Thin, 23 years old, won’t eat grain… help?

[Helicon]

I have a 23 year old Hanoverian gelding who is healthy and bright but too thin and I’m worried about winter.

He won’t eat anything except soaked alfalfa cubes. He also likes regular alfalfa but it’s not easy for him to eat. He refuses everything else like - Ultium, safechoice senior, several bluebonnet varieties (similar to Triple Crown). I even broke down and tried mixing in Omolene 200 for taste. I also add brewers yeast which is supposed to help appetite.

I’ve been adding canola oil to his cubes but I’m still losing ground. His teeth are bad but we maintain what’s left, He is current on deworming.

[shamrock]

Have you tried adding soaked beet pulp and oil to the alfalfa cubes? I had great fast results putting weight on my guy with a big daily mash of alfalfa pellets, beet pulp and oil in addition to his regular rations of hay and grain. Best of luck with him. It’s so stressful when they’re under-weight.

[SuzieQNutter]

Boiling barley is the old time way for putting on weight and not going to their head. I was taught that apple cider vinegar increases appetite.

A course of nitrotain for the oldies is a godsend. It basically resets their system and they start getting the goodness out of the feed you are feeding.

Google nitrotain for horses, otherwise you will get the stories of the idiots who have used them on themselves. The horse gets 4mg at a time from memory and are so much bigger. How much the idiots took I don’t know.

[Scribbler]

@SuzieQNutter

Boiling barley is the old time way for putting on weight and not going to their head. I was taught that apple cider vinegar increases appetite.

A course of nitrotain for the oldies is a godsend. It basically resets their system and they start getting the goodness out of the feed you are feeding.

Google nitrotain for horses, otherwise you will get the stories of the idiots who have used them on themselves. The horse gets 4mg at a time from memory and are so much bigger. How much the idiots took I don’t know.

An injectible steroid developed in Australia but illegal in the USA.

[McGurk]

I went through a lot of iterations of feed for a senior but what I ended with was soaked beet pulp, alfalfa cubes and senior feed.

It’s hard to get the amount of water/consistency right. Too much water, they won’t eat it, too little, the same - just right, they clean it up.

You say he just likes the alfalfa cubes? Start sneaking in the beet pulp, and maybe some oil for fat calories.

[ZuzusPetals]

Thyroid check?

[carman_liz]

Teeth checked lately by a dentist? If he is in pain he wont eat certain things no matter what it is.

[Weezer]

I second the suggestion to gradually sneak beet pulp into the cube mix and see if that helps.

When he was younger, would he eat other things? If he’s been through thorough health checks and nothing seems particularly wrong, maybe try an anti-inflammatory like previcox for a couple of weeks to see if that helps him. I have seen decreases in appetite be caused by back pain, sore feet, etc.

[pompeiii]

As the owner of an incredibly picky senior thoroughbred, I commiserate.

If he’ll happily eat the cubes, my suggestion is to use that as the base and gradually add. And don’t worry too much about sugar.

My guy likes his cubes mixed moth alfalfa pellets. He loves the cubes but they do take him a while to eat so I started adding alfalfa pellets and he loves those too. Plus they soak up well and he can eat more volume.

We don’t currently eat beet pulp, but you can add this as well. I’d add gradually and get him used to the taste and flavor.

Or, jump into feed. It can be anything. What you have on hand (Senior or omolene) and just mix in a cup with the mash. Let him eat that. I find that it mixes in much better with the alfalfa pellets than just the cubes. If he’s eating this, bump up the volume. I soak with hot water and sometimes can’t even find grain.

Another suggestion is fibre beet. This is a beet pulp/alfalfa conditioning feed that may not be the easiest to find in the US (it’s also not cheap), but it has been a miracle for my one gelding (he has chronic hind gut issues and this was the only thing I could get him to eat when he stopped eating last winter—the only soaked feed he will touch). My senior does eat it, but he has a limit on soaked feed so I don’t give it to him currently. It’s very low sugar and my mini who has foundered can safely eat it. Plus it smells like peppermint. I find it really helps with weight.

[Helicon]

Thank you for all the great suggestions. I am wondering if there isn’t a hind gut issue that makes him prefer the cubes? When he was younger he would eat anything and was always a little fat. He is at the top of the pecking order always.

I remember a vet who used to recommend Winstrol for poor doers. I don’t know if they still do that?

I haven’t tried beet pulp because I have never had much luck getting horses to eat it, and I am assuming that is why he doesn’t like senior feeds. I do wet all my horses feed down. I will look into fibre beet. Meanwhile I will gradually increase the oil.

I do not have him on previcox, but I love that idea and I will definitely give it a try. I will also have his teeth rechecked.

[candyappy]

How bad are the teeth? Very possible something has drastically changed. Have you tried chopped forage? Expensive , but they do have alfalfa.

Used to have access to All- In- One when I lived in CA, which was chopped alfalfa with molasses that was fed to several extremely hard keepers at our BB with great success.

[carman_liz]

If the vet is checking his teeth, I would just pull blood at the same time to check eveything out.

[SuzieQNutter]

@Scribbler

@SuzieQNutter

Boiling barley is the old time way for putting on weight and not going to their head. I was taught that apple cider vinegar increases appetite.

A course of nitrotain for the oldies is a godsend. It basically resets their system and they start getting the goodness out of the feed you are feeding.

Google nitrotain for horses, otherwise you will get the stories of the idiots who have used them on themselves. The horse gets 4mg at a time from memory and are so much bigger. How much the idiots took I don’t know.

An injectible steroid developed in Australia but illegal in the USA.

The one I used was 4mg per dose in a wormer syringe. We did not inject.

Is it illegal because of the idiots using it on themselves?

Do you have a legal anabolic androgenic steroid for horses you can use over there?

[Scribbler]

I am not in the US. I don’t know what steroids are legal for vet use in Canada. The articles I saw said it wasn’t legal to import to the US and was illegal for race horses in the US.

[ShenanAnna]

Apple cider vinegar increases appetite in me! It increases digestion, so my stomach empties out faster, and, being empty,I feel hungry.

[Bonnie2]

Winstrol can help older horses, definitely worth discussing with your vet. My older OTTB loves a big glob of molasses. I buy it by the gallon! If your guy can handle it metabolically. Rice bran is a bit out of fashion but some horses like it. You could also try sneaking in an extra small meal or two of what he will eat, if you can work it in his schedule. My guy will eat more per day in four smaller meals than two “normal” meals. Good Luck!

[Highflyer1]

Winstrol is a legal anabolic steroid. But all of them are going to be illegal for racing and showing.

[beowulf]

How would this work with a Cushingoid/PPID horse? Genuine question, asking because I don’t know but I thought I remembered hearing somewhere you’d want to avoid steroids with Cushings horses.

I’m worried I might hit a brick wall soon with one of my seniors. He has no molars, won’t eat dengie or chaff, can’t get enough from hay, and has started to turn up his nose to his grain lately too. I’m confident this is related to his Prascend, but we tested this fall and be absolutely needs the current dosage. For a while we had such a hard time getting the Prascend into him, we have to mix it up regularly because he catches on quick. Currently pill pockets are working the best, he’s decided he’s done with Fig Newtons. Luckily he still eats his soaked Timothy pellets but I’d really prefer him to not be struggling with weight this winter. He’s in good weight now and dentist is coming next week anyway for routine checkups but I’m all ears on other suggestions.

[Scribbler]

Steroids do mess with insulin and blood sugar in diabetic humans and they are a strain on the liver I think so I’d be cautious with a Cushings horse.

[Bonnie2]

I wouldn’t risk molasses with a cushingoid/PPID horse. Winstrol is not only prescription, it is a controlled substance. So discussing its use with your vet is not only a good idea it is a necessity. It has worked a small miracle and given several of my dogs and horses more good months near the end.