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Ask the Nutritionist: Dr. Getty's Forum for Equine Nutrition

   Welcome to my forum. 

Here you will find more than 6 years of questions and my answers. It is searchable and offers a great deal of information. 

Currently, I am discontinuing new questions. This may change in the future, but in the meantime, please know that It has been a true pleasure serving you. 

Take a look at my Nutrition Library and Tips of the Month for a variety of answers on selected topics. Be sure to sign up for my monthly e-newsletter, Forage for Thought

I also have a growing number of recordings on "Teleseminars on Nutrition Topics that Concern You" as well as the new, Spotlight on Equine Nutrition Series -- printed versions of favorite teleseminars.

And finally, look for my articles in a variety of local publications and online newsletters, as well as the Horse Journal, where I am the Contributing Nutrition Editor.  

 

All the best,

 Dr. Getty 

 



Ask the Nutritionist: Dr. Getty's Forum for Equine Nutrition
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Oats and cranky horse, joint supplement

Hello
I was wondering if all physical things are ruled out if oats can cause my horse to become "cranky". He has been getting more cranky in the last three months or so, not really hot, but he has started to crow hop at the canter. He was a new horse and had been eating grass hay, We decided rather then feeding him differently we would feed him the same grassy alfalfa hay all the others were eating.
He started having diarriea off and on and then all the time to the point of him starting to lose weight rapidly. We took him off the that hay and put him back on grass hay, he was almost back to normal with in 48 hours and then it cleared up completly.
But he did lose alot of weight so i had been supplementing with rolled oats, some corn oil, and some plain rice bran, a couple pounds of the bran and about 5 pds of oats.I chose oats because it was what I thought would be best knowing it was only oats and nothing else.i gave this to him until he gained back to a fairly healthly weight. I have cut out the rice bran, and back to about 3 pds of oats. You can see his ribs barely now but he looks good. But it has been about four months or so and he is getting really cranky, I am wondering if since he is looking good I could just give him enough of the oats to mix with his joint supplement, or should I just go to something else to mix with his supplement.
He has high ringbone so I give him Acti-Flex 4000, plus some devils claw (pure powder)and some extra MSM. Is the extra MSM and devils claw neccessary?
Sorry this post is so long.

Where are you from? California

How did you locate this forum? from a friend

Re: Oats and cranky horse, joint supplement

Hi Carol,

Large amounts of starch can make some horses moody due to peaks and valleys of blood glucose levels. So, you can offer your horse beet pulp instead of oats. It has the same number of calories and is very low in starch.

I would also recommend B-Plex -- this is a B complex supplement. Jumpy horses are often time suffering from borderline B vitamin deficiences which can manifest itself with poor digestion, weight loss, and nervousness.

Hope this is helpful. Please keep me posted.

Dr. Getty