Advice for Daisy please

[zeldalithgow]

You might remember I put some pics of Daisy up asking what you thought of her condition, she was/is a bit underweight. I started to feed her once a day with speed-beet and alfalfa pellets and she began to put on weight, about 3 weeks ago she didn't get a feed for various reasons but I put some hay in and now she's back to square one not helps by the nights getting fairly cold, for the past week I've been feeding her twice a day on the sugar beet and alfalfa pellets plus some hay in the field not much though as the others are ok.

Do you think I should carry one with this feed or get her a conditioning or oldies feed, any recommendations as to which, I was wondering about getting some NAF Pink Powder for her as well.

I haven't rugged her (don't know if she's ever worn a rug before) as I'd like to save that for the colder weather if needs be.

[harleydales]

Is she an oldie Zelda? I didn't see the last post.

Last year when my old lady Jenny was a bit thin to go into winter, I started to feed her pasture mix and fibergy, built it up to 3 lb of pasture mix and probably about 1.5 of fibergy. She got a slosh of soya oil in there too, but not much. I didn't bother with hay until late December. And of course, I had to have her on her own so the others didn't nick her grub!

I also put a lightweight rug on her, with no filling. It kept her dry, which helped preserve her energy to go onto her rather than using it to keep warm. Then in December when it got colder I changed it for a heavierweight breathable rug and she wore it constantly until March. The lady I got her from sdaid she wrecked rugs, but she never wrecked either of these ones.

She had D & H build-up in March and April as she was looking a bit on the sad side, but since then she's had nothing. I asked a nutritionalist about 16+ but they were a bit dubious about it and said the pasture/leisure mix with oil and free access to a salt/mineral block would serve the same purpose for less money!

So far she hasn't needed any top-up and is maintaining her weight. As soon as I see her start to drop, I will start feeding her as it's a long old winter up here!!

Good luck with Daisy, hope you find something that works for her.

[lancslass]

can daisy have access to adlib hay zelda? is she up to date with worming?
a constant feed of hay will put the weight back on her........if you feel she needs more then two small feeds a day of sugarbeet and maybe hi fibre cubes just till shes is "topped up" then leave her on adlib hay.
not sure how you feel about rugging her? it is easier to let them grow their own, providing they are well covered to contend with the bad weather.

[greydales]

Do all of them live as a herd Zelda, I suppose it will be difficult to put adlib hay out if that is the case. It wouldn't hurt to try an oldies feed, but if it was me I'd keep the bulk of her feed as fibre.

Would it be difficult to keep her in for more time and letting her eat more hay?

[zeldalithgow]

Yes all 3 together, so not easy to give her extra hay, and not easy to keep her in as she doesn't like it when the others go out of sight, and with all the building work going on it's not ideal. All i can think of doing is to see if she'd settle in a sectioned off bit next to Prince and Leia, I really could do with moving them as the bit they are on is pretty bare which doesn't help Daisy does it, but I'm still worried about moving them to more grass

[harveydales]

I've got the same problem as you with my lot. They are all living out together, one fattie (Harvey), one laminitic (Quest) and one skinny oldie (Winnie). I would like to see Winnie put a bit more weight on before we get into the winter and I can't put loads of hay out as guess who would eat it all.

I'm giving Winnie a feed of high fibre nuts with sugar beet in the morning and also letting him have a couple of hours on lusher grazing while the other 2 come in. I'm debating trying to give Winnie a second feed a tea time but it is so hard to arrange it with them all living together as a herd. I'm also thinking of adding a bit of oil to Winnie's feeds, maybe that would help Daisy? It is a worry isn't it?

[dalesponyrider]

D is in a field with 3 oldies that need far more grass than her so I've got the opposite problem. She just has her own sectioned off paddock so she has limited grass but still has the company of the others. Maybe you could do the same thing for Daisy and put a supply of ad lib hay in the middle of her bit.

[harleydales]

Harley and Apollo are now split at night by an electric tape, and together through the day. Apollo has more to eat than Harley, and as H is the boss, he scoffs his then chases A away. The only problem is if they want to sleep near each other, they can't be under the trees, but I could move them through into the next bit of field I suppose.

[shiatsudales]

Given you've had her teeth done and I know you worm on a good prgoramme I do wonder whether this is just the onset of age. Bonnie now needs to eat roughly two to three times what he did when younger and we have trouble keeping weight on him in the winter. By March last year he was on Dodson and Horell Build Up cubes along with their Ultimate Balancer as well.

I wonder if flipping her to two feeds a day of something with a bit more oomph would help. Could you give the D&H helpline a call. They've always been great with me and offer qualfied nutritionist adivce free of charge. I've rung them and they were very nice.

I also got the vet out to give Bonnie a quick MOT when he dropped all his weight as I was worried it might be intestinal tumors or something like that going on. He got an all clear.

Also just remembered that with two older ponies I worked with a few years ago the vets came out and gave them injections of huge doses of vitmains and trace elements to give them a metabolic boost. Also seen this done with an eventer who was struggling to hold condition. It seemed to help boost their systems generally so they ate more and kept weight on better.

Rugging can also make a big difference. I remember reading somewhere that rugging with a tail flapped rug cut down the hay consumption of cows by around 20%. If you rugged her it would mean all her food could go into weight gain rather than keeping warm. Drummer's 6' Shires rug fitted her well when she had a cold and shivery night here after a lot of rain and she didn't seem to mind it either being thrown over her or the straps or rug being on once they were there.

For deeing Bonnie we rigged up a small pen for him withe lectric tape in the corner of the field. He then got shut in there when he needed to eat his buckets of food. He could still see the others but they couldn't steal his food.

I also wonder whether it's worth investigating giving her some magnesium or calaming supplement as she did get worried here over the summer and it sounds as if she's naturally a bit of a worrier from what you say.

Other things I've heard to work well are just a teeny bit of linseed. She could be given this in her alfafa and beet and, because you use so little, it wouldn't take her any more time to eat than it does now so she'd be back with the others quickly. I know people that grind their own and feed it straight away but it does have something that produces cyanide if left for too long once it's ground, hence why it's usually boiled for so long. Given this I've never been brave enough to feed raw linseed, even when only just ground. I think you can now get prepared linseed for horses and Millers.

These people have been repeatedly recommended to me by others and they do apparently deliver to Scotland.

www.simplesystem.co.uk/

There feeds are rpedominantly forgae based so would match a Native feeding and eating habits better. They also do an isntant linseed feed.

for Daisy and you. I hope she puts some weight on and stops worrying you so much soon.

[jacquidales]

Zelda,
I've had to feed Sabina up as her ribs were far too visable when she came to me.

I've built her a feed pen so I can feed her extra without fat Jack tcking in. She goes into it twice a day so I can give her stuff to fatten her up. I've been giving hayledge and have found the simple systems to be modt effectie. She has been eating lots of soaked Lucie Bix with sugar beet and the eclipse food balancer. I have also put a rug on her the days that have been very cold or very wet (even though we have a field shelter) so that all the energy from the feed goe sonto putting weight on her. This week for the first time I would say I am happy about her weight. It's hard as she does not like being rugged, and I think will be the type to lose weight quickly, but the simple system feeds have been far more effective than the mixes and build up cubes she was on previously.

[Rowndan]

hows daisy doing Zelda

[zeldalithgow]

I think she's putting on a little bit, we've just let them into some more grass so I'll see how she goes, I haven't rugged her yet I've got a couple of medium weight rugs but I thinkit's still too mild to put them on her mind you the rain we've had lastnight and today maybe i should have put one on - how clean do they have to be when you put a rug on?

[lancslass]

hi zelda, make sure the coat is dry and free from mud

[zeldalithgow]

Thanks Karen - I hope deep ingrained mud is allowed lol ;D

[Biggerside Benwell]

Hi Zelda, I put Duke onto Top spec 3 weeks ago and what a differance to his condition so maybe you could try something like that?