So, if you cannot use soy in a feed, what is best to add to increase protein in feed? Alfalfa pellets are great, but is there anything else that a common feed mill would have on hand that you would recommend?
Thanks!
Split peas are a good option, but one that most feed mills likely don’t have, and they do bring some starch with them
You can also use whey isolate protein powder, bought in big tubs for people
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Thanks- I keep hoping that there is something that the mill sells that I am missing.
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Flax is relatively high protein.
I use flax and supplement with Tri Amino.
If you buy whey make sure you get the whey concentrate powder. I got a lesson on whey powders from my gym friend. There is apparently a difference.
Thanks- he can’t eat flax, either.
I will look into the whey.
Thanks!
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It’s 18%-ish protein, which is comparable to alfalfa, but you’re fairly limited to how much you can feed. I wouldn’t feed more than 1lb, which is only 81gm protein, not a whole lot
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I can’t feed it to him at all. 
did he “tell” you that, or did you do the Nextmune blood test that said he was allergic to it?
Bloodwork.
Blood work is highly unreliable for allergy testing, especially food allergy. And the Nextmune testing has regularly said pretty much every horse is “allergic” to flax. What was his “hit” on that?
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I feed whey protein isolate from Amazon to my pssm2/mfm mare. Got it from Horsetech first but cheaper for the same stuff on Amazon!
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So, I can’t find his testing results. I do know that he was stupid high on it. He was allergic to so many things, he needed two sets of vials. I do not think that they were particularly useful, however, I tried to modify his diet to accommodate him. The biggest issue is that he lives with two other geldings, so they all have to eat the same thing. I mean, they are all fine eating what I serve, and it ends p being miles cheaper, so maybe it’s a blessing.
His problem is that he is itchy- he rubs his mane, tail and belly. Any thoughts?
That sounds more like gnats or mosquitoes than allergies. Especially if the itching goes away when frost comes and the bugs get killed. I have bad gnats here and mine itch the top of their tails like crazy unless they are on night turnout until it gets cold and stays cold. My gnats are still alive and biting right now. Horse is backing up to fence post to itch her tail and tear up my fence these days.
He isn’t allergic to gnat saliva. It’s year round.
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That shoots the gnat theory down then. Are split peas really that much different from soy beans? Both are legumes. Has anybody ever done a comparison aside from the boutique feed sellers that have anecdotal evidence?
I had one test high positive to flax…I tested him because he was itching his hips so hard it was bruising them. I had been feeding him a flax supplement. I took him off of it and the itching stopped, so I am going to say those tests are not totally unreliable.
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Define “different”. Food allergies are almost always to 1 (or more) proteins in the food, and peas and soybeans have different proteins.
what was the number? You can get true allergies, but the blood work for food allergies only shows an actual allergies if it’s coming into the 1000 range. Their testing often shows a lot of “hits” that are in the < 500 range, and those aren’t allergies.
What can also happen is you have a lot of those low hits, and it really points to something like leaky gut So, you can remove one of the higher low hits, and see improvement, because you’ve removed one of the proteins that’s leaking into the gut and causing an inflammatory reaction. But you’ve only removed a symptom, not resolved the underlying cause.
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OK! I found it! The list of things that Temper is really allergic to (100 items) in feed only is:
Cottonseed- 423
Flax- 230
Oats- 135
Soybean- 105
Any thoughts?
None of those are actual allergies. You need much closer to 1000.
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I will say I did this allergy testing also. My guy was allergic to all of these also but at different rates. In all honesty, allergic or not, I took my guy off soy (146) but not flax (259), took him off all grain, put him on a butt load of alfalfa and he’s never looked better. How was your insect allergy testing? I KNOW my guy is hypersensitive to insects and he tested positive to all of the flying and crawling insects. We too have 2 bottles of allergy meds because he has so many. So you are not wrong trying to get off soy. Tribute Wholesome Blends is soy free so worth a look.
