EPSM diet in plain English...please help!

[catembi]

I want to try this with Adrian. I've already done a search on here & ended up more confused than I was to start with.

Please, please could some kind person spell out a diet for an average ISH, including hay (soaked? alfalfa? haylage...??) with products & amounts? He is out 24/7 on quite a bare field.

I found the Beth Valentine site, but it seemed more for the American market.

I am working from home today so can nip out to the feed merchants at 4 o'clock...if I know what to buy!

Thank you!

 

[Oliver12]

If you haven't already, I would suggest you join this group: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/EPSM/

They are really helpful. It is run by an American vet called Dr Kellon who will point you in the right direction regarding diet.

I am in the UK and my horse was diagnosed by muscle biopsy a few months ago. My vet was pretty clueless and pointed me in the direction of Beth Valentine's high oil diet which I was reluctant to do as he is already a fatty.

At the moment my horse is on the following diet: 1 tbsp Magnesium Oxide, 2 tbsps Alcar, 1 tbsp salt, 8,000iu natural form Vitamin E capsules, 1 mugful micronised linseed. All this mixed in with Alfalfa and sugarbeet. I use mint to disguise the taste. The Alcar is recommended to be fed at 1 gram per 100lbs of bodyweight.

Every horse is different and on the EPSM group there are some horses who cannot tolerate grass. I am lucky and my horse is okay out on average grazing.

Good luck.

 

[Lgd]

there is a lot of trial and error!

The Fell Pony I compete for a friend has it. For him low starch is far more important than high oil.

For him starch level has to be 3.5% or less. We made the mistake of giving him some fast fibre (5% starch) last winter and it triggered an attack. A lot of the nutritionists will recommend 10% starch as safe

We struggled for years to get him to eat alfalfa and oil in sufficient quantities. He is now on the Winergy Equilibrium Low, he actually needs relatively small amounts of it to maintain his weight and no where near what Winergy recommend. He's currently on about 1lb a day. Winter he gets about twice that and we add in black oil sunflower seeds. He gets Selenavite E and Cortaflex added in to his feed. His grazing is restricted due to laminitis risk. Can't be bedded on straw as eating it has triggered a major relapse before.

He's competed successfuly up to medium level dressage and has been placed at regional champs. He has retired from competition this year as he has developed unrelated forelimb arthritis - he is 20yo now - and is needing bute three times a week when the ground is hard.

 

[Birker2020]

Sadly my friend has lost her horse recently to EPSM as her symptoms could not be controlled but hers was very severe and it was always on teh cards that she could lose her.

Lots of oil in the diet is meant to be beneficial for horses with this condition but it has to be a certain type, ie. not vegetable oil but corn oil. She got her corn oil via me. I got a large quantity in drum (like an oil container type container) from an asian supermarket which was about £7 and much cheaper than buying from the local supermarket.