Weighty Issues

A few weeks ago, I got out of the far end of a few very busy weeks and noticed that Foxie, now 20, had lost a pretty substantial amount of weight since I last looked at her very hard. She had ribs showing, and had lost fat pads along both sides of her spine - a Henneke scale 3 or 4, compared to her usual 5. 

Of course, what I did was immediately start to make changes, but weight gain, especially for an elderly thoroughbred, is not a swift thing. She's getting extra grain, and now, extra hay; moving her to a paddock would give her less potential to eat hay than she has now, and night turn out is less of an optimal idea simply because she would shiver the weight back off come winter. 

The issue, I am pretty sure, is in the fact that she's not getting enough hay. She went from easy access slow feed hay (albeit, of sometimes dubious quality) to being kept off the round bale by other horses. Depending on who was doing chores, she'd get 3-4 flakes - or sometimes two. And she was getting a grain with the following stats:

Protein - 14%

Fat - 10%

Fiber - 18%

She's now getting 2 flakes at night (last night we bumped this up to 3-4, as much as she can/will eat) and Assurance Performance Blend, which has the following:

Protein - 12%

Fat - 7%

Fiber - 10%

Clearly, we've changed two things pretty drastically, though I didn't really realize it until she dropped the weight. So we need to add some fat back into her diet, and some fiber. For now, I'm hoping 1-2 extra flakes of hay will help in the fiber department. Fox has been getting extra grain (the old stuff, with higher fiber) which she will now get (at least until I run out) in addition to extra hay in the evening. The feed will give her some extra fat and fiber (and protein, but whatever, the extra just pees out anyways). Once we move her to a full scoop of the Assurance 2x a day, which is my eventual plan, she will be getting more calories than she was at the old barn. I hesitate to pile more grain on her, when I'd prefer to do hay, but a girl has got to do what a girl's gotta do - at least until I can move my horses to my own property. Until then, lets take a look at what I can do to top-dress the hay and grain situation I do have:

Grain:

I could always go back to adding grain to add calories. Ultium has done great things in the past, and as a top dress, wouldn't be as annoyingly expensive as it was as a main feed. My options here would be:

More Assurance Performance Blend - 12 / 7, approximately 1700 calories/lb. I can double the amount she gets currently with no problems and no extra money spent.

Ultium Competition blend - 11.7 / 12.4, approximately 1900 calories/lb. I'd be bringing this in on my own, so I hesitate to do it unless the Assurance can't do the job.

Currently, Fox is getting the last of the Purina Equine Senior Active along with her 1/2 scoop 2x daily of the Assurance Performance blend. 

Supplements:

While Smartpak does offer "weight gain" supplements... I'm entirely suspicious of them. If you can't tell me the calories in the little well, I am not going to use it. There are other options out there:

Purina Amplify: 30% Fat, 14% protein. 2000 calories/lb

Nutrena Empower: 33% fat, 12% protein.

While Amplify will always be a product I'm hugely fond of, I again hesitate because of the extra cost. It will stay in my back pocket should we need it. 

Extra Forage:

Alfalfa Cubes and/or Pellets: These  products would be additional fiber. Since Fox can't get hay in the AM, and has 4 flakes (hopefully) PM, she may just be foraged out if I try to add extra to her diet. These would need to be soaked, too, which isn't something barn crew does. 

So, what do I do?

For now, we're going to up the PM forage, and wait for the extra grain to run out. Then, we will add more Assurance blend - 1 scoop AM and PM vs her previous 1/2 scoop to see where that gets us. After a few weeks of the extra grain, we'll see where she's at. If she's gaining, we'll wait and see. If she hasn't been gaining, I'll be looking into extra fat sources (rice bran, Amplify, etc). If she will eat it, I will be giving her extra forage in pellet form to add additional calories.

BB has been looking good, but I have noticed her girth goes up about 2 holes higher than it usually does. I plan to knock her up to 1 scoop AM and PM - or maybe just PM (?) and give her some alfalfa pellets after we ride. 

Ah, the joys of owning Thoroughbreds :)