Is there an allegy here somewhere?

china

china

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My 6 year old has been off the grass all winter, but still had turnout during the day in a pen and stabled over night. Since the beginning of April he has been out on grass during the day and stabled over night althought the overnight stabling is reducing and he is staying out more if the weather is ok. He has always been sensitive to food and I found I couldn't put him on balancers as he would get extremely footy and last year pulses came up in all four legs randomly.
Since he has been out the last few weeks, all four legs fill up over night round the fetlock and down the pastern, they do go down with exercise. Towards the end of the summer last year when he started coming in overnight he was getting swollen legs but once he was off the grass completely and just on haylage it stopped happening. Could he be allergic to something that is common in grass and balancers?He is having haylage out in the field at the moment as there is no grass out there.
Ta
 
To be honest I'd say it's metabolic and not an allergy per say. Mine can't handle soya which is the main ingredient in balancers. I also had the same symptoms. The grass would be the sugars. Mine have grazed on winter tidbits and have been off the main fields for over a week. When the grass is readt they will graze at night.

Best advice call your vet to find out about metabolic issues. And even if your horse has shoes, research the barefoot diet on here. You may have to change grazing.

Terri
 
Yes def as terri says... It sounds to me like a liver or kidney problem too as whatever is triggering the reaction is causing the lymphatic system to malfunction.
 
I missed the stocking up part. Mine never stock up but they were very footy on balancers. I really hate soya for horses. More and more horses are falling victim to EMS. The old way of feeding horses is now evil according to the packaging of big feed company bags. Not only that but it's so expensive too. Unless a horse is in a high level of work soya really is a bad deal. Echo what Tally Ho said on kidney and liver. Something isn't right. And you don't want to wait for the big L word to happen.

Terri
 
Il call my vet tomorrow and run all this past him. It's most odd but something's niggling at me. Both of mine are bare and have been for sometime. No diet change, have been on the same feed of fast fibre, micro Lin and brewers. Only change is grass, I queried a metabolic issue last year but he didn't match half the symptoms, he doesn't have fatty deposits, he doesn't by any means require a lot of food to keep weight on but he does do a lot of exercise and competing so would be kept fairly trim.
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
I missed the stocking up part. Mine never stock up but they were very footy on balancers. I really hate soya for horses. More and more horses are falling victim to EMS. The old way of feeding horses is now evil according to the packaging of big feed company bags. Not only that but it's so expensive too. Unless a horse is in a high level of work soya really is a bad deal. Echo what Tally Ho said on kidney and liver. Something isn't right. And you don't want to wait for the big L word to happen.

Terri
Click to expand...

You are my friend for life - another sensible person who is seeing the corollation between feeding SOY and metabolic problems!

Try putting him out overnight when any sugars in the grass are at their lowest. Avoid all processed feeds - give him a multi mineral block available 24/7. For extra feed use sugarbeet - the type without molasses added. Go for a high fibre diet with absolutely no processed feeds.
 
Well like I mentioned the soya is most likely to blame with the balancers. Mine were so footy. And lots of horses have issues with the grass. But for the stocking up something isn't right in his system.

Best of luck though. I'm dreading grass again!

Terri
 
Tnavas said:
You are my friend for life - another sensible person who is seeing the corollation between feeding SOY and metabolic problems!

Try putting him out overnight when any sugars in the grass are at their lowest. Avoid all processed feeds - give him a multi mineral block available 24/7. For extra feed use sugarbeet - the type without molasses added. Go for a high fibre diet with absolutely no processed feeds.
Click to expand...

I've been called crazy in the head by one major UK company when trying to discuss my worries all those years ago. And then she went on to say our balancer is for TB's mainly not natives. Really? That's funny, that's what I'm feeding. But thanks for assuming otherwise.

I despair when I see lables on feed trying to blame things horses have been fed hundreds of years as bad for them. Thing is most horses do not need a balancer, even the low cal ones. A vit and min supp would suffice. All feed companies have oat free, barley free, but no soya free. They can't really work with linseed as it's too expensive and not enough being grown. Where as soya is in abundant supply and cheap. So yeah, I do sugar beet, oats, barley if needed, even rice bran, flax and the mineral things. I do not have crazy horses on the verge of killing me either nor do they have way too much fizz or energy.

I really wish some actual studies would be done with soya and EMS but I can't see it happening. Go and look at all the different feed brands and tell me which ones you find without any soya. Meal, oil, extruded, hulls, ect. You will come up empty. And yet the rise of EMS continues.

Terri
 
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