Low NSC extruded feed

[NaturallyHappy]

That’s what I’m looking for…any ideas? I can’t find any. My IR horse had surgery for a strangulating lipoma nearly a year ago. His veterinary team recommended Triple Crown Senior Active Plus. The NSC is a little high ( ~12% ) but they felt the benefits outweighed the risks. His hay is 8.1% NSC.

Everything I’ve found that is extruded is significantly higher.

He loves this feed. It can only be purchased through Tractor Supply and they are a MESS since their annual reset. Even ordering on line appears to be a disaster for this product. I’ve called both TC and TSC customer service w no real guidance so I’m looking for something else.

Any ideas??? I’ve googled to no avail. Thank you.

[RhythmNCruise]

I love researching feeds and supplements. I do it for fun. It’s my weird thing.

I cannot seem to easily locate such a feed for you at the moment, but one of the lowest NSC feeds I’ve fed is Unbeetable Complete. It’s a pellet, but it’s very soft and small (turns into crumbles and powder pretty easily) and soaks super well and fast. Turns into a nice fluffy. I think the NSC is like 6% or something. My gelding loves it, but I’ve had to take him off of it because he doesn’t really need it with his forage balancer and gets too fat on it if fed at recommended levels.

I’ll keep looking though and will post if I find anything! I’m sure others will chime in. I see @JB typing as I speak, LOL.

[JB]

How many pounds are you feeding per meal?

https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eve.13593?fbclid=IwY2xjawMLH2FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHs6fKHcW5xf_i_IcuTC3Sz-jcp6ETIuvdTD_VCxksmrx-jLtn4gWFvsimnrH_aem_on0WmbrLnoGcEKctjSVqOg

Go to p5, bottom half of the left side under ID. I don’t have full access so can’t copy/paste, but it suggests 0.1-0.5kg NSC per kg body weight for “severely insulin dysregulated” horses, which yours may not be, which explains why the 12% NSC is working well

I seem to remember you looking for something a few weeks ago maybe? I can’t find anything that meets both the low NSC and extruded criteria.

Unbeetable Complete is maybe the best of both worlds without being exact. Very low NSC, and while it’s not extruded, it’s really soft and starts breaking down almost instantly in water. Very soft. Like a toothless foal could eat it, soft LOL

[FjordBCRF]

Another voice speaking to how soft the Unbeetable Pellets are!

[JB]

I haven’t found any research on extruded FEEDS showing increased digestibility. Extruded grains, yes, because the extrusion process does things to the starches that make them more safely digested.

I did find this, and will let you read and come to your own conclusions, but here’s a screen shot of some useful info
https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/647b7048-e376-4cdc-ae7f-4e254dde028e/content

So, you could consider Triple Crown Senior Gold, cheaper and 11.7% NSC, but textured, not extruded

If you focus just on lower NSC, the options are more open, some are pretty $$$

The downside to the Unbeetable Complete is it’s only a bit over 1400 cal/lb IIRC (double check the website).

TC Sr Gold is higher calories than Sr Active, so you might also be able to feed a bit less

[NaturallyHappy]

Thanks everyone. I hate to be that “ya, but…” person, so I apologize in advance. He won’t eat Unbeetable. As in flips the bucket over. He wouldn’t eat TC Senior Gold before surgery, so he probably won’t now.
His surgery was tricky….his jejunum was attached to his caecum. I’ve talked to his veterinarians and the consensus is, w respect to the extruded, don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.
My neighbor’s horse had surgery for colic as well. That horse eats it, too, and had been sort of a chronic case due to a thickened wall in the colon (if I’m remembering correctly). She hasn’t coliced since.
We may just buy a pallet together and split it.
I thought I’d check here first in case I’ve overlooked something.

[JB]

Well, my 35yo won’t touch the Unbeetable either, so… :\ Or the TC Sr Gold, so… :\

I totally understand not wanting to change what’s working. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find what you need

the pallet splitting sounds like the best choice. I’ll put a word in to my PhD nutritionist friends from various parts of the country to see if they know of something in this unicorn status

[NaturallyHappy]

Thank you!!! And, you have my sympathy. Thank you for understanding, too. I appreciate that.

[RhythmNCruise]

Yeah, if he doesn’t like it, then that’s understandable. I thought I was going to solve my issue of a million scoops of this and that by switching to Tribute’s Wholesome Blends Balancer. It gets rave reviews for how palatable it is and how horses gobbled it up. Mine acts like I’m trying to kill him. He literally eats plain soaked beet pulp with salt and like five powdered supplements including a forage balancer and spirulina (which apparently many horses don’t like), and he thinks it’s delicious. I tried sprinkling a handful of Wholesome Blends in and he left half of his meal uneaten and walked out of his stall in a huff.

Buying a pallet of the Active Senior sounds good. TSC can be a booger to deal with. I swear my store always has a large stack of that stuff though. I wish I could send you some!

[NaturallyHappy]

Thank you! Kudos to Triple Crown. They called me late today to tell me their district rep talked to the manager of the store. The manager has agreed to keep some in stock. My neighbor went in this afternoon, looking for some and asked about it in the manager said “oh yes, we’re going to have plenty going forward”. Hats off to TC Customer Service.!