Older mini horse with issues....help?

[Abby P]

That's great news about the myopathy! That must be a relief.

And good that he eats the cubes, I think as long as they are loosened up it's fine unless he's trying to bolt them - the soaking is just to prevent choke. Sounds like you're on the right track! Most important that he eats, and you can fine-tune things later. Yay!

 

[chandab]

I must have "pigs", 15 out of 16 of my minis will eat TC senior; only my senior stallion that has to have a complete feed won't eat it, I suspect it's the beet pulp shreds in it, as he's not a fan of beet pulp shreds.
Some sort of vitamin mineral supplement should be added to the forage cubes and pellets, as no forage is complete and balanced. Perhaps one of the pelleted supplements will work, and the volume will be small enough he'll eat it; I like MVP Mega Cell or Manna Pro ShoGlo for mostly grass forage based diet. And, if they are on an all hay/pellet diet, adding vitamin E is a good idea; usual dosage is 1-2IU per pound body weight, so a 250# mini gets 250-500IU. You can use human gelcaps, Natural E is best (if you can only get synthetic, the dose needs to be increased 30%); I have larger minis, so just use 400IU gelcaps, for those that don't readily eat the cap, I pierce and squeeze the goo on their feed. [Since its winter and I have a couple that don't like the whole gelcaps, I recently switched to a powder then a pellet. Both are easier to store in the feedroom with no worry of freezing.]