Allergy Test Report Results

[ladipus]

How important is it to remove the feed components of what comes back as positive on the allergy test reports? …my mare is allergic to a lot of stuff -Timothy , orchard grass , beet pulp , and soy just to name a few of the very long list of her allergens …she’s getting the immunotherapy shots but I haven’t made any changes to her diet yet …she’s also in the metabolic category and has been getting treated /fed as if she’s IR…the problem is the ECIR group strongly advises against feeding alfalfa -which is one of the few things she’s not allergic too …the only hay I could easily get is Timothy , orchard grass or alfalfa…she currently gets about 1 lb/day Timothy Balance Cubes(which contain Timothy and beet pulp) a handful of either Hygain Zero or Nuzu Stabul One, Vermont Blend, Triple Crown Natural Golden Ground Flax and Vitamin E capsules along with various supplements…my regular vet says not to stress over going nuts and drastically changing the diet ?? I’m just wondering what difference if any would it make for her if I removed those things from her diet ??

Attached is a picture from her allergy report

[vxf111]

I was told that the shots don’t do a tremendous amount for the food allergies (more for the environmental allergies) so to the extent possible, try to reduce the food allergies. TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE. In your shoes I would try to find a soy, beep, corn, and barley-free feed regime that worked but of course you have to weigh the benefits of reducing allergens against other factors (cost, practicality, the other vet issues etc.). The hay is tough. What is TEFF? Do you have that near you? I feel you. I’ve had 3 with significant food allergies. Once I had to do a “custom blend” of foodstuffs for, one I switched to a not super common commercial feed, one I just had to switch to a different readily available commercial feed. It sounds like she’s not getting a ton of the feed she’s allergic to now anyway. How bad are her allergy symptoms?

[ladipus]

Yes as far as her actual feed meals she’s not really getting much of the allergic items… Except the Timothy and the beat Polp in the Timothy balance cubes… What I’m most concerned about is the hay because I’m primarily feeding her a Timothy Orchard grass hay and sometimes I sprinkle in and Al a mix because it did test low sugar… But the ECR group is absolutely rabid about those horses not getting alfalfa… That of course is one of the few things she’s not allergic to… So I’ve got a try to figure out the Hay situation

[vxf111]

Can you get TEFF? My horses freakin’ vacuum that stuff up. I think TEFF is an entirely different plant than timothy, orchard, etc. but I confess I’m not a horticulturist.

[ladipus]

I would have to look into it and see how it sugar wise as well…maybe my supplier could source some for me possibly.

[lenapesadie]

A lot of TEFF is purported as low sugar. Like all hay, there’s variability and testing is the only way to know for sure. My horses also like it, but it’s a little harder to source in my area

[JB]

None of these are even close to being allergies. Food allergy testing via blood work is highly unreliable. For an actual allergy result you’d be looking at a number closer to 1000

You have a lot of low “hits”, which often points to leaky gut

If she does well on alfalfa, then feed it - that group is pretty rigid on what’s “allowed”

[JB]

@vxf111

I think TEFF is an entirely different plant than timothy, orchard, etc. but I confess I’m not a horticulturist.

It’s still a grass, like those 2, but just as different from them, as they are to each other It’s an African (I think) warm season grass that is USUALLY quite low in NSC, and often pretty great in protein. But, it still has to be tested for the IR/EMS horse, as it can still be high in NSC, and when grown wrong, can be high in nitrates.

[Peggy]

The shots don’t include food allergies according to my vet.

[Peggy]

Several vets have told me alfalfa is OK for insulin resistant horses. At least in moderation.

Based on a study with N=1 the blood tests are helpful.

Nothing came back >1000, probably even >500, but excluding food allergens and the immunotherapy shots resulted in a far less itchy horse. Also anecdotal but he consistently gets a lump from one of the two shots, no matter which shot goes on which side. So he seems to have a reaction to something.

The horse is insulin resistant and likely had some general inflammation from that as we weren’t aware of that at the time and hadn’t adjusted his diet. My understanding is that this can lead to, or be related to, leaky gut syndrome???

[JB]

@Peggy

Several vets have told me alfalfa is OK for insulin resistant horses. At least in moderation.

A lot of IR horses do well on some alfalfa (most are overweight easy keepers to by default the alf is typically kept to a minimum for lower calories), but some become laminitic pretty quickly on even a few cups of it (like to mix in supplement), for whatever reason. I always assume they’ll be ok on some small amount, until they prove otherwise.

@Peggy

The horse is insulin resistant and likely had some general inflammation from that as we weren’t aware of that at the time and hadn’t adjusted his diet. My understanding is that this can lead to, or be related to, leaky gut syndrome???

Yep, that’s the other issue - most of these tests are done on blood pulled from a horse in “crisis”, their body is in reactive mode, so lots of things ping the radar. But they aren’t true allergies. And yes, high levels of inflammation can screw with intestinal lining integrity and lead to leaks, which then leaks proteins into the blood that shouldn’t be there, so when you pull blood, the body is fighting those proteins as if they were an allergy.

and yes if you do remove those protein sources, you CAN see improvements because those proteins are no longer leaking into the bloodstream, but you haven’t actually addressed the cause of the leaky gut.

[vxf111]

Mine as well. Someone else here on COTH said otherwise. Can’t recall who!

[vxf111]

FWIW once I accidentally poked the tip of my finger with the allergy shot needle and I had a hell of a reaction at the site. So possibly the shots are pretty irritating whether you are “allergic” or not. I was moer careful after that!

[Peggy]

The interesting thing is that there are two shots, each with different ingredients. He consistently gets a bump from one, but not the other. At one point he was always getting shot one on the left side and shot two on the right. The bump was always on the same side. Now it’s random and he gets a bump on one side or the other, but not both. I suppose it’s possible that the substances in one shot are inherently more virulent.

This happened with the first couple sets of shots based on one prep and also the set of reformulated shots based on a second test.