Re: nutrition in foundered horse

["Dyane Smith" <sunibey@sisqtel.net>]

One of the vets at Alamo Pintado (a vet clinic in So Cal that does a lot of
surgery) told me recently that they see laminitis a lot, not in the first
flush of spring grass, but later, after the horse is fat and the grass
starts to dry, because, at that time, the grass is higher in _____???
carbohydrates?
Dyane
N. Ca

----- Original Message -----
From: Roberta Jo Lieberman <woik@home.com>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>; Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 1999 3:02 PM
Subject: RC: nutrition in foundered horse


> <<<Just my guess here, but everything I've read about founder pretty much
> leads me to say tell your friend that if he wants to *cause* founder,
> keep piling on that protein!   Lif>>
>
> I always thought it was carbohydrates...
>
> Research on the subject back in the 1970s revealed that classic founder
> is essentially carbohydrate, or starch, overload. Researchers at the
> University of Missouri pumped a starchy gruel into equine stomachs to
> study the cascade of events that culminated with acute laminitis. (The
> progression included lactic acidosis, falling pH, death of gut bacteria,
> endotoxemia, systemic acidosis, fluid shifts leading to electrolyte
> changes and other events.)
>
> Management guidelines at the time emphasized eliminating grain
> completely from the diet, and giving only grass hay and Lite Salt to
> counteract electrolyte losses (particurly potassium chloride). It was
> also popular to give methionine, an amino acid (protein) that helps
> maintain the strenth of the bond between the coffin bone and boof wall.
>
> As for prevention, "You can significantly reduce the chance of laminitis
> striking your hose by feeding a ration centered around high-quality hay
> _supplemented_ with grain -- not the other way around." High-grain fed
> horses have more gut bacteria on hand and are more susceptible to
> founder from a sudden stressful event, such as a long trailer ride.
> Lean, athletic, pasture-kept horses are far less prone to laminitis.
> That's why halter horses founder a lot, and endurance horses rarely do.
>
> So at least when it comes to laminitis, carbs were long considered the
> enemy. Is this ancient history, or has this work stood the test of time?
> If anyone can add more recent developments, please fill this old
> fuddy-duddy in...
>
> Bobbie Jo in So. Calif.
>
>
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Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
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