Weight gain for a 23year old laminitic pony?

[Flyonthewall01]

I was wondering if someone could help me. My 23 year old section D has gradually been losing too much weight due to his diet being restricted (limited grazing and soaked hay) as he is so prone to laminitis.
he has a small breakfast (Safe and sound chaff, and micronised linseed), soaked hay throughout the day and a dinner (safe and sound, Metaslim and some supplements)
linseed was added to his diet a couple of months ago as it’s meant to add calories without the sugar risk but doesn’t seem to have made much difference.
Anyone have any suggestions of what I can do / change to get his weight up a bit? With him getting on a bit I want his weight to be a bit higher before he inevitably loses it in future years

What is his condition score at the moment? Is he actually underweight? I wouldn't get him to try and have a weight buffer now, what will help him the most is not being fat to reduce the risk of EMS as well as laminitis.

I’d say is about a 2. You can just see his ribs and his tail bone is rounded upwards and his hip bones are visible but rounded.

Personally I would increase the amount of hay he can have rather than add in hard feed unless you need it for him to take meds. Has he lost his coat this year? Is he up to date on worming? Is he dropping food? How are his teeth? For me the more he’s chewing the better so more soaked hay would keep him entertained. Do you feed a balancer and a pro and pre biotic and when were his bloods last checked?

He isn’t on any meds, lost his winter coat and wasn’t curly so I’m not concerned about cushings. Up to date with worming and has no issue with eating / lack of appetite.

he has metaslim which is a balancer recommended for laminitis. Has garlic, mint, seaweed and biotin as well. Nothing else.

not had bloods done in years as hadn’t needed it. Just gets his yearly vaccinations and checked over by the vet.

If he's eating well and his teeth are fine it's probably worth doing bloods. They might show something, or at least then you'll have a baseline of where he is now.

I would get some bloods done and a Cushings test. My friends pony was diagnosed with Cushings and he didn’t have the curly coat etc

Is he out on grass overnight/what is he eating overnight? I agree adding more hay but if he's getting grass he'll probably increase naturally as more comes in.

Our 32 yr old had dropped some weight this winter and our vet said increase hard feed , she’s out during the day , in at night and he said to feed 4 times a day . Obviously you would need to speak to a nutritionist to see what feeds are suitable as our pony has never shown any predisposition to laminitis .

No he’s only on limited grass each day, at the moment he’s muzzled as the grass is too rich at he’s too high risk of laminitis but when summer kicks in he’s out a few hours on grass. He is stabled at night and has soaked hay

Thank you, I will call the vets this week and get him tested to check for ems and Cushings. I’m thinking of adding spillers seniors super mash to his feed too to see if that helps

I’d be inclined to up his hay first but if you’re looking to introduce feed I had great results with an older horse with Saracen Veteran Mash. It is great at increasing condition and is described as being suitable for horses requiring low sugar and starch and at risk of metabolic disease. My horse looked fantastic on it but was not prone to laminitis or have EMS.
Not sure what is in the Metaslim balancer so obviously you’ll need to check the nutritional
imformation.

The spillers mash is excellent.

My dad has a very elderly retired pony on his field, very thin but very happy, bosses the big horses around, trots in and out of the field. He's vulnerable to laminitis but got so thin on the restricted grazing (plus lost several teeth) the vet recommended Veteran Vitality mix - you add water to make it a slop but it is (if I remember correctly) sugar beet with all the sugar removed. Is that something your pony could have? They do a high energy one that is strictly portion controlled but the other stuff he has loads of.

Not all Cushings cases are text book. My old boy was diagnosed at 15 when i had him blood tested for a spot of lethargy (he was a headcase but lost a tiny bit of spark) He readings were off the scale!
He never had a curly coat and always lost it as normal, but keeping his results down for the next 15 years took a lot of work.

He was a natural stress head and very hard to keep weight on and i actually fed him adlib dry hay and took the risk in the end as he would starve before he ate wet hay. (we tried, he didnt eat for 4 days) then tried steamed and he ate a tiny bit.