I have a horse who is insulin resistant. Dr. Elleanor
Kellon’s advice helped me tremendously with balancing his diet and getting
him back to work. Managing the situation through diet and good hoof care
is the key to getting the horse back to work. Getting the horse back to *regular* work is the key to “beating
the illness”. My horse had laminitis for the past 3 springs
(excluding 2005 which I attribute to him being in full condition for
endurance). He is back doing endurance this year.
Horses that are insulin resistant cannot have ANY sugar (no
grain, no carrots, no apples, etc.). It’s difficult to find hay
that qualifies, but if you can’t there are other products to substitute
until you can get the horse balanced out (LMF Low Carb Complete is a hay based
complete feed specifically for this problem). In addition, you need to
balanced the vit/mins really closely until you get things under control.
This includes knowing EVERYTHING that goes into your horse and what the vit/min
values are (including water).
You’ll find good information here: www.safergrass.org At Katy’s
site you’ll also find the URL’s for the Cushings lists where Dr.
Kellon participates and helps people with these problems (you can do a search
for Cushings or Equine Cushings at www.yahoogroups.com
and also find a couple of other support groups).
