feeding Alfalfa pellets in treatball to laminitic shetland ?

[limestonelil]

Putting here as more traffic and hopefully get some replies. Shetland is in, he gets footy on frosted grass. I thought a treatball would help occupy him and rang up farm suppliers saying I wanted bag of low/no sugar, certainly not molassed product suitable for laminitic prone shetland etc. A low energy cube, etc Anyway order came and I wasn't there, and I have now found that they sent a bag of Alfalfa pellets which are marketed as suitable for cows, goats, alpacas ,rabbits and ponies, and laminitics are mentioned as fine. Now I always thought that lots of horses react to alfalfa in unwanted ways, including it setting off laminitis. The added problem is that you don't know if your horse will react to alfalfa until you've tried it. I'm not going to take the risk but would like other peoples opinions on this and recommendations of what might be suitable product.
(Search in old threads didn't really have an answer)TIA

 

[The Xmas Furry]

There is absolutely no way my remaining mini (has had laminitis once in 4 years with me) is permitted alfalfa in any form. In fact I won't have products on the yard that have alfalfa in these days to save any mistakes being made.
On the rare occasions she is allowed a treatball then a few ulcerkind nuts get dropped in it. That's because I have them in anyway.

 

[paddy555]

I have no problem feeding alfalfa pellets and have several on them. Mine are dengie alfalfa pellets but there is no way I would feed them unsoaked.

 

[Merlod]

Nope, my lami prone shetland doesn't tolerate alfalfa. He also has to come in when it's frosty or snowy, he gets a bucket (rubber) skip of honechop lite and healthy am and pm, I just feed it dry as a partial hay replacer as it's very safe.

 

[NinjaPony]

To throw a spanner in the works, my laminitic Welsh A gets a handful of alfalfa pellets in a treatball once a day and they have caused no issues whatsoever. He’s had them for months now with no flare ups. I wouldn’t feed them in a bucket without soaking (and I wouldn’t bucket feed him them anyway as he doesn’t need that much protein) but in a treatball he has to work hard to get them out so a little goes a long way, and there’s very little colic risk IME. I looked at all the major ‘low sugar’ brands and they were all far too high in starch and sugar. My pony has Cushings and I was advised to provide a good quality protein source, so these seem to do the trick. Plus, I’ve had the same bag since April so they are very cost effective.

 

[Annagain]

We have one who can't tolerate any sugar as it gives him a terrible rash. We basically feed him as if he is laminitic even though he isn't and he's fine on alfalfa even though some laminitis friendly feeds are enough to set him off.

 

[limestonelil]

Thanks for the replies, including the interesting spanners!! I've donated the bag to the farm though, just daren't risk it on his behalf.

 

[HorsesRule2009]

I used to have an incredibly laminitic old pony, but she was slightly older and struggled to maintain wait and I always feed her Alfa products with no issue.
Including Alfa A oil and Fibrebeet

 

[holeymoley]

My IR laminitic has alfalfa, he has no adverse effects from it. I feed Simple Systems feeds which are predominantly made up from alfalfa. There may be a timothy grass pellet which would suit, i’ll have a look.

 

[Baroque]

My highly lami-prone/sugar sensitive pony does very well having Hilton Herballs in her treat ball.

 

[whiteflower]

We have a lami only who needs weight gain, we feed alfalfa with no issue at all. However with alfalfa pellets as said above, I would be careful feeding them dry, I have had one get choke from feeding them dry but that was from a bucket not trickle fed from a ball