Balancers & PSSM

SEL

SEL

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Why would putting a PSSM type 1 horse on a balancer cause it to have problems????

S has always been on a balancer ever since she was on soaked hay to lose weight pre her PSSM diagnosis. I noticed a positive difference when I ran out of the forage plus laminitic balancer a few weeks ago and thought it was to do with the linseed so swapped her onto the progressive earth one.

3 days in and we've gone from a horse who was moving forward nicely around the school to camped out, hobbling around and uncomfortable. The sugar levels in the grass have been low and she's hardly got any to munch on (& sugar levels were higher last week and she was fine then), so I can only think its the balancer.

She's had Mag Ox, Selenium, Vit E and amino acids all fed to her separately without issue, so that leaves me with Zinc, copper and phosphorus in the balancer. Plus it appears to have 'wheat middlings' which I didn't originally spot on the ingredients list. She's only getting 1 scoop so I can't imagine the wheat middlings would be an issue - but can copper and zinc affect the uptake of sugar?

Not sure I'm expecting an answer so much as having a moan! I've spent a fortune on balancers over the past 2 years and if these are the source of her problems then I'll disappear into a dark corner and cry!:blue:
 
https://forums-secure.horseandhound...?742199-PSSM-horses-and-balancers-supplements

No idea why but my horse goes backwards as soon as you give him a balancer. He feels awful to get on and is clearly in pain. It took over a year before I had a bright, happy, friendly and affectionate horse which I have now and the only thing that has changed is taking him off the balancer. It had a very dramatic effect very quickly.

Ffion Winnie's horse also reacted to Pro Hoof.
 
I thought I remembered someone posting about this, but I wasn't sure it was actually a PSSM 1 horse. Its odd, but at least it'll save me money if it does have to come out of her diet!

I'm off to try and google the effects on blood sugar of zinc and copper.
 
At the moment I see no noticeable difference between balancer or no balancer - I use Pro Earth ProLaminae+ and that contains a few suspect ingredients!

Which pro earth balancer are you using? Other things to weed out include any yeast (brewers yeast, yea sacc, mineral yeasts etc), MSM, glucosamine...
 
Casey76 said:
At the moment I see no noticeable difference between balancer or no balancer - I use Pro Earth ProLaminae+ and that contains a few suspect ingredients!

Which pro earth balancer are you using? Other things to weed out include any yeast (brewers yeast, yea sacc, mineral yeasts etc), MSM, glucosamine...
Click to expand...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-BALAN...-Health-Supplement-FREE-POSTAGE-/302247009129

It's the one above. I already know she can't tolerate MSM, turmeric & linseed. Brewers yeast is out because of the chromium - but I didn't think Yea Sacc would be a problem?? (Not that she's on it).

Joint supplements made no difference to her creaky hocks so I decided not to bother with them.

If I knock out the balancer then she goes back to 8000iU Vit E, magnesium malate / mag Ox, salt, l-glutamine and I'll pop her back on the selenium sup as well. I'll have to see whether her feet do ok on that. She had awful feet 2 years ago & I worry we'll head back that way without a balancer.
 
Need to do some more background reading, but I do find the diabetes sites interesting. Whilst I have no plan to do a glucose test on S I would guess given her reactions that she's pretty sensitive and clears glucose quickly. In which case adding zinc is possibly a bad thing as it appears to help diabetics. No doubt there are other articles out there saying something different tho!

http://universityhealthnews.com/dai...iabetes-natural-blood-sugar-control-and-more/

Edited to add this link too

http://saracen.equinews.com//article/trace-minerals-horses-zinc-and-copper
 
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Thought I would just add that my horse is on a sort of bespoke calmer and a joint supplement from Hack Up and seems fine on them. The calm/digest/detox has Zeolite, magnesium and a pro biotic in it. The joint supplement has a broad spectrum Vit & mineral mix, msm, boswelia and turmeric in and he is absolutely fine on them. But Pro Hoof and Forage Plus Winter Performance Balancers are total no go areas.
 
SEL said:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-BALAN...-Health-Supplement-FREE-POSTAGE-/302247009129

It's the one above. I already know she can't tolerate MSM, turmeric & linseed. Brewers yeast is out because of the chromium - but I didn't think Yea Sacc would be a problem?? (Not that she's on it).

Joint supplements made no difference to her creaky hocks so I decided not to bother with them.

If I knock out the balancer then she goes back to 8000iU Vit E, magnesium malate / mag Ox, salt, l-glutamine and I'll pop her back on the selenium sup as well. I'll have to see whether her feet do ok on that. She had awful feet 2 years ago & I worry we'll head back that way without a balancer.
Click to expand...

Did you read the post from David Marlin on FB about the L-Glutamine? It isn't an approved supplement for horses and needs to be removed from sale (including being removed from all pre-mixes)
 
Casey76 said:
Did you read the post from David Marlin on FB about the L-Glutamine? It isn't an approved supplement for horses and needs to be removed from sale (including being removed from all pre-mixes)
Click to expand...

I did - I've just bulk bought in case he gets his own way! There's nothing that would indicate its anything other than safe for horses & I know a lot of people who credit Succeed with turning round their ulcer horses.
 
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