Horses with EMS - What feeds, products and supplements work well?

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Cubbini

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Hi all,

For horses with EMS, what feeds, products and supplements have you found that work well? Any brands/products and recommendations would be fantastic please!

Also have you experienced a young horse with EMS getting stiff in the hind end when spring grass comes through? (No lameness diagnosed, weight is managed carefully, however could stiffness occurring with spring grass possibility indicate early arthritis due to increased metabolic inflammation due to having EMS?)

Thanks everyone!
 
While my horse hasn't been diagnosed with EMS she has got raised insulin levels so i guess we are on that path. After the raised insulin was noticed I moved her over to a diet suitable for a laminitic for the most part which consists of Dengie Meadow Lite and unmolassed sugar beet. Shes on Mole Valley Lite Balancer but had been on Selenavite E which is a vit E and balancer supplement. She will have to have restricted grazing in the summer and probably soaked hay but that's not needed atm.

Have you tested for PMMS if the horse is showing signs of stiffness?
 
I’m no expert on it by any means but my Welsh D is borderline/mild EMS.

Surely the major thing is management. Strict on food intake and exercising to get their heart rate up, not an amble round the block!

Late cut/low DE hay, weighed, and soaked if needed. I’m topping up with Top Chop zero which is proving useful as they pick at rather than scoff it. One feed a day which I time before riding just so a potentially empty tummy is full - sloppy speedibeet plus light chaff with a vit/min powder.

Poor grazing/muzzled.
Use of tracks if possible.

If found hoof armour to be super helpful for footiness over stones.
 
Test for PSSM if showing stiffness with grass.

What you put in the bucket will make very little difference if they are getting too much grass but mag oxide helps insulin. I've also found a fat hen extract from Equibiome useful.
 
What I found works well for my pony with EMS and Cushings after getting her tested last year , she had slight bulges above her eyes but wasn’t overweight

More exercise, consistent walks out in hand , lunging , ridden twice a week(friend rides her) and free schooling
Getting her heart rate up. Sometimes it was only a 10/15 minute sessions but made it so she actually worked well.

Her levels dropped and her eye pads completely went after 8/10 weeks.

Stripped grass
soaked hay
Fast fibre
Dodson and horrell daily vits and mins
 
I read somewhere that ems horses dont make much vit c so i add that to his feed of low calorie chaff with a spoon of salt. He also gets late cut hay and straw, and celery,carrot strips and fenugreek and turmeric and oregano water buffet.and a little soaked alfalfa pellets to lick at in a bucket bottom.
 
I have an EMS pony now retired and the one thing I make sure he gets is good quality milk thistle powder as it helps liver function. When he was in work if his sheath was swollen I would take him for a brisk workout with uphill cantering to kick start his lymphatic system. Food wise he currently gets Spillers Senior mash with Dengie lite chaff, speedibeet, salt, milk thistle and a tiny amount of pea/potato protein power as suggested by my farrier for good hoof health.

In summer if my track is set up he gets a small amount of dry meadow hay twice a day, if I keep him on my larger field he is muzzled with soaked hay.
 
Astragalus, nettle, chromium, vite+selenium, and ceylon cinnamon, magnesium oxide and salt in very low calorie chaff

Soaked hay 1.5% bw

Straw

Movement
 
My EMS horse is retired ( KS) so doesn't get exercised, but is on a track which goes up a steep hill. Fed Honeychop lite and healthy, with Simple Systems Haycare to damp it down. Equivite originalTimothy hay . I strip graze the track/ muzzle if necessary. In winter the horse goes in the field with the others, and is absolutely fine. I do run regular bloods, particularly if I have made any changes to management/food. I feed Trinity Consultants L94 in spring and autumn, which does bring insulin levels down ( recently 12 points - not points miu ? in 4 weeks)
 
Mine was tested in the 100s on bloods for EMS when I bought him. He had been overweight. Is yours fat? My vet advised that I could potentially reverse the result if I put him on a very strict diet. He had to have his ribs showing. It was hard but, under vet supervision, we did it. It meant no grass at all for a long time and poor hay that was soaked well and rinsed, with a very small chop feed once a day for vitamins and minerals.

I did this exactly to vets orders and yes, his bloods are now normal, even under the Caro Sugar syrup test. He now processes sugars.

The vet said he will never be 'cured' but that as long as he is slim, he will likely be OK for now. He is now 21, so we may run into more issues, but he has had 4 healthy years now, with ribs covered and a slim but more normal weight. He is now kept normally, but muzzled when on grass and on lami friendly haylage. This is keeping him covered but slim.
 
My sisters section A was diagnosed with EMS a few years back. She's muzzled and sectioned off with my shetland (who has cushings). We feed freestep's milk thistle, and p45 from trinity consultants. Soaked hay, double netted so she can't gorge it down. What's your management currently?
 
With my Exmoor it was simply a case of grazing restriction (he lived out either muzzled/bare paddock with hay/bare paddock muzzled with hay if he had puffy fetlocks - his early warning sign). Feedwise he just got Pure Easy. They both had haylage balancer (whether on haylage or not - he was fine with it, we just mostly bought hay from the yard owner) and that was it. Simple. Kept him laminitis free for over 10 years (he only ever had it once). Oh and plenty of exercise.
 
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