Ultium.

10 lbs of soaked alfalfa cubes is probably like 3 lbs dry, which just isn’t worth a whole lot when your horse needs weight and you get that in once a day. Better to “spend” that volume on something with more calories.

So go with Ultium, your joint sup of choice and maybe add in cocosoya, which is extremely palatable, if you’re still not seeing the improvement you’d like and you haven’t been able to change her day to day arrangements.

Loading a horse up with as much grain as you can in one sitting isn’t ideal, but sometimes it’s the only piece you can really control.[/QUOTE]

This. Horses like this need a high calorie:volume feed, and soaked alfalfa cubes isn’t that. Same for beet pulp. Not only are you starting at a relatively low cal/lb amount, roughly 1000 cal/lb, you’re adding a lot of water to greatly increase the volume.

Ultium is indeed the highest cal/lb feed I know of. Feeding 5lb of that is roughly 9500 calories. That’s less weight, less volume, and more calories than what you’re feeding now. And, you can feed that in one sitting.

THEN, you can leave another bucket with soaked alf pellets if you want - higher calorie:volume ratio than soaked cubes. But if the situation is such that she needs to eat her bucket and go back outside, that won’t work. But, if she comes in to eat, then is in for the night, for example, that’s very doable. Although I don’t know how well soaked-anything works for you in the Winter.

[RedMare01]

I agree with the high calorie feed, highest of which is Ultium. My old mare has become a hard keeper in her old age. Ultium + unlimited grass/hay has her looking fabulous.

[Mukluk]

[QUOTE=Chestnut_Mare;8858780]
Thank you all! I will skip the oil and just feed more of what she is already getting.

No, the flax I feed is not ground, just burned out a 3rd coffee grinder and gave up.
Will look into a stabilized flax product in my area.

BM said I can bring her into the paddock at night and feed tonnes of hay. Super happy about that.[/QUOTE]

This has been discussed on other threads but there are many of us who just feed the whole flax no problem. My two are fat and happy (and very shiny). They also have hay in slow feeders 24/7.

Hope your mare is healthy, happy, and looking great soon!

[mychestnutvalentine]

DAC oil is awesome. 100% recommend

[Equibrit]

Rice bran.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/manna-pro-max-e-glo-stabilized-rice-bran-pellet-40-lb?cm_vc=-10005

[lcw579]

My daughter’s OTTB was very underweight when she got him. It was a long haul to get weight back on but we had success with Ultima and added Cool Calories. It has a nice smell and Mr. Picky Eater likes it. He also gets as much hay as he wants when he’s not on grass. We also gave him soaked alfalfa cubes for a while but he wasn’t a big fan.

[alfonsina]

Another vote for rice bran. As my horse came out of colic surgery on the skinny side, the Cornell equine nutritionist recommended rice bran, which did the trick.

[EmilyM]

Ultium and Platinum Performance Healthy Weight Oil. it’s flax based and did wonders for my horse and makes them shiny.

No substitute for weight gain like a haynet of quality hay, but I realize you have restrictions due to your boarding situation.

[Cindy_Galloway]

Horses do not assimilate oil properly as humans do, it is not a good source of weight gain. You need to feed carbohydrates to a horse to properly gain weight. Alfalfa cubes are a great way to supplement for added carbs to gain weight. Stick to what nature calls for not man.

[cloudyandcallie]

Buy some Buckeye Ultimate Finish, if they still make it, and it will put weight on your horses. I had to give a big bag of it away when I bought it for the omega 3s for Cloudy and Callie because in only 2 weeks they both gained a lot of weight.

Cloudy has now lost weight in his old age and I’m thinking of adding it back to his diet, 14 or 15 years after his short time on it.

[sascha]

[QUOTE=Cindy Galloway;8864826]
Horses do not assimilate oil properly as humans do, it is not a good source of weight gain. You need to feed carbohydrates to a horse to properly gain weight. Alfalfa cubes are a great way to supplement for added carbs to gain weight. Stick to what nature calls for not man.[/QUOTE]

Hahaha. Please explain this to my current mare and to every other horse I’ve had on a high fat diet. Once their bodies figure it out it’s one of the easiest ways to adjust the horse’s caloric intake when necessary. Need fewer calories during good pasture times? Cut the oil way back. Need more calories in the winter? Increase the oil.

Nature calls for sick and injured animals to be picked off by predators. Shall we turn our horses loose in the wilderness when sick or injured because that’s what “nature calls for not man”?

[rubles]

Beet pulp works too.