Question
We have two Arabians, one is 34 years old and the other is 28. Both look like skeletons. The younger one is worse. We feed them soaked senior feed twice a day and soaked timothy/alfalfa cubes three times a day, more often if I am home and can go out earlier and later than our normal feeding times. Neither is able to chew hay or grass well enough to swallow it. Both chew and drop out wads in pasture all day and night. Vet has floated both sets of teeth and says there are only a few molars left in each mouth. They are dewormed regularly. Both are on a vitamin and mineral supplement and the younger has just started on a product to control loose manure. What else can I try?
Answer
It can be truly a challenge to keep weight on horses when they get long in the tooth. The diet that you are feeding sounds to be the right combination for horses of that age. You mention what you are feeding but not the quantities. I would recommend weighing out the feed so that you get a good idea of how much they are really getting. As a rule of thumb, horses should get around 2% of their body weight of the feeds combined per day. If one horse weighs 800 lb (365 kg), that would equate to 16 lb (7.2 kg) of feed total. That could be 8 lb (3.6 kg) of senior feed and 8 lb (3.6 kg) of hay cubes or any combination of the two which works best for the horses.
Because you are finding quids (partially chewed balls) of grass, you really can’t depend on them getting any nutrition out of the pasture. Because these horses are having weight issues, they can get more of the senior feed because it incorporates some forage in it. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to feed 10-12 lb (4.5-5.5 kg) of the senior feed per day, divided into several meals like you are doing. If it takes more to get weight on the horses, then feeding up to 3% of the body weight (24 lb or 11 kg) for total diet is appropriate as long as they will eat it.
If the tooth loss is impacting the horses’ ability to chew the hay cubes adequately and therefore benefit from the nutrition, you can switch them to hay pellets (also soaked). The long fibers from the hay cubes will be present in the manure if either one is not digesting the hay cubes very well. Hay pellets are ground finer, so they do not require real chewing once they are softened with water. Given their age and body condition, these horses would benefit from alfalfa pellets.
Once you are sure they are getting adequate quantity, you can add additional calories by incorporating oil into the diet, which is a concentrated source of energy (calories) that does not add any bulk to the diet. You could start with 1/4 cup (60 mL) per day and increase gradually to a cup (240 mL) a day, split between the meals. Back down the quantity if you notice an effect on their manure consistency.
These horses may benefit from a broad-spectrum digestive supplement that supplies both yeast and probiotics, particularly the younger one with the loose manure.
Here is an article about feeding aged horses that may give you more explanation than I have here.
