RE: [RC] weight gainer - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
As has already been suggested, I’d do a panacur purge for
five days, make sure his teeth are well balanced all the way back with no sharp
points (and that requires sedation, a full-mouth speculum and someone who is
actually trained to do all this, not just the shoer who wants to play junior
veterinarian) and make sure he’s standing knee deep in good quality
forage 24/7 (I’m continually amazed by people that want to add
supplements and concentrates, but are surprised at the idea of feeding more
than two or three flakes of hay a day---but that’s another rant for a
different day).
The weight gainer stuff is fine, but it’s essentially just
ground flax seed and some probiotics---both of which you can provide yourself
without the gee-whiz packaging for a lot less at probably a higher quality.
I don’t have any major objections to sea weed meal, but I don’t
think it’s providing anything significant, either. I’ve seen a
few horses with some borderline iodine toxicity from overdoing sea weed things,
and I’m pretty sure horses on average can survive very nicely without a
daily kelp ration. If that turns out to not be true, let me know, because
every time I go diving, I have a world class talent at getting about forty
yards of kelp hopelessly tangled up in my equipment, and would be happy to
bring some home. I always come out of the water looking like Swamp Thing.
If you prefer the idea of feeding a vegetable-based fat source
over an animal source (personally, I don’t mind either one, and most
horses don’t care, either), you can look into Cool Calories, which is a
prilled vegetable based fat. Some horses prefer the texture of a prilled
fat over a liquid oil. A lot of other horses will accept liquid vegetable
oil provided it isn’t rancid---which it will be if you repeatedly expose
it to light, heat or (primarily) air for about 10-14 days or more. There
are also some different oil sources (corn, soy, cocasoy, some cherry-flavored
oils, etc) that some horses will accept more readily than others.
And, of course, you can grind up some flax seed yourself, and
eventually work up to feeding buckets of the stuff. It’ll also
start to oxidize fairly rapidly unless you keep it in the freezer or
refrigerator. The fat calories will remain intact, but you might as well
try to keep the omega-3 fatty acids in play while you’re at it. You
can add some probiotics to that as well, though I doubt the addition or
non-addition of probiotics either way will make a significant difference.
You might also try the high-energy soybeans (or something
similar to that) that I think is carried by Dynamite. I haven’t
used it myself, but hear good things from people I trust, and horses seem to
like it a lot.
Unless the loose stool is projectile diarrhea, I wouldn’t
worry about it too much, it usually isn’t clinically significant.
If you suspect that there might be some underlying inflammation of some sort in
there, then try adding some psyllium or beet pulp, both good sources of soluble
fiber---they both ferment to butyrate, the preferred substrate of the
enterocytes lining the intestines, which can promote more rapid turnover (that’s
a good thing). Between the two, I prefer beet pulp (no surprise there,
eh?) because you can feed lots of it, therefore lots of calories.
You can always just try feeding Purina Ultium---a nice,
high-fat, balanced ration, good percentage of beet pulp and most horses really
like it (mine sure do).
Susan Garlinghouse, DVM
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of jamie ward Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 7:28 PM To: ride camp Subject: [RC] weight gainer
I was looking into weight gainer's and digestion aide's for
a hard to keep gelding who also has loose stool's . He does not like oil
all that much no matter what i put with it. so I ran across this stuff it
had the pro.prebiotics that the digestion stuff has and the fat base is
oil not animal fat. I was wondering however about the protein level and also if
it is OK to give the digestion stuff (AERC drug rules etc) since
from my understanding it is not OK to give ulcer med's I was not sure if it
fell into the same category. and finally what about seaweed meal
this is the company's spiel about it and content:
The high energy density of Ultra-Elite Weight is derived
from premium quality vegetable fats to help maintain blood glucose levels,
improve endurance and stamina, reduce gut fill and maintain proper skin, coat
and musculature. Ultra-Elite Weight also contains direct fed microbials for gut
health and lecithin, which is a source of phospholipids and bio available
choline to promote shortened recovery time after exertion
It has a base of sea weed meal, flax and veggie oil/fat
It is 40% fat 14% protein and omega 3 & 6 it also
contains Contains
Pro/Prebiotics
