Can horses eat okra?

sychnant

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Odd question, but does anyone know if okra is safe for horses?

I'll be checking with a nutritionist tomorrow, but just wondered if anyone here knew :)
 

tallyho!

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It’s so expensive! Even if they could I’m not sure I’d put it in a bucket...
 

sychnant

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Apparently it helps decrease fasting insulin levels. I wondered if it might work in horses and help with EMS?

I know there are other things that apparently do similar, I was just interested :)
 

sychnant

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We're giving metformin already, I was just wondering if there's anything else I can add to his feed which might help. He's been on box rest and a restricted diet for 2 months, and has been sound without bute for 6 weeks now, but his glucose levels are still stupidly high. The vet says he can't have any grass at all until they improve, and to be honest he's getting so fed up. The only turnout he gets is when I work him in the lunge pen. He can't be turned out there as he goes through the fence to get to grass if he's not supervised.
 

Twohorses

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I would NOT because Okra is in the spinach family and spinach can be toxic to horses. But check with your vet, who needs to nutrionally up-to-speed and won't be giving you a "shoot from the hip" answer.

The words "I think -----" always remind me of my ex whose favorite reply was "well!!!! There you go thinking again!"

If you're looking for something to help with insulin, my lameness vet, who IS nutrionally up-to-speed, told me 2+ years ago to start feeding my IR horse chopped up watermelon rinds.

I also feed the watermelon but I remove the seeds from those "seedless" watermelons.

There are scholarly human studies regarding the benefits of citrulline in the watermelon for human diabetics. You can google them:)

Where Inlive, watermelon is available May thru mid-November (SE United States), so I feed it until I can't buy it anymore:)

Start out 1/2 measure cup 2X/day, work up to 1 measure cup 2X/day in the feed pan. Horses love it and it's great to disguise yucky tasting supplements.

Just be sure to chop up so the horse doesn't choke on the rind and remove the seeds because they are hard on the digestive tract.

FWIW dogs can also have a bit of watermelon meat but the seeds MUST be removed for them, too:)

Also, if the glucose level is high (which is the sugar level), that means his insulin numbers are also high. Insulin is a hormone produced by the body to control the glucose.

If you aren't having success reducing his insulin, the diet and its NSC value (non structural carbohydrates) must be re-evaluated. I would start with testing the hay.

Anything over 10% - 11% percent NSC is too high as one has to factor in the NSC value of everything else the horse eats. I have read of some hays testing as high as 25% which is a number that shouldn't even be fed to a healthy horse.

I feed a soy-free, no added iron condensed vit/min supplement. I mix it into one measuring cup of Timothy pellets twice daily. This means his calorie intake is waaaay down, when it comes to his feed pan, yet he still receives what he needs to stay healthy.

My hay is locally grown and consistently tests between 8.2% and 8.9% NSC. This has put my horse in IR remission since 2015, he lost and has kept off 150 pounds, and he gets to go out on pasture without a muzzle every day.

IR means the owner has micro-micro manage the horse's diet and figure out what works for each horse. the bottom line is to strip ask the NSC value of everything the horse eats, starting with testing hay or nothing else will work.

If your horse is eating any sort of legumes (including alfalfa), they aren't helping and should be removed. My IR horse isn't even allowed to smell alfalfa, lest he gets warm hooves. My other metabolic horse could have a little alfalfa without issue.


I had one other horse with metabolic issues who never had the slightest laminitic moment. He was easier to manage. He passed at 27 from strangulating lipomas which have nothing to do with IR
 
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molar roller

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nope. Okra is must be costly in UK. Even never seen a horseperson from mediterranean using Okra. (melon, watermelon and artichoke are popular...)
edit: obviously should eat just inside of artichoke, not green parts.
 
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tallyho!

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Maybe the question isn’t at all about okra but how do people manage EMS? I’ve had two EMS horses do very well barefoot. I have a PSSM horse also do well barefoot. It really depends on how you look at the problem.

It’s not what you feed it’s the way that you feed.

It’s not what you keep these horses in, it’s how you keep them.

I’m afraid to say that the UK is wholly outdated with metabolic disease management but I’ve gone to a few vet & podiatry talks this year which shows things could be about to change.

Before it used to be no movement. Now it’s all about movement. It used to be about soaked hay, but now, due to toxins it’s about feeding the right KIND of hay.

It’s used to be about wedges, bars, more metal... but now it’s all about less metal, more nature.

Despite our (read: feed companies) best efforts to make all our horses athletes just like the photos on the bag, it’s reakly nothing to do with that at all.

Good luck on your journey. Sounds like you’re in a pretty dark place right now so huge hugs gurl. It takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of love to get through it all but you will!

It’ll all be ok.
 

Twohorses

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Very well said, tallyho!

Many vets in the U.S. also are not well-versed on metabolic issues. My understanding is that there is(or at least used to be) minimum discussion of it in vet school.

My heart horse developed and was diagnosed with metabolic issues in May 2007. That was still the dark ages where this type of health issue was concerned.

My vet, at that time, literally told me to "watch his diet" but couldn't tell me in what regard. I spent that summer soaking the desktop keyboard in tears, trying to find help. There was very little credible research and it pointed to all the things you mention but still didn't tell me WHAT and HOW to feed my equine soul mate.

I found Coth and finally started getting solid help from a few credible folks.

Duke was easy to manage. To reiterate, never a warm hoof. I took him (and my other horses) off anything with grain in it.

I had not started testing hay yet, as we were going into a drought that lasted to 2009 and finding any decent horse hay without weeds in it was a miracle. My area generally is so lush we can provide hay to those other states who don't normally receive a good amount of rain.

Soooooo, I was assuming I was doing everything correctly as Duke had stabilized. Imagine my absolute horror when, in 2012, Joker ended up with insulin numbers triple what is considered a high/average. Cornell U. phoned the vet to ask for more blood as they felt they had somehow mis-read. On the 2nd vile, they phoned the vet to ask if the horse was still alive ----

That was Joker. Measuring from the dorsal wall, Joker rotated 5 degrees on the RF & 8-9 degrees on the LF. His LF coffin bone was pointing pretty far south.

Getting his hooves re-habbed turned out to be a nightmare. First, not all great farrier's are great on special needs hooves - they just think they are.

Joker did better when I took his back under my care but I had to give up trimming all my horses when the neurosurgeon looked at my CT's and MRI.

Then it was back to square one to find a good rehab farrier. Joker's hooves suffered until that long infuriating/frustrating/exasperating/ years long search finally ended.

Barefoot and boots will likely NOT ever work again. Joker is now happiest in corrective shoes with a partial pour-in pad of EquiThane CS. This new farrier is quite an artist when it comes to pouring a partial pad and making it look perfect.

My point to all of this: Two horses living on the same property, eating the same low starch diet. One flies thru his metabolic issues with barely a hiccup, the other developers them five years later and nearly dies.

It's that little word "metabolism". What folks have to remember about metabolic issues is that every horse is different, will react different, therefore must be cared for "the same but different".

For example, I can watch my BFF eat a bag of Hershey's Kisses and not gain one ounce. I will gain two pounds just watching her, lol. Her eyeballs burn energy, my metabolism has always been in the tank and watching what I eat, a way of life since I was 12.
 
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