The Rhyming Foal

I thought I would try to be like Dr. Baxter Black,                 

and try to give this poem writing stuff a whack.

Too many topics and so little space,                                  

but I don't want to write about foal growth in haste.

So it has been about 3 months and the foal is doing great on mom,                                        

but you know the foal will need more shortly or it will bomb.

But what to feed it or when should you start?                  

You know that these answers are the hard part.

First look at your animal, and see what it is we need to improve.      

Is it the right weight, height and condition, or down its back, is there a groove?

If the foal looks good, and it appears hard to beat,          

then don't goof up by giving it a creep.

When it’s time to help nature and take away the mare,        

give the little foal an extra little thought and care.

Try to already have the foal eating the feed he will be on         

to try to minimize all the stress when mom is gone.

So on his own but what to do,

we want the foal to keep growing strong and true

Depending upon the forage, maybe a good grass hay,     

usually a good 16% feed is the perfect complement of the day.

But as a year flies by and time picks up speed,                    

and your horse’s growth is starting to wane

Now is the time to adjust the feed to a 14%                          

so nutritional problems like DOD he will not gain.

It’s a lifetime of enjoyment for you and your horse,           

doing anything from eventing to just riding around the pen

But your foals nutritional need will also need to be adjusted   

so the protein can be reduced to a 12% or a 10

Please remember the feeding rules of thumb                      

are usually just general guides

You need to constantly adjust your total ration                  

according to type of forage and animal size.

Almost any type of forage will be okay for you foal                   

but try to aim for grass with some alfalfa as a goal.          

And total food intake is usually about 2% of body weight      

 with 1% grain so it will still go through the gate.

You and your horse are a winning combination                

That has been around since the time before Rome

But hopefully you have enjoyed this first attempt                   

of an article about “feeding a foal” poem.

by Dr. Ed Bonnette, Ph. D., Hubbard Feeds Inc., Equine Nutritionist

Feeding The Laminitic Horse

Laminitis is a condition when the blood circulation to the  hoof and laminae decreases. This causes inflammation and swelling which causes pain and pressure in the foot. If separation of the hoof wall tissues and bone occurs then it is called founder. There are different ways that cause laminitis; toxins, interference, and environment.

Toxins will cause loss of blood supply to the foot. The bacteria that live in the hind gut of the horse can produce these toxins if there is interference with their normal activity. This will cause the “wrong” bacteria to multiply.

Interference (shortage of nutrients or oxygen to laminae) is caused by insulin resistance or shock, and/or stress.

The environment will cause laminitis by having toxins enter the foot. Examples is if the horse stands on hardwood shavings such as black walnut.

So what do we feed the laminitic horse? The idea is to feed them as a diabetic. How we do this is by providing feed with low glycemic I  index. These type of feed is grass hay and lower starch feed. We should try to avoid corn, barley and molasses. Fats should be fed in forms of rice bran if extra calories are needed. The Cool Command feed is a low starch feed and has no corn in the formula. When feeding your horse it is ideal to feed them multiple small meals in the day. It is also very key not to have your horse overweight.

Reference Lower Starch aricle for more information.

Yeast in a Horses Diet

Yeast in animal feed has been around for years. It is typically added to beef and dairy nutrition and rarely to equine. Lately there is talk about feeding yeast to horses.

So, what is yeast culture?

Yeast culture, by definition, is “the dried product compost of yeast and the media it was grown in, dried in such a manner as to preserve the fermenting activity of the yeast. “

The benefit of feeding yeast culture comes from the metabolites produced in fermentation in the hind gut. It is thought to stimulate the bacteria therefore increasing activity which then will result in an increase in digestion. Research has found that bacteria which digest fiber in the hind gut of the horse increased in numbers when the yeast culture was supplemented.

This means the horse can use more nutrients because they can break down dry matter and fiber resulting in volatile fatty acids which is an energy source for the horse.

The use of yeast cultures in the performance horse is not fully researched. Some studies showed that horses that horses supplemented with yeast culture had a reduction in blood lactate. This can be beneficial   because the horse will not get lethargic as quickly and be able to perform longer.

Feeding yeast to broodmares have shown improved fiber, protein and phosphorus digestibility and a short term increase in milk production. This increase lasted for the first two weeks of lactation. An analysis of milk from yeast fed broodmares showed improvements in the nutrient contentment for the first 8 weeks of lactation.  The protein level and gross energy content were also increased.  This increase in quality of milk improved the growth of the foals during the first 8 weeks of life.

As a recap, feeding yeast to horses has many benefits. It improves the digestibility of fiber in diets that have high forage diets, also improved protein digestion. It is important to meet your horses needs from his diet, yeast will help insure the digestion of the nutrients.

The complete line of Front Runner feed all contain yeast to insure maximum usage of nutrients in your horses diet.

What Initials on Feed Bags Mean

DE: Digestible energy (calories), used to fuel chemical reactions within the body and muscle contraction.

CP: Crude Protein, the major component of muscle, enzymes and hormones.

Ca: Calcium, a mineral making up 35 % of bone structure, involved in muscle contractions and blood clotting.

P: Phosphorus, a mineral making up about 17% of the skeleton, also involved in energy transfer reactions.

Cu: Copper, a mineral involved in synthesis and maintenance of elastics connective tissue

Zn: Zinc, a mineral involved in chemical reactions that are necessary to form bone, skin and connective tissue.

Se: Selenium: a mineral involved as an antioxidant in the body

Mn: Manganese, a mineral involved in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and for the synthesis of chondrotin sulfate necessary for cartilage formation.

I: Iodine, a mineral necessary to form thyroid hormones that regulated basal metabolism

Lys: Lysine, an amino acid, the first limiting amino acid in diets for growing foals

VitA: a vitamin important for vision and born formation

VitE: a vitamin that functions with selenium as an antioxidant

Starch: chain of glucose from plants, when digested glucose is released

NSC: non structural carbohydrate is old term used to describe carbs

New Outlook on Laminitis

Everyone knows the story about laminitis. I have heard people discuss laminitis as my horse foundered resulting in laminitis, or my horse is too fat therefore got laminitis...etc... well now there is a new outlook on laminitis. Current research shows that nitric oxide is a direct messenger for many functions, including control of the vasodilation (opening of the arteries). Nitric oxide is the common name, nitrogen monoxide is the systematic name and it is a chemical compound. Nitric oxide (NO) is important as a messenger molecule that is involved in many physiological and pathological processes. Research has found that loss of NO shuts down the circulation to the laminae. Therefore, anything that will increase NO to the lower leg will help blood circulation. Feeding nitric acid precursors can help supply the nitric oxide.

How we can do this is by feeding appropriate amino acids. Such acids are arginine, tyrosine, threonine, lysine and methionine. These are the amino acids that are involved in the pathway to NO.

Another option is to apply nitroglycerin wraps to the coronary band. Nitroglycerin wraps can be obtained from a veterinarian or (in emergency) at the pharmacy. The nitroglycerin is a precursor for NO and can be absorbed through the skin.

Using laser therapy is another way. the laser that applies wavelengths of light to the foot could increase circulation therefore reducing pain and enhances NO production by the cells.

Lastly, applying pulsating magnetic fields to the foot capsule. Pulsating magnetic fields (PMF) increase circulation and improves blood flow to the foot. NO produced elsewhere in the body is thus circulated to the tissues.

If treatment is initiated soon enough it could possibly reduce the pain and discomfort, halt the death of the laminae therefore resulting in the stop of ration of the coffin bone.

This idea I think is great research but knowing horses, it is all a balancing act. So if I increase NO in my horse's diet, is there a negative effect? This plan of increasing NO in a horse to stop rotation sounds too simple. So after some more research appropriate levels are important of function of the horses body but sustained levels of NO can result in direct tissue toxicity.So, like everything else to the horse, NO needs to be balanced. I believe this is a great start to something new for laminitis but it is probably a good idea to do some research before increasing NO in your horse's diet. The ideal way to use this new research is to have a way to test the NO levels. Find a healthy average. When the horse goes below the average then increase NO then to stop the risk of laminitis and have no risk of toxicity. Or just keep our horses healthy and make sure their diet is balanced to decrease the risk of laminitis and other metabolic health concerns.

Test Your Supplement Knowledge

Here are some supplement questions. Take the quiz to see where you stand  with supplements :-)

1. Which ingredients are considered to be analgesics (pain relieving) in joint supplements?

A. Devil's Claw

B. Glucosamine

C. Yucca

D. Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM)

Answer: A & C. This is good information to to know when you are supplementing a joint supplement. When pain killing herbs are in supplements it can be difficult to evaluate the product's effectiveness. You need to know if it is alleviating the pain or just masking it.

2. Biotin, which is supplement for hoof health, is:

A. a nutraceutical

B. b vitamin

C. a mineral

D. all of the above

Answer: B, biotin is a member of the b vitamin group. They are manufactured by the fiber-digesting bacteria in the equine cecum. There is no overfeeding or toxicity to biotin since it is a b vitamin which are water soluble, therefore they are not stored in the horse's tissues. The body uses what it needs and excretes excess.

3. Which remedies will most likely benefit a moody mare?

A. Devil's claw, yucca

B. Red raspberry leaves, chamomile

C. Hot bath and chocolate

D. Medowsweet, marshmallow

Answer: B, Red raspberry leaves and chamomile. This is a good source of folic acid that has a reputation of helping regulate the estrus cycle. They are believed to tone up the uterine muscle, assist mares in conception, encourage easy labor and help alleviate mood swings in open mares.

4. Which of the following herbs should not be fed to a pregnant mare?

A. Cinnamon, juniper berries

B. Devil's claw, mugwort

C. Vervain, rue, thyme

D. Parsley, sage, rosemary

Answer: All of the above! Herbs are believed to have uterine stimulating properties which could compromise a pregnancy. Some herbs are considered helpful in maintaining pregnancy (red clover and raspberry leaves when fed in the end of the final trimester) but you should use them under advice of a veterinarian.

Reference:

Briggs, Karen. Horse Illustrated, 2007. "Supplements"

Performance Horse and Their Energy

In the horses diet they convert chemical energy into mechanical energy. You can think of your horse like a car. The car engine converts the chemical energy of gasoline to mechanical energy that moves the wheels. The horse's muscles convert the chemical energy stored in the body (fat) or energy from feed and converts it to mechanical energy (walk, trot, canter, jump, bite, kick, etc). Also like a car the further and faster it goes the more energy is needed. A horse "fills their tank" with energy from what they consume. Thus, the more the horse works the more energy they need to consume. While many inactive horses can consume enough feed to meet their daily energy requirements from hay or pasture alone, hardworking horses are unable to eat enough roughage in a day to meet their needs. This is when a concentrate (grain) is added to help aid energy that is needed for performance. Now, going back to the car analogy, lets say you drive a basic car. When you go to the gas station you buy the regular fuel and your car runs great. Now, you decide to upgrade to an awesome sports car. Well when you go to the gas station  and you put regular gasoline in it. Well that sports car is not going to run properly, your sports car needs premium. The same works for the horse, the more performance required the more high quality the feed needs are.

The two most important dietary energy components are carbohydrates and fat. Carbohydrates can be used for immediate energy and also used in the synthesis of fat which can be used as stored energy. The easiest way to determine whether the horse's energy needs are being met is to monitor the horse's weight. If the horse is losing weight then they are not consuming enough energy to meet their requirements.

Next, if a horse receives a diet deficient in one or more nutrient requirements it may be supplemented. Once the requirement is met for a nutrient there is little evidence that further supplementation will enhance performance. In fact, excess intake of certain nutrients could be detrimental to performance as deficient intake. Therefore, it is important that the horses diet is adequate in energy and balanced in nutrients.