Help! Anyone have any ideas on a good supplement to help pony’s prone to lamanitis/founder?
what you take away is more important than what you add. You’ve got to get the sugar out. Did you have the hay tested for sugar? What is the WSC and starch numbers? Work on that first, then get them on a regular exercise program. THEN consider adding supplements.
Discuss Alpha Lipoic Acid with your vet. It helps control blood glucose levels.
Remission from Animed.
Chicamuxen
Please join the Equine Cushing and insulin Resistance yahoo group. They will give you very specific support and recommendations on managing this.
As Katy (who is an expert) said above, you have got to get the starch and sugar out of the diet. There is no supplement that gets you around that.
I feed my guy Seminole Wellness Equi-Safe, which is a chopped hay forage that comes in a bag. It’s a fixed formula with 4% fat, 25% fiber, 5% starch and 6% sugar, for total NSC of 11%. I simply give him a large handful twice a day (enough to make him think he’s getting something at meal times), and once a day he gets Smartpak’s Smartvite pellets to cover all his vitamin/mineral requirements. This helps control his calories as even a simple ration balancer like Gro 'N Win is too much for him. Depending on where you live, if you don’t have access to Seminole feeds, you might check into Triple Crown’s Safe Starch Forage, another bagged, chopped hay which has ~9% NSC.
Like Katy said, you need to try and get your hay tested. If this is not an option, a good way to reduce the amount of sugar in your hay is to put some in a hay net and soak it in a tub of water for at least several hours before feeding it. It won’t mold in hot weather if you make sure the pony cleans all of it up within 12 hours or so. Hope this helps!
