Re: RC: alfalfa diet for horses that "tie-up"

[Suzanne Mounts <mountss@usfca.edu>]

This mare (a morgan) has tied up twice, once two years ago, again this last
January, both times in winter (first in Feb), first time selenium level was
.120 ppm, started SeE supplement, second time selenium level was .212 ppm,
both times tie-up occurred early in exercise, first time came after about
nine days without riding (el nino winter), second time no significant time
off, daily feed consists of two to three flakes of grass hay, 1/2 to one
flake of alfalfa, less than a pound of plain oats w/ a scoop of Vita-Flex
Accel and the SeE supplement.  

Is there anything in this would suggest "why" she is tying up and how that
would affect what kind of diet she should get?  If not, is there other
information that would help answer this question?

Suzanne


At 06:38 PM 3/27/2000 EST, you wrote:
>In a message dated 3/27/00 1:01:48 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
>mountss@usfca.edu writes:
>
><<  I had been under the
> impression that alfalfa was not a good idea for a horse that has tied up,
> and was restricting Natty mostly to grass hay.  Did I miss the boat on
> this???? >>
>
>Depends on why a particular horse ties up.  There are many different 
>causes--in some individuals, excess calcium in the daily diet seems to be a 
>factor, as these horses cannot mobilize calcium well during exertion.  If 
>that is NOT what causes a particular horse to tie up, though, then it won't 
>have an effect.  I think the problem here is that there are so many
different 
>"causes" put together in one "syndrome" that we sometimes forget that we
have 
>to take each case back to its root causes to accurately control or prevent 
>the problem, and just because one protocol worked brilliantly for Horse A 
>does not mean that it will address the issues of Horse B, even if they
appear 
>to be clinically similar.
>
>Heidi
>
>
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