Soya oil?

Guinevere

Guinevere

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I was advised by my previous instructor to put my new mare (first horse) on soya oil due to her sweet itch to help her skin and coat. She was underweight when she arrived and has no muscle, she is due to be lunged daily for a month to bring her back to fitness but she is very stubborn to lunge and I was told that the soya oil could be adding to that. Is this true? I am disabled and I was told she was suitable for a novice but hasn't been schooled for 6 months so is turning out not to be. I am happy to persevere with her and will not be selling her even though she isn't what I expected of course, and vet recommended putting her on a calmer which I intend to do but should I stop the soya oil? I am moving her to a new yard who will lunge her every day for me because I am finding it very difficult to do myself as she vertically rears and flies about to begin with, so they would be able to cope more with her current attitude, if the oil does cause her to be a bit fizzy it won't be a problem for them, is it still right for her? She has been having it while not working which I was told could be the issue as it's more for horses doing a lot of exercise. Thanks!
 
How much of it are you feeding? What else are you feeding her with it?

Some horses are very reactive to soya oil - I have one who doesn't seem to tolerate it very well - which is a massive issue IMO as soya is in so many of the feed products out there.

I try and feed as little of it as possible and instead I feed micronised linseed to add weight.
 
She has half a cup full morning and night which I built up by recommendation of the yard owner but I am concerned and thought I'd do some research after it was mentioned it might be a bad idea. She is fed a scoop of alfa oil morning and night, half a pasture mix in the morning, half a scoop of spillers conditioning cubes morning and night, a scoop of dodson and horrell quickbeet morning and night, a handful of garlic, and the soya oil. Thanks in advance xxx
 
I think she is having too much high energy food period. She will put on weight with lots of hay and a bit if tlc. Plus the spring grass will be coming through soon.
Id just give her lots and lots of hay. If you want to give her feed, id stick to just chaff. Maybe hifi mollasses free with a powdered vits and mins supp.
 
Thanks very much Firewell. I will follow your advice and take out the extras and feed her the chaff on its own to give her calmer and see how we go. She has lots of hay which she seems happy with. Should I still feed the garlic? Any vitamin supplement? Xxx
 
I doesn't hurt to stop it suddenly. Its when you introduce feed that you have to do it slowly.
I think its a good idea to cut everything out as you will get an idea of what she is like at base level if you know what I mean!
If with no real hard feed she feels a bit flat or is a bit too calm and dropping weight you can add things one at a time and get her to how you like her.
I have a feeling though she won't need any more than hay/chaff. She's not doing enough work. She will put on weight slowly and safely with lots of good quality hay and she should be a lot calmer for you.
I wouldn't bother with any extra supplements at this stage apart from an all round vitamin one. Garlic can have adverse reaction on the immune system so sweetitch should be better without it. The most natural diet will help her the thet.
You'll be better off saving the money you were going to spend on feed supplements and putting it towards a special sweetitch rug for her to wear when the bugs come out :).
 
Thanks, makes total sense. I am measuring her for a Boett rug as soon as she moves. Could you recommend any vitamin supplements? I'm afraid I'm new to this if you could give me a name to look into xxx
 
I think micronised linseed will be the best bet. My horse is an itchy girl and I put her on the linseed when I first got her, her coat and skin improved massively in like two weeks. It's good for their feet too and can be used in larger quantities to maintain condition but I use a little bit as she is a good doer.

I think something like unmolassed beet or some sort of chaff with no or low molasses (or both if you want to bulk it out) with the micronised linseed and any supplement you want to put in will be a good start. Mag ox is cheap and worth a try :-) go on eBay and find progressive earth, they supply good, reasonably priced supplements.
 
Guinevere said:
She has half a cup full morning and night which I built up by recommendation of the yard owner but I am concerned and thought I'd do some research after it was mentioned it might be a bad idea. She is fed a scoop of alfa oil morning and night, half a pasture mix in the morning, half a scoop of spillers conditioning cubes morning and night, a scoop of dodson and horrell quickbeet morning and night, a handful of garlic, and the soya oil. Thanks in advance xxx
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Garlic can make some horses itch, I'd remove that immediately, as can molassess which the pasture mix will be full of.

Try this linseed - http://www.charnwoodmilling.co.uk/mail-order/Horse_Food.html#a55
This bag will last you months, its great value.

For a vit supplement try this - http://www.equineanswers.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=1
Its a balancer in powder form and very good value, it also has extra magnesium in it so no need to feed calmers etc.

Alfalfa can also make horses itchy so I'd ditch that too. If you want to feed a chaff try a dried grass chaff like Just Grass or Readigrass.

Personally I'd just feed a vit supp, linseed (1 big mugful in each feed) and Quickbeet/Speedibeet with a handful or 2 of chaff if you want to bulk it up. Keep it simple...!
 
Just to add about the lunging - some horses never react well to lunging, even if they are perfectly lovely to ride (I'm thinking of some RDA horses I know of). Is there an alternative way of exercising her? Perhaps the staff could walk her out to begin with or something?

And I would definitely agree that a small mesh rug especially for sweet itch (rather than an ordinary fly rug) is a really good investment. Avoiding fields with water and damp areas and looking for fields that get a good breeze can also help, if it's at all possible.

Good luck and have fun :)
 
I have a pony with sweetitch and can offer sympathy in advance!

Garlic is a big no-no for sweetitch sufferers, can make it worse.
Brewers Yeast - helps calm the digestion and promotes calmness, it also acts as a fly repellent.
Micronised Linseed - Good for coat and hoof condition, does a better job than feeding oil.

You can buy big sacks (delivered) from Charnwood Milling. They are the best price and will send you samples if you want to make sure your mare likes it. I found that for some reason my mare prefers the Natural Horse Feeds Brewers Yeast better.

I would cut out everything else feedwise and just feed a sugar free chop (Mollichop Calmer is very low in sugar with Camomille and Magnesium) and/or speedibeet which has the sugar/mollases taken out, so you have something to mix your supplements in.

If you want to feed a good all-round supplement Global Herbs' "Globalvite" powder is good.

Boett rugs are very expensive and my one and only purchase lasted three weeks as my mare ripped it the first time she had a scratch! Look at the Rambo Sweetitch hoodie. It is half the price and considerably more substantial! Mine is in its 4th year.

Happy scratching!
 
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