LAMINITIS APPROVED DIETS. WHAT TO FEED AND WHAT NOT TO FEED!

We work with hundreds of horse owners every year, helping them address laminitis in their equine friends. Which we find is mostly caused by pasture induced carbohydrate overload, especially during some of the more prolific grass growing times we have seen over recent years, so too much grass and/or unsuitable feeds tend to be the main triggers of this terrible condition.

Yet one of the things that drives us to absolute depression is hearing owners telling us that they are feeding a variety of so-called "Safe/Laminitis Approved" pelleted feeds BECAUSE-and I will stress this-THERE IS NO SUCH THING!

Yes, that's correct folks-you heard me right.

I can only imagine what so many of you are thinking right now after reading this bold statement, and I'm sure these big whig food giants will want to have my head on a spike for telling you this....

Plus, we have nothing to gain by sharing this info with the public, as we certainly don't sell horse feeds, nor do we profit or benefit from them in any way....as we are a horse rescue charity and we actually subsidise the Natural Horse supplements that we sell so more horses do not become rescue horses, as to help owners with these conditions.

But the bottom line for us is that we genuinely and honestly care deeply about you and your horse, as we meet so many of you along the way, who are needlessly suffering due to these untruths, and we are only sharing this with you to try to help you get a better food source for your laminitic equine friend. So that he or she can make a speedy and full recovery of this abhorrent condition, without you being taken for a financial ride or prolonging your horse's suffering.

Disappointingly so, all we have found is that so many of these bagged products are rarely suitable for laminitic horses at all...despite all the claims on the bags or in the glossy leaflets to the contrary.....and it, unfortunately, seems to be more to do with slick marketing and big profits, rather than the manufacturers of these items actually caring about your horse's health, comfort or more importantly recovery

And we all know only too well how easy it is to buy into the advertising hype, especially when you know a horse is suffering and you are wanting answers to help with that asap. So, we totally sympathise with why owners get sucked into this......as we used to get sucked in too so you are not alone.

But when you start to really get into researching these products and their ingredients you cannot help but be blown away by the deception involved.

Because these are the "buzz words" the manufacturers want us to see OMEGA 3'S, 6'S AND 9'S LOW GI SAFE SOUND CUSHINGS APPROVED METABOLIC LOW ENERGY HIGH FIBRE COOL LOW STARCH AND SUGAR GUT HEALTH PROBIOTIC HIGH PROTEIN METABOLIC APPROVED GRAIN-FREE LAMINITIC APPROVED ZERO, BALANCED, AND GOOD FOR FEET ETC... and on and on it goes.

And here are the things they want you to gloss over......

Because ALL of these products include ingredients that cause the very thing we are trying to reduce in Laminitis cases, which is INFLAMMATION!

As it's inflammation of the laminae, which are the hundreds of tiny blood vessels and tissues that support the leg structure and inner workings of the hoof that are failing due to this inflammation.

This has been primarily caused by your horse eating unsuitable foods, so surely don’t we need to be feeding anti-inflammatory foods in order to assist with the reduction of this said inflammation within the whole horse's body???.

Yet with many primary INGREDIENTS listed in these products being very high in inflammatory properties, which we will give you a couple of examples of here including:

"VEGETABLE, SOYA, SUNFLOWER, CANOLA AND BRAN OILS" which are highly inflammatory oils that are unsuitable for LamInitic horses due to being too high in omega 6's and 9's, which are components of these unsuitable but cheap oils that actively cause inflammation, and increase free radicals, yet they are very low in beneficial omega 3's, which are the good oils that help to reduce inflammation.

So, our advice is to avoid products with these ingredients in them at all costs for laminitic horses.

Also, please be aware that horses do not have a gall bladder so they can not process high amounts of oils or fats, so apart from using beneficial flaxseed oil in moderate amounts, we recommend avoiding all other types of oil completely.

Other primary ingredients in so many of these bagged feeds are often labelled as "MEALS", including those hyped for laminitis, which is a very vague term, that many owners won't be aware of....but this mostly includes items with names like Vegetable Protein/ Soya Meal, or Oaten Meal, or Lucerne Meal, etc... or with made-up copyrighted names coined by the manufacturers like Mills Mix, Pre Mix, Safe Meal etc....which all sound fairly innocent but are actually highly processed cheap fillers that often contain many unsuitable ingredients such as pollard, beet pulp, genetically modified soya, all of which can cause even more inflammation.

Plus a large proportion of these “meals” have often been nutritionally altered, such as heated and due to that offer very little nutritional value and you guessed right-will actually increase inflammation. Again avoid at all costs!

And there are so many more unsuitable ingredients to add to this list, so we advise foe you to get stuck into the packets yourselves and research, research and research some more to see so many of these nasties to know which to avoid.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU BE FEEDING A LAMINITIC HORSE FOR THE FASTEST RECOVERY....

We have used the approach noted below to very positive results, helping thousands of laminitic horses all over the world to return back to full health.

We have added the recovery plan below but for a full breakdown of it please see this link: https://www.naturalhorsenz.co.nz/laminitis-recovery-info

We advise for the recovery phase to try to see "green" as the enemy for your laminitic horse. See below for advice on how to make a Dry Lot.

STAPLE DIET Give your horse, pony or donkey a diet that includes meadow Hay and you can also add some Barley Straw fed on a 50-50 ratio to reduce calories even more but without compromising on fibre -see this link for more info:

https://www.naturalhorse.co.nz/weight-loss-forage

Please be aware that all equines should not go more than an hour without forage (fibrous plant matter - grass/hay/chaff etc.) as otherwise, it can cause them to overproduce stomach acid, which leads to ulcers and many other medical issues. Therefore, feeding a diet that is high in Hay is a wonderful way to keep the forage on hand without any of the problems caused by high calories, as happens when feeding only green grass. This Hay + Straw approach is also a fabulous way to replicate a more natural feeding approach. As Hay contains much high levels of fibre and much lower amounts of both sugar and starches than with green grass, so it encourages domestic horses to eat more naturally and therefore provides them with many health benefits they would not otherwise get from a green grass-only diet and works well to feed the recovering horse, pony or donkey.

ANTI INFLAMMATORY WHOLE AND REAL FOODS: Then give the following Bucket Feed 1-2 times per day in addition to the ad-lib hay/straw blend, in order to achieve balanced glucose levels and keep insulin levels in check as well reducing the inflammation to an absolute minimum to aid recovery.

BUCKET FEED for a full size horse

1 scoop of meadow chaff

1 cupful (200-250g maximum per day) of natural whole foods such as flaxseed (flax is also called linseed but they are the same plant). It can be given in flakes, pellets or ground form.

30-50ml of cold-pressed flaxseed/linseed oil

30g Natural Horse EquiProtect Detox /other if not available in your country

30g Natural Horse Premium Mineral/Vitamin Formula/other if not available in your country

A capful of cider vinegar-around 10ml if it contains the mother which is a naturally occurring culture

1 teaspoon of raw and unprocessed salt

Pre and Pro-Biotics to repopulate the digestive biome which is compromised with laminitis-we recommend our Equi-Digest product for best results

Add a cup of water and mix well

We use Bute for the first few days of any laminitis occurrence then we swap it for 3-5ml of liquid devils claw to help with inflammation as a great alternative to using bute, which can be very hard on the stomach.

HORSE SIZES: The amounts shown are for a full size 15-16h horse-please adjust to suit your size of horse or email us if you are not sure at info@naturalhorse.co.nz

EXTRAS: You can give a small handful of Brazil nuts daily which are packed with protein and also provide a good source of selenium or almonds or unprocessed peanut are good for treats too.

PLEASE DO NOT WALK A LAMINITIS HORSE WHILST THEY ARE LAME OR LIMPING- as this will damage the hoof further and cause more pain- just let them rest and heal.

REDUCE STRESS: We highly recommend that if at all possible to provide your horse with another equine companion to be with during their respite to reduce stress during their recovery time off grass, and to allow them to stand on a soft surface of either shavings, sand, pea gravel, soft rubber or foam matting, or even soft soil can be used if you don’t have anywhere else. Leg rinses in cool water can also soothe the legs, ( do not use ice directly on the skin or legs) and the use of padded and cushioned hoof boots can also offer a good option to help with this too.

HOOFCARE: a weekly/fortnightly light trim done by an empathic and skilled Barefoot trimmer has helped many of our horses maximise their comfort and reduce pressure on the hoof as part of their recovery. Along with the use of padded hoof boots-we like the scoots for 24/7 use due to their openness as they allow good airflow and this avoids conditions such as thrush that is accelerated by using fully closed hoof boots due to sweating and no airflow.

And that is it. It is basic and easy to do....

MAKING A DRY LOT: Another tip to make a Dry Lot is to add household salt or agri salt to a bucket of warm water and stir until it dissolves, then spray with a watering can or swill onto a smaller grass area to kill it off without causing any risks from weedkillers to the horse, and tape off the area once the grass has died off to keep your horse in there for a recovery area.

USE AS A CARRIER NOT A FEED: Try not to look at the Bucket Feed as the giving of a meal to your horse.......but more of a small "carrier" meal to assist with getting in anti-inflammatory nutrients to initiate a speedy recovery.

RECOVERY AND RELAPSE: You will start to see improvements within a day or two with this approach, and once your horse has fully recovered please do not put them back onto grass, as they will need to be kept off it for around 3 months and then only gradually introduced to it again in order not to have a relapse. As once your horse has had 1 bout of laminitis they will be prone to laminitis for the rest of their lives, so very careful grass management will be required and we can highly recommend track grazing or break feeding as viable options that we have seen great success with and keep feeding straw and hay as that works well.

We hope this will help all the hundreds of laminitic horses out there along with the owners that love them, as we empathise with you so much.

Hang on in there-there is a light at the end of the tunnel with Laminitis Xxx