Ask The Equine Nutritionist

QUESTION:
Ohhh where to start ...
I have had my colt home for 18 days , he had a 2 1/2 day (straight) haul to get here, he is 6 months old..has been seen by the vet..

He has an Epiphysitis in all four pasterns/fetlocks ..he was fed a diet of Alfalfa and Oats where he was before I got him. ...I have been doing some research on this and asked vets and my farrier their opinion on what to feed my little guy.. EVERY ANSWER IS DIFFERENT..

My vet told me to feed him local 1st cut hay,( get him off the dairy hay) handful of oats and 1 scoop vitamins (Equine Super Diet) so this is what he gets now ....I just had a discussion with my farrier about this and she said (if I want to feed how she does) to feed him the dairy hay and about 4 lbs of complete pellets with 1/2 scoop of his vitamins....she said that the way I am feeding him now (vet recomended) will not give him enough of what he needs ... New studies have shown that it is not the protein that causes this but an imbalance ..

All I am asking for is an easy diet that will give my colt what he needs to grow healthy and help his Epiphysitis  because right about now I am ready to tear my hair out ...



ANSWER:
Oh dear well you aren’t going to like this as this is yet another diet.

Epiphysitis is currently thought to be caused by too high a carbohydrate intake in the diet. So the current thinking is to go low glycemic (low carb) and plenty of minerals and good quality protein.

Thus I would change your guy to:

Grass hay
And either a low glycemic feed such as the one Triple Crown makes or another.
One very good well balanced vitamin/mineral supplement preferably one that also contains sodium zeolite.

If you can’t get a commercial low glycemic feed then you can make one from sugar beet pulp, rice bran, whole flax seed, and a good quality vitamin mineral supplement.

Avoid the alfalfa hay as it is way too high in sugar and starch.

Make sure your vitamin/mineral supplement contains, zinc, copper, manganese, as well magnesium and calcium.

Yours
MW



Dr. Melyni Worth Ph.D. - 2004 (c)

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