Weight supplements

[enjoytheride]

My new (6 months) mare is still as ribby as the day she came although she has put on quite a bit of muscle in her butt and neck and is much fitter being ridden 5 days a week.

Here are a couple pictures, I need to get a new one.

A timeline of Stella

She eats really good quality hay, pasture, Strategy, two scoops of Cool Calories, as well as Omega Horseshine and a hoof supplement.

She was on a feed that made her slightly explosive before the Strategy so my barn did quite a few different feed changes to see what works.

I wormed her with Safe Guard followed with Ivermectin when she came.

Any suggestions? Supplement besides Cool Calories?

My barn doesn’t do skinny horses and I have never met a member of her breed that is a hard keeper so it has been quite frustrating.

[Heinz_57]

As with any weight gain thread, you’re going to want to be more specific about the amount of hay and grain she’s getting. It could be as simple as more hay or better quality hay; my hard keepers get unlimited alfalfa as the bulk of their diets, along with TC senior and rice bran pellets.

In order, I would start with more hay, or if she’s getting all she will eat, adding a flake or two of alfalfa if possible. If that’s not possible, I’d consider adding alfalfa pellets or rice bran, or oil if she will tolerate it. If adding another ‘grain’ to feed isn’t possible since you’re boarding, then I’d up her grain as a last resort. Oil is probably the cheapest and simplest solution if she will tolerate it.

I have not seen any real success with supplement-based weight gain products in any of my horses.

[Simkie]

She’s not been dewormed for tapeworms? That’s a very easy box to tick.

I agree 100% with the alfalfa and oil Heinz is talking about above.

[enjoytheride]

She’s getting all the hay (Alfalfa) and grain that she will eat, and more grain than most of the other (bigger) horses in the barn.

What should I use for Tapeworms?

[Simkie]

Quest Plus or Equimax for tapes.

[beowulf]

I have never had good luck maintaining weight with Strategy. YMMV, I have only had good luck with it when airferns are eating it. Additionally the harder keepers on it were all positively nutty… so I’m surprised your mare didn’t have issues with it. The TBs we had on it did not keep weight well and they are NOT very hard keepers.

I’d switch to something with higher fat, IIRC, Strategy is not all that high. I wont lie, I don’t like Strategy. I’d want something with more lysine, protein, and fat but that is just me.

If you have to stay with Purina I’d think of Ultium… but personally, I have been very happy with Poulin Grain’s Fibremax.

[Flash44]

Stella is a very cute girl! I love that photo of you jumping that coop.

My go-to feed for weight gain is Triple Crown Senior. It’s beet pulp based, has 14% protein so it will help with her topline and it’s very digestible.

https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/products-horse-feed-cost-horsefeedcost/

Here is the link for Senior:

https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/products/feeds/senior-horse-feed-formula-seniorhorsefeed/

Compare to Strategy (not sure which one you are feeding)
http://www.purinamills.com/horse-feed/products/strategy-professional-formula-gx-horse-feed/

Do you know how much Strategy she is getting? The recommended amount for a performance horse is 3/4 to 1-1/2% of body weight of Strategy a day, so if she weighs 1000 pounds, you can be feeding up to 15 lbs of Strategy, and should be feeding at least 7.5 pounds. You may simply need to feed more Strategy.

The TC Senior has more fat in the feed. I feed anywhere from 6 - 12 lbs a day depending on the horse. If the horse is very skinny, I build them up to 12 lbs a day, but they are only on that amount for a month or two, then I can drop them back to 9.

[merrygoround]

Have you tried Ultium? It’s a feed designed for high energy but a slow release of those calories. I’ve seen it used for horses in high energy work such a competitive trail and UL dressage.

[Linda]

I feed Ultium, timothy pellets, cool calories, vitamins etc AND I keep hay in front of my 17.2 hand horse all the time. I have a slow feed bag…and my horses are at home so its a lot easier than if they were stabled.

Just this week, I started adding soaked hay cubes mid day. He seems to like them and eats them willingly.
When we first moved up here, we were going through a tough time - he foundered when he was 5 (he is 11 now) from the vet giving him dexamethasone to try and get a nasty cut on his leg to heal. Ever since then he has been highly reactive to any changes in his life. So we are very cautious about what he gets. However hopefully he is outgrowing his issues. No issues so far this yr and Im keeping hay in front of him all the time. Nice horse but clearly not an easy keeper

[enjoytheride]

Interesting all the people who feed Ultium, nobody in my barn would eat it.

What about something like Purina Amplify or Rice Bran? I can add alfalfa pellets to her grain, but she’s already getting quite a bit of grain.

I’m not entirely sure what the weight is, I’d have to ask

I first wormed her with Safe Guard, then followed up with Ivermectin, it has been about two months, can I use the Equimax safely?

[Simkie]

Yes, fine to use Equimax or Quest Plus now. I’d probably go with Quest Plus, because you’ve also not addressed encysted strongyles, and that could certainly be playing a role here, too.

[Scaramouch]

Amplify and rice bran are both fed to add fat. You’re already adding fat through Cool Calories (pure fat) and Horseshine (also high in Omega-3s).

The fact is that there are much higher-quality feeds out there than Strategy: Ultium, Equine Senior Active, any Triple Crown product, Nutrena Proforce, etc. It is much simpler and more effective to switch to one of them rather than it is to add a ton of “weight supplements” to a mediocre feed.

Strategy also has quite a bit of corn in it (at least in my area, not sure if the formulations are consistent nationwide) and some horses just don’t do well with corn at all.

[candyappy]

[QUOTE=enjoytheride;8274872]
She’s getting all the hay (Alfalfa) and grain that she will eat, and more grain than most of the other (bigger) horses in the barn.

What should I use for Tapeworms?[/QUOTE]

Are you sure she is getting all she can eat ( as in 24/7 in front of her) or is she just eating all they give. When you are not the one feeding her it can make all the difference, especially at a boarding barn who doesn’t do " skinny" horses.

Are you riding her hard 5 days a week? If you are trying to put weight on her and riding her hard she will of course need tons more calories. Does the barn realize that?

I used strategy on a extremely underweight( 150 lbs) TB mare I acquired a few years back and unless they have changed something, it worked great. In 5 months my vet didn’t even recognize her.

I assume her teeth have been seen to? Fecal done?

[merrygoround]

[QUOTE=enjoytheride;8274939]

I first wormed her with Safe Guard, then followed up with Ivermectin, it has been about two months, can I use the Equimax safely?[/QUOTE]

Absolutely. And Equimax treats a horse up to 1300 pounds which is an advantage as many dewormers are labeled for much lower weights. She doesn’t look to be over 1300.

[NurseHorsey]

I had trouble getting weight on JJ for the longest time. When I switched barns, the BO and I discussed options for feed and we put him on Nutrena Pro Force Fuel, 4 lbs per meal, along with 1 scoop (30 grams) of Fat Cat per day during the winter.
That regime ended up putting the extra 50 pounds he needed to go from looking ribby/racehorse-y to slightly plump but still sleek looking hunter.

Have you also ruled out other possible issues aside from type of feed? Teeth okay? No other digestive issues (at risk of sounding the ulcer bell), like ulcers?

[IndyEquestrian]

For my hard keeper its Triple Crown Senior all the way, if you have to stay with Purina, you may want to try their Senior feed.

Cool Calories never really worked well for me. When putting weight on the now roundish hard keeper. I added Rice Bran, specifically Renew Gold. I also used a lot of Cocosoya Oil. She still gets the Cocosoya but only 4 oz per day now. . .

She still gets a ton of hay and all the grass she can eat as well.

[Simkie]

Keep in mind, too, that 2 ounces of Cool Calories is about 250 kcals. It’s a TINY TINY TINY number.

[enjoytheride]

Oh really. So would I be better off adding more scoops of the cool calories or switching to something else, or adding something else and the cool calories?

[Simkie]

Welp, personally, I’ve never had much of any luck with the prilled fat supplements like Cool Calories. But if you like it, and your horse seems to be digesting it, you could just up the volume…you’d have to increase pretty significantly, though. If you want to try that, it might be worth hitting a feed store that caters more to the cattle set, and picking up a 50# bag of straight up prilled fat.

My preference is oil–cheap, largely well accepted, and the biggest bang you can get, calorie-wise. You’re looking at ~2000 kcal/cup.

Even though Cool Calories (and prilled fat marketed under different names) is nearly 100% fat, it’s about half the weight of oil, so you’re looking at ~1 c oil to = the calories in ~2 c of prilled fat. When you consider than some hard keepers do really well on a cup of oil twice a day added to their grain, that winds up to be a whole lot of prilled fat to get the same # of calories.

[keysfins]

We feed Progressive Envision as a fat supplement. Some of the older horses get Triumph Senior. One of the hard keepers gets Triple Crown Senior. T

The senior feeds are complete feeds; the Envision is part of the Progressive Nutrition line that we also feed (Progressive Adult and Pro Grass, both of which are ration balancers).

Any of these will give you a concentrated boost of calories. You will probably know best which calorie source would be best, fat or carbs.