Scarlett
Well-Known Member
My boy is showing all the signs of a mild lami attack which, thankfully, is improving greatly now he's in 24/7 on soaked hay.
He's a TB, 7yo and my vet believes we should test for insulin resistance which I'm arranging to do. I've had him 18 months and he's had footiness and swellings in his legs the previous spring and autumn grass flushes, we've always caught it before it's got too bad.
My problem is finding stuff he'll eat that's safe for a b/f suspected IR horse. He absolutely refuses to eat soaked feeds, Fast Fibre, Speedibeet, Copra etc etc - he sometime starts eating them for a day or two then stops - he did eat Alfabeet but his legs began to swell as I think he was getting too much alfalfa (though we had the autumn flush at the same time which will have contributed to the swelling and footiness).
He won't really eat plain chaff, he tolerates oat straw chaff mixed in something he likes but if I just mix his supps into it he wont eat it. He never licks his bucket clean with oat chaff like he does with dried grass or alfalfa chaff.
He will eat alfalfa until it comes out his ears and will tolerate Simple Sytems grass nuts if they are dry, they can't even be mixed in with damp chaff though as they go crumbly and he leaves them. He will pick out what he likes and leave a neat pile of what he doesn't want.
I'm soaking his hay but he's only picking at it. It needs to be soaked and then left to dry out as if it's too wet he wont touch it.
He's been fed through the winter on Keyflow Rice Bran and their Stay Cool Mix which are low sugar and he not only cleaned his bowl but he looked and felt fantastic and was great on his feet. I've stopped the mix obviously but I'm still feeding the rice bran as he's loosing weight.
Does anyone have any other suggestions of feed I can try dry or another suitable chaff I can give him to make sure I'm getting his vits and minerals into him? He's loosing weight and looking fairly poor at the moment too.
He's a TB, 7yo and my vet believes we should test for insulin resistance which I'm arranging to do. I've had him 18 months and he's had footiness and swellings in his legs the previous spring and autumn grass flushes, we've always caught it before it's got too bad.
My problem is finding stuff he'll eat that's safe for a b/f suspected IR horse. He absolutely refuses to eat soaked feeds, Fast Fibre, Speedibeet, Copra etc etc - he sometime starts eating them for a day or two then stops - he did eat Alfabeet but his legs began to swell as I think he was getting too much alfalfa (though we had the autumn flush at the same time which will have contributed to the swelling and footiness).
He won't really eat plain chaff, he tolerates oat straw chaff mixed in something he likes but if I just mix his supps into it he wont eat it. He never licks his bucket clean with oat chaff like he does with dried grass or alfalfa chaff.
He will eat alfalfa until it comes out his ears and will tolerate Simple Sytems grass nuts if they are dry, they can't even be mixed in with damp chaff though as they go crumbly and he leaves them. He will pick out what he likes and leave a neat pile of what he doesn't want.
I'm soaking his hay but he's only picking at it. It needs to be soaked and then left to dry out as if it's too wet he wont touch it.
He's been fed through the winter on Keyflow Rice Bran and their Stay Cool Mix which are low sugar and he not only cleaned his bowl but he looked and felt fantastic and was great on his feet. I've stopped the mix obviously but I'm still feeding the rice bran as he's loosing weight.
Does anyone have any other suggestions of feed I can try dry or another suitable chaff I can give him to make sure I'm getting his vits and minerals into him? He's loosing weight and looking fairly poor at the moment too.
