Why Weigh Feed?

I was browsing through some messages on the Equine Cushings and IR group when I came across this - 

Can someone also put the emergency diet in laymens terms (cups/flakes). I don't have a weight scale and not sure what things weigh. 

The Emergency Diet - for those unfamiliar with it - is a short term low sugar-low starch maintenance ration for horses experiencing laminitis or suspected of being insulin resistant. It was developed by Eleanor Kellon, VMD and is meant to be a temporary diet to safely help your horse through the critical acute period while you, the owner, catch your breath and start getting a correct diagnosis.

So why is it important to weigh your horse's hay, feed and supplements? 

The entire concept of determining equine nutritional needs, then meeting their requirements with forage is based on weight. Weight of the horse and weight of the forage and feed.

A 1,000 lb horse at maintenance (just hanging around the corral looking pretty) needs a minimum of 15 mega calories (Mcal, or 15,000 Calories) every day. A 250 pound mini needs only 3.8 Mcal, a working ranch horse might use up 24 or more Mcal a day when he's working.

A general rule of thumb is to provide a horse with 1.5 to 2% of it's body weight in forage (hay or hay plus pasture). That would be around 15 lbs of hay for the pasture ornament, 3-3/4 lbs for the mini, and at least 20 lbs a day for the ranch horse. 

Working with horses since before he could walk, the cowboy knows his horse is going to get skinny on 20 lbs of hay. While he might not be consciously doing the math, he knows his horse will need to be knee deep in grass hay and will probably benefit from something "extra" - more calories, higher protein, more carbs - so will also give him a bit of alfalfa and a measure of oats. Is he using a scale? No - but when your livelihood (and possibly your life) depend on the health of your partner, you've likely developed a keen eye and feel for how much is enough, too much or too little.

A lot of us don't have the life-long horseman/horsewoman's eye.

Let's take my weekend warrior who's a bit on the chubby side. I "know" an average bale of Bermuda hay in Arizona weighs around 100 lbs, +/- 5-10 lbs or so, and that if I split a bale over two days for three horses, they're getting around 16 lbs of hay a day.   That will work - as long as the hay is pretty "average", around 0.8 to 0.9 Mcal per lb. But, when I look at my "herd" of three, I see I'm actually feeding around 2550 lbs of horse (1000 lb mare, 900 lb gelding, 650 lb pony gelding) and they, collectively, only need around 38 Mcal/day.

And this last load of hay is really nice - almost 110 lbs per bale and the horses really like it.  My horses are fat and sassy - uh oh, did I say fat?  I weigh my "flakes" of hay - each one is closer to 9 lbs than the 5 or 6 lbs I have in my mind. So I cut back one flake per day (I've been putting out six). 

 I could probably have figured this out without a scale - but it made it easier. Like most horse owners, I tend to think along the lines of "Am I feeding them enough?" rather than "Am I giving them too much?" And, without a scale, I typically under-estimate the weight of the hay I am feeding (and this has been my experience with almost all the folks I have worked with).

Let's look at the mini. Our kind of average grass hay has around 8.5 Mcal/lb. The mini needs around 3.8 Mcal - if he's fairly active in a good size paddock. That works out to 4-1/2 lbs of hay a day - and nothing else (no concentrates, no grain, no treats). What if your "flake" weighs 5 lbs and you give him a whole flake every day? 

Over a week, that's an extra 3 Mcal, almost a whole day's ration. Over a year, that's an extra 155 Mcal - or enough to maintain your mini for over a month! You could have enjoyed your mini for 13 months for the same cost as 12 months, and he would be healthier!

One last example - as this is where we see a lot of folks get into trouble.

Your vet tells you to put your cresty necked 1100 lb horse on a diet. You, or your vet, interpret this as feeding less - a lot less - to lose weight. That's how people do it, right? So you cut back to two "flakes" of hay/day, plus a little senior feed to provide some vitamins and minerals.

What's wrong with this picture?

Your two 5-1/2 lb flakes provide 11 lbs of forage, or only 1% of your horse's body weight. This is not sufficient gut fill to avoid problems such as colic or maintaining immune function - your horse needs a minimum of 1.5% BW in forage to lose weight safely - or 16-1/2 lbs of forage (hay) a day. To see the disastrous results of using a "starvation" diet to get a horse to lose weight, read Perla's Story.

The hay needs to be low sugar-low starch - preferably less than 10%, with a DE of 0.9 or less (alfalfa, many small grain hays and some grass hays will exceed this - have your hay analyzed to find out the DE). 

Your horse does not need any "concentrate" feed at all (grain, "senior" feed, "complete" feed, etc.) as they likely contain too much sugar/starch and won't supply the necessary level of minerals and vitamins unless fed at the minimum levels shown on the product label (usually around 2 lbs/day or more for an "average" horse). 

Your horse does need minerals at least at the minimum levels recommended by the NRC or, even better, balanced to a hay analysis, plus some vitamins if not eating fresh forage/grass. As an interim measure, an iron-free supplement, such as the flax-based supplements from HorseTech, can provide basic support until you have hay analyzed and determine your horse's specific needs. A small amount of soaked beet pulp or hay pellets can be used as a "supplement carrier".

Basic requirements are available in tables at Equi-Analytical's website, or at the NRC's online program.  Neither the tables nor the online calculator tell you how to interpret or balance the results, and they both give you only minimum requirements - similar to the human "RDA", not the levels recommended for optimal health.

You can learn more by checking out the other articles and links on this blog. Joining the Equine Cushings and IR group will give you access to a wealth of science-based information that's been developed over the years, as well as support if your horse is currently laminitic (or suspected of having laminitis). Eleanor Kellon, VMD has begun offering a series of online equine nutrition courses, from the very basic through nutrition for the elite equine athlete, which you can complete at your own pace.

My own bit of cynicism -

I am always amazed at the folks who will pay large sums for the right tack, a new truck or trailer, correct riding clothes, but balk at $30 for a good scale, $26 for a hay analysis or taking the few hours to have someone help them to "learn the math".

Obviously, if you've read down this far, you aren't one of them. But, because you obviously care for your equine partner, you are vulnerable to any and all of the magic bullets offered to make us think we are doing the best for our horses. 

Your strongest weapon - and best resource - is knowledge. It's out there - I hope this helps you navigate the map but then its up to you to use it.

Pete Ramey - Equine Nutrition Warrior

Barefoot Hoof Guru Pete Ramey has been taking Eleanor Kellon, VMD's basic nutrition course, NRC Plus.  Pete has enlivened the discussion on this online program - coining the title Equine Nutrition Warrior - and recently summarized his experience on his web site in an article called Feeding the Hoof.

“I got so much out of the "NRC Plus"course- I can’t wait for the others. Join me in the “Equine Cushings/Insulin Resistance” and “Nutrition as Therapy” classes this fall. We’ll get better for our horses together.”  Pete

Dr. Kellon presented the first NRC Plus basic ("basic" being a bit of an understatement) course this past spring and so far, close to 250 students - ranging from single horse owners to breeders and trainers to veterinarians and nutritionists - and yes, farriers and hoof trimmers - have enrolled in the basic and advanced courses. You can see all of the course listings at drkellon.com (some of the advanced courses do have prerequisites).

KFG Update

Kathleen's quest -

http://parityquest.blogspot.com/

more to come!

That's not what the label says...

Purina's foot dragging in their recent feed recall (or "retrieval", as they preferred to call it) has left us wondering about safety and quality control in our horse feeds. Some mistakes may make it out the door with even the best quality control but in horse feed, as in politics, it's the response that matters.

About a week ago (June 3rd) I bought a couple of bags of Eagle Milling brand beet pulp pellets. It was getting dark when I got home, but I went ahead and dumped them into the the heavy duty trash can I use to store them in. I couldn't see the pellets well in the dark and didn't take a real good look until I had finished up the remaining previous stock and started to feed the new ones Friday evening.

I noticed that about half the pellets were pink-brown, not the usual color - which is kind of a "frosted" deep green.  There was also quite a bit of corn mixed in, along with some tiny pellets and a lot of  "dust", which looked like it might be from the tiny pellets. This is not adding up to something I want to feed my insulin resistant horse - or, actually, any of my horses as I haven't a clue what's really in these pellets. Alfalfa? Grain? Minerals? There's something in there that's obviously NOT beet pulp.

I separated some of the "pink" pellets out and put them to soak, next to some of the more normal appearing green pellets. The green pellets looked "normal"  after soaking - a bit like chopped spinach. The "mystery pellets", on the left, resisted softening - a lot of the pellets were still firm and formed. They appeared to be made of a variety of material - possibly some beet pulp or other forage, lighter colored stuff that might be grain, and smaller particles that could be ground up minerals or ...

Using the phone number on the bag tag for Eagle Milling I called and left a message describing the problem.  (Apparently Eagle Milling, a "local" Arizona feed mill, is now a subsidiary of behemoth Cargill.)

Fast forward to Monday morning (after spending a sweaty hour in Sunday's 104+ heat repacking the pellets into their bags to return).  Stacy from Cargill called, wanting complete information about lot numbers, where and when purchased, etc., and she is making arrangements for a no-hassle exchange and appears to be genuinely interested in not having this happen again. It's complicated by the bags, even though purchased the same day, being from two different lots; we can't be certain which bag contained the mystery pellets. I received additional calls from the plant manager; they will send someone out to pick up the feed today.

So what should you do if you open a bag of feed and its not what you expected?

• If you're feeding "straights", you are more likely to quickly spot if something is not "right".
  
• If in doubt, don't feed the product. It won't hurt your horse to miss a few meals as long as you're feeding sufficient hay.
• Contact the feed company directly if you suspect something is not right with a feed, don't just rely on the feed store to follow up.
• Document, document, document. Take pictures of the feed, the bag, the bag tag. If the photo doesn't clearly show the label/tag information, write it down. Write a description of what you see and smell that makes you believe there is a problem.
• Don't throw the feed or product out - it should be returned to the dealer, distributor or feed company. Retain a good size sample, along with your documentation, until any issues are resolved to your satisfaction. Try to keep the product/sample in the same condition it was in when you purchased it (i.e. - keep dry, protect from rodents, etc.)

If you suspect a feed or product has caused illness, in addition to notifying the feed company and your feed store, notify your regular veterinarian and your State veterinarian. Most State veterinarian offices are able to have feeds tested and can initiate action if necessary. You can also have feed analyzed for some of the common toxins on your own through one of the forage testing laboratories.

When a product doesn't meet our expectations, our initial reaction is often to just discard it and resolve not to use that product or brand again, especially if no actual harm was done. Taking the time to throughly document the problem and notify the right people isn't always easy in our busy lives. 

But you will likely find, as I did, that conscientious manufacturers do care about quality control, appreciate that you took the time to notify them of a problem and will go out of their way to make resolving any issues simpler. 

Sure it's good business for a company to respond to customer concerns. But the rapid response and personal interest taken by the folks at Eagle Milling/Cargill reassures me that, had this been a serious or health related concern, there would be prompt action and resolution. 

 Update 

Angel from Cargill came out to pick up my beet pulp and bring some new bags. The new bags still had quite a few of the "brown" pellets with what might be some grain mixed in, but not near as much corn as my original bags. So we decided I'll go with shreds, at least for the time being until they have a chance to test these pellets and double check the manufacturing. (These apparently are manufactured in California and bagged locally.)

He called the dealer to double check that they have shreds without molasses in stock so I can pick them up when I go into town tomorrow.

Turns out Angel also works with the local 4-H swine program, knows all my friends. Vail, Tucson and large parts of Arizona are still pleasantly "small town".