Horse sensitive to one brand of alfalfa but okay with another?

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HelenBack

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This is a bit weird but here we go. I've had my horse on Dengie alfalfa for the best part of three years and over that time have feed him the original, molasses free, lite and oil all with no problems. Just before Christmas I swapped him to Topspec top chop lite (contains alfalfa and straw) and shortly after he became very itchy. I'd made a couple of other changes to his diet at the same time and in a panic I switched back to what he'd been on before. The itching went away but I never knew what the cause was.

I've just decided to try him on the Topspec alfalfa as it looks to be a bit lower calorie than the Dengie molasses free. I introduced it over the weekend and yesterday and this morning he was rather itchy again. This time I've made no other changes to his diet.

Every sensible bone in my body says he couldn't be fine with one brand but not with another but it does seem coincidental. It'll be easy enough to test over the coming days if the itching continues but was just wondering if anybody else had ever experienced anything like this?
 
I do not use chaffs because of the additives and preservatives, I use speedi beet instead. They like it better anyway and are much more level headed so there must be something in there that doesn't mix with their diet or upsets their gut balance.
 
Our youngster who had been on Mollichaff was put on a shop's own brand of chaff and came out in hives - huge lumps. Took him straight off it.
 
Gosh, I never thought about mould inhibitors or preservatives and just thought if he'd been fine on one brand he'd be fine on another! Well I'll see how the itching goes over the next day or so and will swap back to Dengie if needs be. Beginning to wish I'd never changed in the first place now!
 
Haven't fed either for a long time but both have quite a long list of ingredients beyond alfalfa and both had mould inhibitors and other preservatives listed on the white label on the bag, as least did then. There are lots of things that your horse could be allergic to so I would check the white label on the bag.

When I do feed alfalfa I tend to feed the alfalfa pellets as they have nothing added but are just pure alfalfa.
 
Very interesting! So sorry to hear about your horse but I have had some very severe reactions to Top Chop lite recently.
I use this for all my horses and have done for over 10 years. The chop recently became very sharp and storky.
My pony then had colic for 5 days everything has been ruled out as a cause but since I stopped the top chop the pony has not had colic.
Top Spec has not been helpful and just offered free bags of Top Chop, which caused the colic. Be careful. I am now trying Simple systems as I want no additives just pure feeds.
 
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