YorksG
Over the hill and far awa
Does any one know about/ heard about horses having an intolerance to alfalfa? If so what symptoms etc. were in evidence? I am sondering if Ambers recent odd behavior may have a link to this. Thanks
Alfalfa intolerance
- Thread starter YorksG
- Start date
Halfstep
Well-Known Member
My horse has an intolerance to Alfalfa. He gets bad diarrhea from it.
YorksG
Over the hill and far awa
I see, was his behaviour any different or did you find out before that could happen? Amber doesn't seem to have the same response as yours, but does seem odd, and the only thing left on the list is feed! Gone from spooky but good to a bit of a nightmare, but this also was orignially linked with her needing chiropracter (sp) on her neck. We have now worked through every other possible cause!
sleepingdragon10
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
I see, was his behaviour any different or did you find out before that could happen? Amber doesn't seem to have the same response as yours, but does seem odd, and the only thing left on the list is feed! Gone from spooky but good to a bit of a nightmare, but this also was orignially linked with her needing chiropracter (sp) on her neck. We have now worked through every other possible cause!
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe stop her hard feed, give her nothing but hay for a week or two, then slowly re-introduce each individual foodstuff and see how she reacts.
I see, was his behaviour any different or did you find out before that could happen? Amber doesn't seem to have the same response as yours, but does seem odd, and the only thing left on the list is feed! Gone from spooky but good to a bit of a nightmare, but this also was orignially linked with her needing chiropracter (sp) on her neck. We have now worked through every other possible cause!
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe stop her hard feed, give her nothing but hay for a week or two, then slowly re-introduce each individual foodstuff and see how she reacts.
YorksG
Over the hill and far awa
That's the plan! Was just interested to see of others had sim ilar experience. The only feed she has at the moment is alfalfa and applechaff, and hay of course, as she is the worlds best doer! We had one in the past who was intolerant of grain and sugar, fortunately she was fine with alfalfa
MontyandZoom
Well-Known Member
My tb's behaviour dramatically improved once I removed alfalfa from his diet.
After alot of trial and error it seems it was alfalfa making him loony!
After alot of trial and error it seems it was alfalfa making him loony!
lastresort
Well-Known Member
mine had allergy tests and it came up as a no no to feed,have fed it though with no probs??!!
sleepingdragon10
Well-Known Member
The little grey in my sig has an adverse reaction to garlic of all things, makes her really itchy! It's funny what they are sensitive to, isn't it? :
Beth
Halfstep
Well-Known Member
Apart from the very runny droppings, I didn't notice much difference behaviour-wise, but I only had him a few weeks at the time and he came off it pretty quick!
YorksG
Over the hill and far awa
That's really interesting littleroboat, Amber is a reg appy but has Tb in her breeding, the one we had who was intolerant to so much was TbxWelsh D. I'm beginning tp think that any Tb means watch the feed.
How long did it take to stop having an effect (if that makes sense)
jumpthemoon
Well-Known Member
Alfa A used to send my last mare absolutely loopy
I switched her to hifi and she was much better.
ColouredFan
Well-Known Member
Mine cant have Alfalfa it makes him really itchy but didnt effect his energy levels in any way
barrymeningen
Well-Known Member
I've not had any experience with alfalfa intolerant horses but I've plenty of horses that are intolerant to molasses, many chaffs including mollichaff, Alfa a etc. are heavily coated in molasses to make them more appetising. I would suggest trying an unmplassed brand such as Northern crop growers or Simple System. PS those that are intolerant to molasses are also often cereal intolerant.
emzkes
Active Member
alfaalfa sends my TB crazy!! not just hyper to ride but nasty on the ground too
swapped him onto spillers cool fibre which is non mollassed and he is back to normal! if you change him to something similar you should see a diference within afew days if it is the alfaA causing you problems. watch out for sugar beet too a lot of it is very high in mollasses. my boy is now on cool fibre and alfa beet as he is sugar and cereal intolerant!
KatB
Well-Known Member
Its often the molasses that cause the problem. Also Alfa Oil is very high in ev#nergy and often causes "fizziness". Try Alfa Lite wich has a lower sugar level and see how you get on....
YorksG
Over the hill and far awa
Thanks all, she has had apple and cabbage(didn't eat the cabbage!) only tonight. She is such a good doer I shall leave it at this for a couple of weeks and then maybe try some unmollassed chaff to get the supplements in.
YorksG
Over the hill and far awa
One of ours won't eat garlic and on the few occasions she has done she has had odd reactions, including blood from the vulva!
SpruceRI
Well-Known Member
Think Alfalfa made mine more spooky. I've always fed her Alfa A and she's always been very spooky but since I stopped the Alfa about a year ago she's been about 25% better.
nuffield
Well-Known Member
One of my horses gets mudfever badly if fed anything which had alfalfa in it.
Louby
Well-Known Member
Mines shown up allergic to Alfalfa but finding a feed without it in has been hard. Feed merchant hides when I turn up as my boys also allergic to wheat. Im now feeding Mollichaff Showshine as a chaff and Cool Mix as a mix but hes loosing condition so Im going to get Top Spec feed balancer I think. Alfalfa is a good conditioning feed so I wouldnt feed it to a good doer. I had to watch how much I fed too as it made my spooky horse very spooky.