vet focus
Feeding a soaked ration six times a day
It seems we have more elderly horses and ponies living a healthy life than used to be the case. Advances in nutrition and healthcare are behind this, and the ready availability of resources through digital media means that quality advice is always on hand. When considering the dietary requirements of older equids, there are many factors to take into account that have not been an issue so far in their lives. The numerical age may not be the most accurate guide to their needs.
In the absence of any significant health issues, the state of the teeth becomes one of the most important issues in the life of the elderly horse.
The state of horses’ teeth deteriorates with age; the teeth grow from the root to replace the loss from the grinding surface but eventually this growth stops, the root closes and they enter the final phase of their life. The stage at which they stop growing and then become loose can be associated with uncomfortable chewing. If they get to this stage, horses will often try to chew but give up and either attempt to swallow the bolus of food before it is properly chewed, or they spit it out (often referred to as quidding).
www.theequinesite.co.uk
Because grazing and chewing are automatic behaviour, they then return to take in more food and start the process over again. If this is a fibrous food, which includes grass, and they swallow the partly chewed bolus, they may choke or develop an impaction. Elderly patients are prone to caecal impactions which, if not picked up early enough, can be very difficult to treat and even become life threatening. Looking at the fibre length in the droppings can be very informative. Ideally fibres should be chewed and digested down to about 5mm length and any departure from this is a warning that the health of the teeth and digestion should be investigated.
There comes a stage when long fibre is no longer an appropriate feed and fibre length in the feed must get closer to the 5mm length. Short chopped fibre feeds are a very good hay replacer for the horses that are still chewing well but can’t cope with hay or long grass. Those feeds based on alfalfa have the added benefit of providing a good protein source as well. These feeds may provide all that is required for maintenance for several years but eventually the horses will need to move on to dried, ground, pelleted feeds
that are soaked before feeding. These require no chewing to process them, but the horse will go through a chewing action to mix them with saliva before swallowing. They have to be fed little and often through the day as a total replacement for hay or grass. Some feeds are based on sugar beet, either alone or combined with ground hay, or are made of ground hay alone. They are fed moist, and it can take a while to work out what level of moisture is preferred by the horse. If more energy and protein are required these can be provided by adding high fibre cubes that can also be soaked. Once a horse has got to this level they are most unlikely to be in hard work so their needs can be well defined. To meet their higher vitamin and mineral needs (of older age), supplements are added to the mix.
This all becomes very time consuming, and despite late and early feeds, there is going to be a big gap through the night with nothing. If at grass, the cycle of grazing and spitting out will continue, but in the winter these are long hungry nights. It can take several years to make the transition and at some stage it is important to take them off hay completely to break
the cycle of constantly chewing. At the same time, straw cannot be used as bedding as they may be tempted to chew that. Knowing when this is the right time can be difficult to work out unless they choke in their attempts to swallow. Regular dental checks will give you information on the state of the teeth and knowing how many are loose or have fallen out will help make decisions. This is a similar process to weaning a foal; eventually they will become confident that the next feed will arrive! On short grass they can continue to graze and spit out which helps fill the gaps between feeds. This regular but spaced out feeding will make them prone to equine gastric ulcer syndrome so if they suddenly go off their food, that should be considered as a possible cause. The large intestine tends to be very stable under these regimes as the intake is well controlled.
Elderly horses will also benefit from a regular health check. Including blood tests in this examination may help show up early evidence of classical conditions such as PPID (Cushings disease) but can also act as a guide to more subtle changes in health such as the development of an anaemia.
Equine Page 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
