Protein lumps

[mil1212]

My horse is very lazy, and is currently fed spillers instant response and alfa-a. If I up his cereal intake in accordance to his workload, he starts to get protein lumps. I have tried lots of other feed combinations, but they do not give him enough omph! He is currently in hard work, so I wondered if I could keep his mix intake at a level that means he doesn't get the lumps and supplement his food with some extra energy such as oats?
Do protein lumps cause any other effects or long term problems? And if he is using all the protein as energy, does that mean he wouldn't get the lumps?

 

[kittykatcat]

Protein is not a preferred energy source, unless a horse is emaciated, that's when you start to get muscle wastage. Therefore your horse is not going to use the 'excess protein' as energy. Protein itself is not normally to blame for these lumps, it is normally due to the excessive amount of starch (something a horse is not really designed to eat) in these high cereal mixes. In compound feeds, as the energy level goes up, so does the protein level, so you are not going to find a high energy, low protein diet, and anyway, this would probably cause lots of problems as it is unbalanced.

It could be that your horse has a slight 'allergy' to a certain grain (barley, maize, oats etc) so it may be worth trying him on an elimination diet to get to the bottom of it.

Also, sometimes, if a horse is quite sensitive to cereals (exhibiting lumps and bumps etc) it can make a horse more lethargic, so the more you up the cereals, the more unwell he is feeling and the more lethargic he is. Again, maybe try an elimination type diet, to see if this could be the case - good luck!!