Bran based diet

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Kimberley_bhs

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My mare has been prone to impact colic. So we feed her a bran diet recommended by our vet. She's a good doer and we have reduced her mix and and chaff so her diet is grazing and bran. I've heard that feeding just bran can cause a vitamin d deficiency. True anyone? Also would anyone recommend a low cal balancer to feed alongside this?

Cheers
 
Yes, and is also v low calcium (as all straights) so should not really be fed to youngsters.

Bran has pretty much zero feed value and there are much better ways nowadays to keep your horse's gut moving. I'm guessing your vet is quite old?
 
Beet pulp (preferably unmollassed) is an excellent source of fibre and doesn't have the problems bran presents - I think I read it is very high in ?potassium? or ?phosphorus? too, can't quite remember but it does throw a mineral balance out of the window.
 
Bran as diet, never heard of that, it is high in fibre but is unbalanced, [ high in phosphous]I think you need to contact a feed company nutritionist for a balanced diet with bran [rice bran or wheat bran?] as a base.
I will be honest, the stuff you buy as horse bran nowadays is not the same as the by-product of years gone by which was broad bran. I used it in Ye Olden Days with oats and a balanced mineral mix.

http://www.horsefeedblog.com/2010/08/feeding-bran-mashes-to-horses/

I would think that the bran has to be fed as a mash to make sure it goes through the intestines.
Personally I think a diet of grass and bran is extreme.
There are others on here with colic prone horses, who would offer advice, but I would want to feed 50gms micronised linseed and some chaff and some minerals and vitamins, I would want to think about colic history, and would want to make sure horse has some time in stable with the opportunity to eat several small sloppy feed/feeds.

In summary, I do not like this idea at all!
 
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Patterdale said:
Yes, and is also v low calcium (as all straights) so should not really be fed to youngsters.

Bran has pretty much zero feed value and there are much better ways nowadays to keep your horse's gut moving. I'm guessing your vet is quite old?
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Very old chappy.

Shes 15yrs but does suffer from gut sensitivity so really do have to watch what I feed. Bran has been brill for the past two years no issues but she is fed a probiotic along side. Beet pulp could be a idea but worried about weight gain as a breath of grass she sacks the weight on
 
What amounts of bran are you feeding? Presumably if she is a good doer she needs very little at all, so the amount of bran fed shouldn't have as much of an unbalancing effect on the diet as if she was being fed buckets full. However, if she was mine I would prefer her to be on unmollassed beet pulp to promote gut mobility, albeit it in small amounts.
 
Beet pulp and either yeassac or yoghurt as a probiotic. Beet pulp doesn't put weight on if you feed it in moderation and get the unmollassed version. But introduce it slowly.
 
I use bran as a base because the calcium levels in our forage as so high I need to avoid calcium rich feeds such as beet pulp and alfalfa.

Also it means I don't have to supplement as much phosphorous which is quite unpalatable but I do mix my own minerals so they get all the minerals they need. I feed other things too such as copra, oats and linseed depending on work and weight alongside the bran.
 
Could you feed it with something like Spillers high fibre cubes and a multivitamin, global herbs do good supplements for lots of things including tummy trouble.
 
Patterdale said:
Yes, and is also v low calcium (as all straights) so should not really be fed to youngsters.

Bran has pretty much zero feed value and there are much better ways nowadays to keep your horse's gut moving. I'm guessing your vet is quite old?
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That's a bit pedantic as many vet hospitals recommend always feeding lightly damped bran in the case of regular bouts of colic, I know Leahurst does so please don't make it sound as if the OP's vet doesn't know what they're doing.
If it helps to keep things moving for her, I wouldn't change it but I would also add either limestone flour or a lo cal balancer to make sure she's getting the right minerals with it. I personally don't rate Top Spec at all but I know others that do but I have always had good results from Blue Chip Original or Baileys Lo Cal. You could also use D & H Suregrow which can be used as a normal balancer, not just for youngstock (and it's a fraction of the price of the others!)
 
Kimberley_bhs said:
My mare has been prone to impact colic. So we feed her a bran diet recommended by our vet. She's a good doer and we have reduced her mix and and chaff so her diet is grazing and bran. I've heard that feeding just bran can cause a vitamin d deficiency. True anyone? Also would anyone recommend a low cal balancer to feed alongside this?

Cheers
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Vitamin D is produced by the horse by the action of sunlight on the skin.

What you risk, big time, is calcium deficiency. Bran is very high in phosphorous and also contains phytates that prevent the absorption of calcium regardless of feeding extra.

I am surprised any vet would recommend a high bran diet.

Chaff and sugar beet would be far more sensible.
 
Tnavas said:
I am surprised any vet would recommend a high bran diet.

Chaff and sugar beet would be far more sensible.
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But not if you wanted to make sure the stomach was always lined with something gentle that can be digested easily which is something a chaff of any kind doesn't do.
Ask any of the vet hospitals that deal with many colics on a daily basis; bran is their standby for recovery and avoidance of further episodes. Don't you think any of the feed companies would have come up with something similar if it was to be endorsed by the top vets to do the job that bran does perfectly well; the fact that they haven't when it would be a very lucrative market speaks volumes (think of the lami feeds available now) Bran is seen by vets as very much the lesser of the evils rather than the risk of further episodes of colic.
You can always add limestone flour or sugar beet water to counteract the calcium deficiency but in general, an older horse does not need them as much as their bone is already formed, a young horse still growing has more need of them.
 
I do find it interesting but there is much concern about feeding a straight like bran and its natural mineral levels and not about feeding alfalfa and beet pulp and the high levels of calcium they supply.

The people who are offering mineral balancing services are finding that UK pasture is heavily overloaded with calcium (and iron and mangansese). The off the peg balancers such as the forageplus and progressive earth ones are typically not including these three minerals as standard.


Obviously there will always be pockets that buck the general trend but on the whole in the UK calcium shortage is not an issue, levels being too high is.
 
Maesfen said:
You can always add limestone flour or sugar beet water to counteract the calcium deficiency but in general, an older horse does not need them as much as their bone is already formed, a young horse still growing has more need of them.
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PHYTATES - found in bran BLOCK the absorption of Calcium regardless of any extra you supply

Bone is remodelled constantly, while a young horse requires a higher amount of calcium, it is still required on a daily basis to maintain blood calcium levels.

If calcium is not supplied in daily food consumption the blood will remove some from the bones to maintain blood calcium balance.

The reason bran is fed as a food for impacted colics is that it pulls water from the body and remains loose in the gut. You can get the opposite effect by feeding dry bran.

I agree with you in someways regarding chaff, though unless the cause of impacted colic is known an absolute decision can't be made - maybe the feed was fed too dry, did the horse have a very high dry diet as in hay. I had one of my school horses go down several times a winter with impacted colic as he found hay difficult to digest. I was often found with my arm up his bum squirting in Liquid Parrafin inside to help remove the blockage.

Often impacted colic happens when a horse is fed insufficient fibre in the diet, the food is not open enough as it passes through the digestive system.

Sugar beet is great for horses that are prone to impacted colic as it has a high fibre and water content.

As to feeding bran in general a friend found out the hard way! She insisted on feeding large quantities of bran and her horse cracked a pedal bone - calcium depleted from the bran.

To be honest there are many vets around that haven't a clue as to how to feed a horse.
 
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but how about the possibility of choke when feeding sugar beet? It has very clumping properties and I don't feed it any more after having a couple choke on it
 
LCH611 said:
but how about the possibility of choke when feeding sugar beet? It has very clumping properties and I don't feed it any more after having a couple choke on it
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I've never had sugar beet clump in over 40 years of feeding it. Sugar beet fed properly soaked should not cause choke. Generally choke is caused by a greedy horse swallowing too much food at once. Horses like this need a large block in their feed Bon to prevent them grabbing very large mouthfuls of food.
 
Bran is making a come back with the vets and if feeding bran has solved the issue in a colic prone horse I would be loath to change it .
I would find an independent nutritionalist to advise on supplementation .
 
I feed bran and linseed to my young mare who has a gut problem and it has helped her a lot. She has a thickened piece of large intestine which can be felt rectally. I read somewhere that its safe to feed up to 1 lb bran a day without causing problems. My mare has a handful of bran in each of her four feeds with linseed, speedibeet a handful of soaked grass nuts and bit of hot water. If i need to get more water in to her then i can give her an extra handful of bran if needed.
Article about benefits of bran here: http://www.thehorse.com/articles/15774/benefits-of-bran-mash
 
If colic prone I'd be very wary of changing to beet pulp or anything else - with a colic prone horse any change is a risk if you've found something that works (been there unfortunately more than once!)
The old fashioned add to bran as a feed was limestone flour, as this stopped the bran leeching the system of the other nutrients as it is high in phosphorus. Used to work fine years ago until we got nuts/mixes/balancer and all these supplements and quite honestly I've gone back to straights and get a lot less issues.
 
iconique said:
If colic prone I'd be very wary of changing to beet pulp or anything else - with a colic prone horse any change is a risk if you've found something that works (been there unfortunately more than once!)
The old fashioned add to bran as a feed was limestone flour, as this stopped the bran leeching the system of the other nutrients as it is high in phosphorus. Used to work fine years ago until we got nuts/mixes/balancer and all these supplements and quite honestly I've gone back to straights and get a lot less issues.
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Unfortunately it didn't once the bran became more refined. The phytates block the absorption of calcium regardless of the limestone fed. Bran weakened bones and horses developed navicular, pedal osteitis and ringbone at an early age.

With any colic prone horse the introduction of new feeds needs to be done over a couple of weeks, not the normal 7 days.

My concern with feeding bran to a colic end horse is that it pulls fluids from the body and this along with an already dehydrated horse can increase problems.

With any colic prone horse the owner needs to look very carefully at their horsemanagement. Ensure that any pelleted food is fed with twice as much fibre and served damp. Pelleted food breaks down into a sludge in the stomach and is notorious in causing colic. Ensure in cold weather your horse is offered warm water before turning out or feeding. Horses are not good at drinking icy water. A dehydrated horse is far more likely to colic.
 
well I have had 3 different ponies choke on it when it is fed with a softish chaff type feed, even when it has been well soaked. If you squeeze a wet handful of it, it forms a clump & this is what happens when a horse starts to choke & the peristaltic motion exacerbates the problem. It may not have been the thing that caused the choke in the first place (as you rightly say it is frequently because a greedy horse has grabbed too large a mouthful in the first place), but it definitely gets wedged in a very distressing way when they start to choke. Consequently I have stopped feeding it (except to my pigs) which is a shame as I really rated it as a useful feed for ponies that need more condition/have dental issues/need a lammi friendly diet, etc .
 
LCH611 said:
well I have had 3 different ponies choke on it when it is fed with a softish chaff type feed, even when it has been well soaked. If you squeeze a wet handful of it, it forms a clump & this is what happens when a horse starts to choke & the peristaltic motion exacerbates the problem. It may not have been the thing that caused the choke in the first place (as you rightly say it is frequently because a greedy horse has grabbed too large a mouthful in the first place), but it definitely gets wedged in a very distressing way when they start to choke. Consequently I have stopped feeding it (except to my pigs) which is a shame as I really rated it as a useful feed for ponies that need more condition/have dental issues/need a lammi friendly diet, etc .
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Therefore it is NOT the cause of choke - I've fed it to hundreds of horses over the years and never once had one choke. Even when squeezed almost dry the sugarbeet doesn't stay in a clump. Maybe it wasn't as soaked as you thought, the molassed version that comes as cubes can take 24 hours to completely soak.
 
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