Re: Rice bran

[CMKSAGEHIL <CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com>]

Kris--
Rice bran is not my first choice--first I would evaluate your roughage (GOOD
quality grass or alfalfa hay, or GOOD pasture), and if your horse's appetite
is not sufficient to really clean up the roughage, try some B-complex to
stimulate appetite.  I would try to work some oil into the diet--this has to
be done a little at a time, since horses have no gall bladder to store bile to
digest big doses of fat all at once.  If it is introduced gradually, though,
they can increase bile production to digest it.  Rice bran would be something
I would only try if everything else is right and it still isn't working.

Regarding beet pulp--I understand from the people at LMF that Kentucky Equine
Research found beet pulp to be one of the poorest fiber sources for producing
volatile fatty acids--you might want to check out some of that research, as I
do not have all the details.

Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)