Feeding garlic

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HBII

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Just having a wonder, do you consider the constant use of a garlic supplement in a feed a good or bad thing for a horse?

Thanks
 
Hmm, never thought about it. why?
Feed ours it all now, as Flynn won't eat his food without it in!!! strange animal
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tinker has been on garlic since the beginning of last summer and it def does him good!! havent ever heard that it can do them any harm but it'l be interesting to see what people come up with about it!
 
I remember researching this at some point,and i believe there is no scientific proof that it does or doesnt do our horses any good!!I do feed my lad pure dried garlic flakes from the chinese shop and not a single bot egg last yr!So must have some benefit!!
Please correct me if i am wrong but i think if you feed to much it can cause aneamia,so if feeding pure garlic(as in the stuff we eat),less is probably better than more!!Girl i used to know used to feed a clove aday!!Right or wrong
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Have no clue,lol!!I just give my boy a sprinkle once a day!!
 
I buy a bulb of garlic, peel it & drop it into a 2 litre bottle of Vegetable Oil from the supermarket.

Happyhack, do you just peel your garlic bulbs and chop it up in their feed?
Also, how much each feed do you put in?
 
I've always fed garlic to one of my horses for the last 9 years, none of his legs have dropped off and he still neigh's!

No seriously, he's in cracking working order so I doubt it will harm them if you feed the recommended dose every day.
 
I feed it to both of mine but there was a study released last year which showed that continual overdosing of garlic causes anaemia in horses so I always make sure not to feed too much
 
interested to read about the sweetitch comment........does anyone else agree with this? my mare is very sensitive to everything and rubs mane once flies are out. I have always managed it with a fly rug and give garlic every day. what do you think?
 
it was because of the flies that my boy went on garlic, he got swellings everywhere from the bites and rubbed all his mane and tail, i tried sweet-itch lotion but garlic works better for him!
 
i feed our 2 baileys garlic from may until the first autmn frost to help keep the midges away. i don't feed it all year round as i dont think they need it, but then i try not to make their diets too complicated.
 
it has no proven benefit and I wouldnt feed it as a fly repellant-certainly not on a sweetitchy horse for the reasons Nic01 stated. fed in high quantities it can lead to a type of anaemia-this is rare but may be present in more horses at a subclinical level that could just mean they are susceptible to infections.
for repelling flies try marmite or brewer's yeast-midges cant metabolise/dont like the B vitamins and stay off
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I have fed it for over 10 years all year round + have never had my horses cough or splutter whilst horses stabled along side them + not fed garlic have done. Thats good enough for me - haven't really noticed any fly repelling qualities though!
 
Thats the first time ive ever heard it being bad for sweet-itch, its also the first time ive ever heard sweet-itch as being an over reaction of the immune system.

In my gods hones opinion garlic is a god send, although there is no scientific proof whether it does what its supposed to, theres also nothing to say it doesnt, so why not feed it just incase it does. All my horses are fed garlic every day, all year round. It supposedly helps to repel flies, boost the immune system, cleanses the blood, and can help to repel worms. Therefore making it useful for laminitics and sweet-itch horses, but also for every other horse, after all, who would turn up their nose at a bit of help at repelling worms?
 
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