We just lost our 33 year old horse to colitis, now our 15 year old has it and is at the equine hospital for 4 days so far. Just trying to wrap our minds around this. The only thing in common withThese two is their feed. We had just got a new bag of feed a few days before the older horse became ill. After he passed away we started incorporating a cup of his feed into the other horses feed instead of wasting it. About 3-4 days later this horse ended up with colitis while our other horse is fine. The feed in question is Safe Choice Senior. Has anyone had any similar issues recently?
Call or e-mail Nutrena. They are very good about record keeping in terms of manufacturing and following up when a customer perceives a problem.
I can tell you this. 99.9% of the time it is not a feed issue, but issue with something else like hay or water.
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Keep your bag, take several samples, and send several more for testing for the typical contaminants, ie ionophores, mycotoxins, that sort of thing. And tested with a 3rd party, not just Nutrena (they will also want samples to test for themselves.
Do not throw any of that feed out until this is resolved one way or another.
And yes, if they share the same hay, whether the same bale or the same cutting, make sure you save all that for potential testing too.
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I have reluctantly been feeding a Nutrena feed - the only feed our full board barn will carry.
The Empower Topline. This week I looked in the bag and found corn - whole and chopped.
Apparently this has been going on for a while - many bags had to be returned.
Now my barn won’t buy any more of it. So now I have to buy my own ration balancer.
I refuse to feed any other Nutrena feed.
Last night I did some research - found a FB site, “Is Your Horse Feed Safe”?
I also found a thread from 2016 on a forum barrelhorseworld, “Is all Nutrena feed bad?”
See if you can find it.
How does corn end up in a feed that’s not supposed to have corn? Whole corn?
For what animals? Cattle?
I think Nutrena has a plant/whatever in Texas.
I’m so mad. I had finally resigned myself - was starting to be OK with the Empower Topline - and now this.
I’ll be switching to ProElite feeds.
And OP - so sorry about your horse/s.
Further to my post above - just remembered - ProElite and Nutrena are both under the umbrella of Cargill.
Before I switch to Pro Elite - should I/we be concerned about this? Same issues?
How closely related are PE and N re: production plants, etc?
FWIW - we can’t get Triple Crown Gold products yet.
Corn is used to clean chutes between runs. It’s normal to find kernels here and there.
It’s good practice to pull the first X number of bags from the start of a new run, in case there are “weird” things at the start, like a bunch of corn that didn’t clear the chute after cleaning.
Both are milled in plants that are only ionophore-safe. A few might be ionophore-free, but most (at least) are only “safe”
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So there are two issues with feed contamination. Ionophores and aflatoxins?
Meds and fungus/mold? (corn?)
Which feed brands are free of all of these? Is there such a thing?
Bluebonnet perhaps?
Reading on the FB sites “Is …Feed Safe” is very scary.
Considering going back to a grass pellets and Cal Trace…
D-word.
Any brand milled in ionophore-free mills AND who tests all ingredients coming in, will have such a small risk of that contamination as to be pretty much zero.
Triple Crown is one of those which is in i-free mills and doesn’t use corn-anything (and yes, that includes the distillers grains - not from corn) AND tests ingredients coming in.
I know there are others, but don’t know which off the top of my head. I THINK I remember a thread here years ago where people were listing brands in i-free mills.
Certainly feed testing, including hay is in order. I would stay away from web sites with alarmist ravings. All manufactured goods have issues at some point, communicate with the maker. Your vet or Ag extension department should have testing lab references. You might also wish to contact your state vet office to see if anyone else has reported issues, since one assumes a contaminated batch lot would likely ship in to your region. aflotixin can be present in all types of products including chicken and nuts.
I hope your second horse fares better. I assume your vet is doing some culturing to see if you have a bacterial issue. There is no tissue or blood work that can be done to rule out aflatoxin. If things do not go well ( forgive me) you will want a necropsy and tissue collection as well.
I am sorry for your loss and will hold your friends in my heart
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You will find corn in Pro-Elite. I have been told it is used to clear the lines between different types of feed. I have seen it in bags of Pro-Elite but not for a while now.
Thanks. Now I know about corn being used to clean the chutes / lines. I have seen corn in other bags of feed before (not this much though) and wondered how that happened. I will talk to the BM about this. I need to continue use a barn feed - the Empower Topline - for now.
Dumb question: the corn that is used for that purpose - assume it has been approved as safe?
OP - sorry to hijack your thread. Thinking about you and your horses - please keep us updated. Hoping for the best.
Entirely depends on the company whether it’s screened for mycotoxins.
