Mounted search and rescue

[Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>]

Back in the 70's I had a mare that overdosed on VitaPlus a Farnham product that we were using as a supplement alone with feeding grain and hay. The mare had somehow got out and into the feed room and had consumed mouthfuls of this product and unbeknownst to us at the time shortly after she had lost all her hair.  The mare was completely skinbald except for her mane and tail.  While the product was excellent, overdosing was not!

 

Upon finding her bald we took her to the vet and they could find nothing wrong with her.  But then later after finding out she had gotten into the feed and had an overdose we asked the vet if her baldness could have been a result of too many vitamins.  He said yes.  But he also said that often times an overdose of a vitamin or mineral would be excreted or some how fiind a way out of the horses system and it could be perhaps by hair loss, rash and other symtoms and possibly death depending on the mineral or vitamin that there was too much of.

 

At that point we totally stopped supplementing.  We also stopped graining the horses because we were also informed at the time that pelleted feed could gunk up a horses intestine and cause colic.  Usually when a horse colics it is due to a blockage and the slime that is in the intesine can catch a piece of grain and act like a pearl in the intestine to produce a stone blockage.  Our vet showed us stones that they had removed from colic cases and they ranged in various sizes from a golfball to a softball.

 

Since then and over 30 years later all we have done was feed a good quality grass hay or the animals have been on a decent pasture.  Giving the horses ample supply.  We have thankfully NEVER had a horse colic in our care.  And we have raised some 40 plus head. 

 

Here is an article on those Florida polo ponies that recently died.  I thought this article would be worth presenting to the group here becasue I know a lot of horsemen that do supplement and many folks can get carried away with treats.  Many of the folks I know that do supplement also have issues with cushings, or feet problems or other issues.  If the diet is not balanced, something usually gives or gives out.  It is hard for many laymen to know how to properly supplement especially if they do not have their hay tested for is TDN and so many  are guessing and can get caught in trouble.

 

I am not a nutritionalist, but it is just things we have learned in the course of time and by study on our own accord.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_re_us/us_dead_polo_horses

        Karen