Re: elevated enzyme levels

[Beverly540@aol.com]

Heidi,
       In answer to your questions regarding feed, etc. I have copied below
portions of  two posts of mine from  on 10/21/98 regarding  Flower and tie-
ups. I have updated them  to include the current problem.
       Before I put the previous posts in, let me tell you about the
salt/mineral feeding here at the Schlegel homestead. We have cattle and
horses. My husband buys the loose salt/mineral farm mix and mixes it up with
dry molasses, some ground corn, and a about 5 gallons of vegetable oil. It's
left out in the pasture free choice.
        Our horses are on pasture 24/7. They are seperated for feeding. For
feed, Flower gets about 8 oz. of pelleted 12% grain in the AM and the same
amount in the PM.
        Now that the weather has changed we are feeding hay. She gets about
1/4 to 1/2 of a flake of alfalfa hay in the morning, and a flake of
orchard/mix grass hay in the am and pm depending on how cold it is.
Here are the remedy's we took to solve the tie-ups.
1. Since September, 1998, we have been feed ing 2 ounces of red cell builder
daily, half in the AM and half in the PM.

2.  Our pasture is selenium deficient (we didn't know this)  so we now feed a
vitamin E selenium mix once daily in the manufacturer's recommended dose.
Heidi, we used the lab you recommend.

3. We were feeding alfalfa hay but the vet ordered us to remove all alfalfa
products from Flower's diet. We now feed orchard grass hay. (Since it has
gotten colder I've been throwing her about 1/2 of a small flake of of alfalfa
hay along with her grass hay in the morning. Same at night.

4. Last summer and fall, before the tie-ups, Flower was getting about  one-
pound of pelleted 12% product. Our vet had us cut back to 4 oz in the AM and 4
oz in the PM. But, she lost quite a bit of weight, so we just increased in
last week back to 8 oz in the AM and 8 oz in PM.

5. For warm-ups,  we start out at a slow trot and throw in a short burst of
canter, then slow back down to a slow trot, throw in a burst of canter, slow
down…..keep this up for about 30 minutes.

6.  I am trying to closely follow Dr. Nancy Loving's  recommendations for
heart moniter use.

7. I ride my horse "to a sweat" the night before a conditioning ride or a ride
of any length.

8. We use Endura-max electrolites on humid days.

9.   My husband and I work together  in a pretty large restaurant. Everyday
there is lots and lots of fruit and vegetable waste that is saved for us. We
feed most of it to our cows. BUT -- we found out that the horses absolutely
LOVE cantelope rinds, watermelon rinds, banana peels, pineapple rinds....any
kind of fruit rind, even grapefuit and orange. So, we were cutting some of
this up along with some of the left over rolls, and feeding it to the horses
along with their daily grain ration.
           When Flower started her tying up episodes the vet called the VA
Tech equine hospital nutrition folks and they said that we were probably
giving Flower too much carbohydrate for her body to handle. So she longer
receives these goodies that she loves!
Fast forward to 11/10/98
Heidi:   We are not training much right now. The restuarant will keep up busy
about 12 - 16 hours day until after the new year. We are lucky to ride a
couple hours on Sunday. Do you have any recommendations??
Thank you,
Beverly and Flower
Blue Ridge Mts. of VA
PS Heidi, would it be okay to call you on the phone???? If so, please send me
your phone number and the approximate west coast time that i should call. If
not, I understand. Thank you.