Sigh

[Sarah Ralston <ralston@AESOP.RUTGERS.EDU>]

ti wrote:
Really? Which part of the quote backs up the impracticality of an all-carb 
diet? Are you saying that a horse can't survive on, say, nothing but oats 
corn and barley? 


Yes, I would say that a horse could not survive for long on a diet of
nothing but
oats, corn and barley because:

a. there is a reverse Ca/P ratio in such a diet (actually called a ration
for horses-diets are for people)
    and the horse would rapidly develop nutritional secondary
hyperparathyroidism, aka: big head wherein his 	bones demineralize-not good
for performance!

b. You forgot to add water, without which the horse would die in less than
a week.

c. You forgot salt-again, if deficient for sufficient period of time will
result in death.

d. None of those grains contain sufficient vitamin A, magnesium, copper etc
to meet the horses' needs over time. Granted, if the horse had been on a
good balanced diet prior to switching him over, it may take months for
certain of these deficits to manifest, assuming you actually did feed him
some water and salt.

e. Numerous retrospective and prospective studies (the most recent
published in AJVR and JAVMA by Noah Cohen, a great epidemiologist) have
linked high grain rations to an increased risk of colic. Now colic is not
always fatal and not all horses on high grain diets colic, the increased
risk is there-sort of like smoking cigarretes-not all of us smokers will
get lung cancer but we at aleast should acknowledge the risk!

Forage/roughage is essential for proper gastrointestinal function. The
horse has no know REQUIREMENT for VFA's metabolically but can utilize them
and does depend on their source, forage, as a major component of the ration
for optimal gastrointestinal function.
Sarah L. Ralston, VMD, PhD, dACVN
Associate Professor
Department of Animal Science
Cook College, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
84 Lipman Drive
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Ralston@aesop.rutgers.edu
732-932-9404


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