Feeding the laminitic horse
Laminitis is horrible. It is distressing and painful for your horse or pony and it is gut-wrenching to watch as their owner. And if you are anything like me, it also creates a feeling of guilt… the ‘how could I let this happen to my horse’ kind of, keep you awake at night, guilt!
So, for both our equines and our own sakes, we need to understand laminitis more so we have a better chance of preventing it in the future.
A majority of laminitis cases are due to a condition known as insulin dysregulation. Which is when your horse or pony releases a HUGE amount of insulin in response to an increase in blood glucose. And, while researchers still don’t really understand the mechanism, it is these insanely high levels of insulin in the blood that literally makes the hooves inflamed and trying to fall apart.
So to prevent laminitis, we need to stop these increases in blood glucose, so that we don’t trigger the excessive release of insulin! To keep blood glucose levels low, a diet that is very low in non-structural carbohydrates (NSC; which is equal to starch + water soluble carbohydrates) is essential.
Diets must be based on low non-structural carbohydrate forage. Good quality protein is important for aiding in recovery, especially of the hoof. And meeting requirements for vitamins and minerals is also a must for general health, healing and immune function.
The good news is, feeding a laminitic horse doesn’t have to be difficult. The following are some guidelines for making it easier; first is getting the basics right. Then we fine‐tune for weight changes. And finally there are some tips on dealing with boredom and associated problems like hoof repair.
Getting the basics right
Low non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) forage should make up most of the diet
Feed feeds with less than 10% NSC (and never feed grain, grain by‐products or molasses)
Make sure the diet is balanced for vitamins and minerals
Base the diet on low NSC forages
All horse diets should be based on forage and the laminitic horse is no different. However they need low NSC forages.
There are a few ways you can give your horse access to low NSC forages.
These are:
Graze in the VERY early hours of the morning from 2 hours before until 2 hours after sunrise. This is when pasture NSC levels are lowest.
If you are unable to control the hours of the day your horse is allowed to graze, use strip grazing or a grazing muzzle to reduce your horse’s intake of pasture.
Do be aware that pastures are not always low enough in NSC to be safe even in the early hours of the morning.Feed hays (or haylages) that are typically low in NSC. These include warm season grass hays like bermudagrass, teff or rhodes grass hay, straw or lucerne hay.
If you can’t access these kinds of hays, soak the hay you do have available in warm water for 30 minutes or for 2 to 10* hours in cold water, draining well and feeding. Do not give your horse access to the soaking water.
*In warm climates, avoid soaking for longer than 2 hours.Avoid any hays that are known to have high levels of NSC, including ryegrass hay, oaten, wheaten or barley hay.
Lucerne haylage or silage that has been produced specifically for horses is also a low NSC forage option (check there is no molasses added).
Forage variety is important!
You should give your laminitic horse or pony access to as many different types of low NSC forage as you can access.
Forage variety creates fibre variety in the diet. Fibre variety supports gut microbe diversity and this has far reaching health benefits for your horse including a reduced risk of colic, better immune function and normal communication between your horse and their microbes via the gut-brain axis which helps to support calm behaviour.
Use feeds with less than 10% NSC
If your horse needs extra feed in addition to the low NSC forage you are feeding you must be very careful when selecting a suitable feed.
Look for feeds with a label that specifies the feed contains 10% NSC or less.
Typically these feeds are made using non-grain ingredients like lupin or soybean hulls, lucerne/alfalfa meal, small amounts of soybean and low starch ingredients like flaxseed meal, copra meal, lupins and oils.
Never feed a grain or grain by-product-based feed with NSC above 10%
You should not feed a laminitic horse with a feed that has more than 10% NSC OR any feeds with an undisclosed level of NSC and any of the following ingredients:
Oats, corn, wheat, rice, triticale, rye, barley or other cereal grains.
Wheatfeed, millrun, millmix, broll, bran (rice or wheat), pollard, middlings or any other variation of these ingredients.
Any form of steam flaked, micronised or extruded grain.
Read all labels and lists of ingredients carefully before buying a feed. And it is buyer beware. Many feeds that contain grain ‘by‐products’ like wheatfeed/millrun, bran or pollard advertise themselves as being ‘grain‐free’. This is grossly misleading and these feeds present as much danger to your laminitic horse as a feed that contains grain.
Other feeds claim to be ‘Low GI’, but again, if they contain any of the ingredients listed above, and do not specify an NSC level of less than 10%, they should be avoided for laminitic horses.
Also, watch out for molasses added to feeds as this can make a feed high in sugar.
Make sure the diet is balanced
It is very important to make sure the diet you are feeding your laminitic horse is balanced. Meeting the laminitic horse’s requirements for protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals will help them recover from any previous bouts of laminitis, help them to resist other disease and infection and will keep them in good overall health with a strong immune system!
Feeding a suitable low NSC complete feed OR balancer pellet OR vitamin and mineral supplement will help to meet nutrient requirements.
myhappy.horse can help you find the perfect diet for your laminitic horse!
Fine tuning the diet
Feed according to your horse’s need to gain, hold or lose weight
Assess the body condition (fatness) of your horse and have a clear goal in mind as to whether you want the horse to lose, hold or gain weight.
To lose weight
If your horse needs to lose weight you must do it carefully, as forcing the laminitic into rapid weight loss can also stop them from healing their damaged hoof tissue and may cause other problems like hyperlipaemia. To gently encourage your horse to lose weight you should:
Feed up to 2% of your horse’s body weight (10 kg/day for a 500 kg horse) per day as low quality, low NSC forage, including mature or stemmy warm season grass hays and/or weather damaged alfalfa/lucerne hay.
Balance the diet with a low dose rate vitamin and mineral supplement or balancer pellet.
Add high quality protein from full fat soybean to make sure you are meeting essential amino acid requirements.
Constantly assess your horse’s body weight and adjust the diet according to the rate of weight loss. If your horse is not losing weight, reduce the amount of low sugar forage being fed to 1.5% of the horse’s current bodyweight (7.5 kg/day for a 500 kg horse; 16.5 lb for an 1100 lb horse). If this reduction doesn’t achieve the weight loss you want, reduce the amount of forage being fed to 1.5% of the horse’s ideal bodyweight.
To maintain weight
To maintain your horse’s weight, you should:
Allow the horse access to up to 2.5% of its bodyweight of low NSC forage (12.5 kg for a 500 kg horse) per day, including a small amount of alfalfa/lucerne hay.
Balance the diet with a low dose rate vitamin and mineral supplement or balancer pellet and additional protein from soybean or lupins if your pasture or hay quality is poor.
Monitor your horse closely. If they are not holding their bodyweight on this diet, increase the amount of alfalfa/lucerne you are feeding and reassess your horse. If they still aren’t holding condition, you can add high calorie unfortified ingredients like lupins, lupin hulls, well processed soybean hulls, sugarbeet pulp and copra meal as well as flaxseed oil to the existing diet.
OR
Switch to using a low NSC complete feed at the recommended rate for your horse.
To gain weight
If the goal is to gain weight you should:
Provide your horse with access to as much low NSC pasture or hay as they want to eat… within reason. If they are consistently eating more than 3% of their bodyweight in hay per day, you may need to use hay bags, hay boxes, hay nets or hay balls to slow intake down.
Add some alfalfa/lucerne hay to the diet, feeding up to 4kg/day for a 500 kg horse (8.8 lb/day for an 1100 lb horse).
Feed a low NSC complete feed at the recommended rate for your horse’s bodyweight and current activity. Complete feeds will provide your horse with the calories, protein, vitamins and minerals they need and help them gain weight..
OR
Mix your own low NCS balanced feed by using high calorie unfortified ingredients like lupins, extruded full fat soybean, lupin hulls or well processed soybean hulls, sugarbeet pulp and copra meal. Then add your own vitamins and minerals via a low dose rate vitamin and mineral supplement or balancer pellet.
If additional weight gain is needed add some oil to the diet. Start with ¼ of a cup per day and gradually increase the amount if required. Flaxseed (linseed) oil is a good choice for laminitics due to its high omega 3 content.
Preventing gastric ulcers, stress and boredom
To prevent gastric ulcers, stress and boredom, you MUST manage your horse’s forage intake carefully, especially on the restricted forage diets.
Use hay slow feeders to extend the amount of time they spend eating and chewing.
As a hard rule, do not allow your horse or pony to go for longer than 6 hours without forage to chew. And ideally, keep this time to no longer than 4 hours.
Periods of time longer than this puts your horse or pony at very high risk of gastric ulceration and will also cause psychological stress that will contribute to leaky gut syndrome and further generalised inflammation which is a situation you want to avoid with laminitics.
Using slow feeders to keep them chewing for longer periods of the day will also help prevent boredom. You should feed their daily allocation of hay in 3 or 4 meals per day to help make sure hay is always there in front of them.
You can also get creative and hide or scatter hay cubes around their stable, yard or pasture to help recreate some foraging behaviour.
When your horse or pony is fully sound and able to exercise, a gentle exercise routine each day will also help prevent boredom and will help overweight equines to lose weight which reduces their risk of further bouts of laminitis.
Assisting hoof repair
Feeding a low NSC diet will help to prevent further insulin mediated damage to your horse’s hooves. Providing high quality protein that contains good levels of the essential amino acids lysine and methionine as well as making sure your horse is getting its essential vitamins and minerals will give your horse the building blocks it needs to repair damaged hoof tissue.
If you find your horse’s hooves are taking a long time to respond to a well-balanced, low NSC diet, you may find the addition of a hoof supplement with biotin and methionine to the diet is helpful.
Let myhappy.horse help
MyHappy.Horse will take all of these factors into account when creating a diet for your horse or pony who is prone to laminitis so we can help avoid the distress, pain and guilt this horrid disease causes!