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Feed type is less important than soaking. Soaking to SOUP is safest.
TC Senior is a great product, though. You really can’t go wrong with that.
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Your vets will likely have specific recommendations but most important for him now and for the foreseeable future is that any feed is soaked to thin soupy gruel. Pelleted complete feeds like senior are great for that because they soak so quickly/easily/well. BUT they have to be soaked very thoroughly to be safe. Otherwise they can be a terrible choke hazard in themselves to due their dry compact nature. All little bit wet isn’t good enough, unfortunately, as it still can form a wicked feed bolus in their esophagus. For that reason, some choke risk horses that won’t tolerate wet to soup rations (or for whatever reason management reason their feed can’t be guaranteed soaked appropriately) actually do better on textured feeds that are less prone to compaction than inadequately soaked pellets.
Unfortunately most textured feeds don’t soak well. Sometimes horses that will reject thin pellet feed gruel (it happens) will tolerate the pellet soup when it is mixed with some small amount of textured feed. It is still important to soak the pellets thoroughly. Just add in a handful or whatever of texted feed to the soup. I would expect them to be pretty strict about thin soup/gruel consistency for now, but it’s an idea for the future if he gets picky and you need a compromise.
Good luck with him! Please let us know how he does
TC Senior worked wonders for my choke prone gelding. But I agree with the above posters, you need to make sure it’s really well soaked or it gets almost sticky.
What Simkie said. I soak TC Senior to soup.
When I worry about water intake, I make the soup even thinner. Maybe just a couple of handfuls to 1/2 flat back bucket, and add a little molasses. For this, I actually prefer Purina Senior because it breaks down the best., important if they are drinking the soup more than chewing on it. It is higher sugar than TC Senior, so not my feed of choice.
Haven’t feed TC Complete in a while, may get some a see if I like it for water intake purposes.
I never feed any type of concentrate without adding water
Both of mine have very mildly choked. They each get TC Senior soup. I cover their feed about 4" in water and let it sit for 5-10 minutes while I bring in, pick feet, fill water, etc. I stir it up to make sure it isn’t sticking anywhere. It is very soupy when I feed it. Instead of dry pellets and chewing, it is 20 minutes of slurping and slobbering. These two are pretty capable of eating dry pellets, in fact the one choked so mildly once it might not even totally qualify as a choke, but I take no chances and they eat it up great. A bonus, all their supplements get into them and I know they have a guaranteed water intake.
I tried soaking and feeding a couple other feeds including a pellet and a textured senior feed. The pellet really did not work well. It was advertised as soak-able and it did soak pretty well and get fluffy, but it was difficult to get the ration of water correct and more often than not I was left with half of it stuck to the feed bowl in one clump and they weren’t interested. The textured senior feed soaked well but I just didn’t love it as a feed so I went back to TCS.
What about access to lick tubs like this for horses that choke?
https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/sweetpro-equilix-50-lb-vitamin-mineral-horse-supplement-block/0000000019266?Ntt=Equilix
*Disclaimer, asking a question, not speaking from experience.
I skipped the other responses. There is a gelding in our barn who has choked a few times. One vet has recommended no beet pulp or feeds that contain beet pulp so that generally eliminates any of the senior or complete feeds. He is fed a low-starch pellet that is well soaked with hot water (Pro-elite). He is bad enough he is turned out in a muzzle and in his stall has a slow feed hay net. He has not choked since he was switched to the low-starch soaked pellets. Crossing my fingers and jingling I am not jinxing him.
For a while I was feeding my OTTB gelding soaked low-starch pellets. He stopped eating them if they were soaked. Rotten pony. Thankfully he doesn’t need it soaked. He tends to throw his feed around the stall or round pen when eating. When it was soaked he couldn’t do that. But it was not a necessity to soak more like a don’t waste your feed thing.
I’ve never had a problem with horses eating soaked food (a few were chronic chokers, others who just needed extra fluids), but one thing I recently stumbled on… Both of mine get ration balancer, same amount. One gets lots o’supplements and beer thanks to being a hard working CDE pony who could use some help in the sweating and extra protein department. The other is a retiree who gets… dry pellets. They both share stalls and a dry lot. It goes without saying he is The Boss and would rather have the pony’s dinner. I would rather he NOT have the pony’s dinner. The eternal struggle…
I’m a bit slow, but I finally figured out adding some of Xan’s beer to his food makes it just tasty yummy good, and he’s more interested in finishing his food first before stealing Xan’s. So long story short, beer may help with palatability, and if you aren’t dealing with thermoregulation issues, you can buy cheap beer instead of Guinness Stout!
For those wondering about soaking TC Complete, it does soak (it’s my base feed). It’s also a great feed, have used it for years, so if you need another option or just prefer a textured feed, there you go. It has pellets as part of its mix & they do fluff up.
I also add water to the TC 30 ration balancer, but just to make a supplement stick to it. I’m sure those pellets would soak fine too - its not super tasty, but my picky horse eats it. I do throw in a handful of Complete with it for flavor bc I feel bad making him eat tasteless GrapeNuts all the time, haha.
