Flaked Maize - will it send my TB crazy???

Serephin

Serephin

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A while back I posted about my TB who was diagnosed with liver damage.

well, as it turns out he is at the highend of the normal scale so not life threatening - which is a relief.

However, he resembles a hat rack at the moment and I need to get some condition on him before we get into winter. After speaking to the vet he advised that I try and get hold of flaked maize and feed him this with some sugar beet to get some weight on him. I have to avoid protein as much as possible as this stresses the liver.

From what I have read flaked maize is very high energy - so now I am worried that I will have a nutter on my hands - when I asked the vet about this he said my ned should be okay because maize is low in protein. But i am still a little concerned.

anyone have experience with flaked maize? any advice, tips would be appreciated.
 

No experience on maize but I think it should be ok. Other things you could try are barley rings and perhaps some corn oil. Has worked wonders on my mate's 19 yr old TB (ex racer).

Just for info though, protein doesn't really cause a horse to fizz, starch does. Trouble is, most feeds high in starch are also higher in protein! (hence wht the connection is made)
 
TBH the only way to tell if your horse will go crazy on it is to try it! Its hard to say because some horses go loopy on certain things when others dont. Really, if you're vet has advised it and you can't feed much else - what choice do you have?
 
Boiled barley puts weight on like nothing else and does not send my thoroughbred scatty. Tends to steam the house up though!
 
When I was a teenager (30 odd years ago) our riding school ponies / horses had flaked maize as part of their ration. It didn't seem to hot them up.
 
All of ours get flaked maize as part of their diets. Bo and Trike get oats and barley too for energy, but fizzy little pony just has maize and SB for weight gain
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As said above, trying it is the only real way to find out
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My WB mare had liver problems for about two years and in the second year, I was recommended to put her on Baileys No 1, sugarbeet and Baileys Loc Cal No 14 to help weight gain and help support her liver - none of these altered her way of going.... My vet also recommended Naff's D-Tox to help (though her liver issue was due to the toxins in the grass) and I also tried Naff's BLK (Blood, Liver & Kidney) suppliment - I can't say whether they really helped or not.... unfortunately, I lost her this year to colic!! (not related to her short feed, I hasten to add!!)
 
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