I recall hearing once or twice about MSM making horses spooky,but I have used it once or twice in the past and never noticed anything like that.
A couple of weeks ago I added it to my 26 year old’s feed and he has gotten very spooky .
This horse has never been very spooky,even as a five year old right off the track.
He is retired so not a big deal, just wondering if this an effect MSM has or if I should start looking for other reasons.
This was the case for my TB. When he was on MSM he just seemed jumpy and agitated. I’m not talking about having more energy or feeling good, I’m talking a total behavioral change, even when turned out. He just seemed pissy and would look for anything to spook at.
I took him off MSM and made no other changes to feed, training, or tack, and he went back to his amiable sweet self. My vet speculates that since MSM is sulfur-based, it might irritate some horse’s stomachs, causing crankiness / spookiness.
Anecdotally, most of the horses I have heard of who have a reaction to MSM are thoroughbreds or have high percentages of TB blood. Nothing proven, just what I have noticed from talking to barn-mates and equine professionals.
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no problems with MSM but I do have a mare and her two daughters who get spooky and twitchy if they eat any form of commercial pellet, fine on sweet feed. Easy enough to take him off and see if he settles. If not then go looking for a cause.
Yes had this happen with one horse.Same horse also has extreme reaction to dmso
I just took my horse off of it after two years. He’s always been bombproof. He did fine for the first year on a pelleted version, but got spooky and anxious around the same time I switched him to AniMed’s (which I did because I understood it to be a high-quality version.) There were some other changes in his life at around the same time, so I didn’t immediately look to the MSM, but I’m trying now to see if that makes a difference in his well-being. He’s a laid-back dude and it must suck to be a prey animal with anxiety.
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Easy enough to find out - take him off, give him a couple weeks, evaluate his temperament, if he’s back to himself, put him back on the MSM and see what happens.
I had one that MSM affected in that way - made him spooky and reactive. Just like JB suggests, we took him off and he was better, so tried it again and he went cuckoo, so off the MSM he stayed!
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I had a mare that MSM made spooky and anxious. I took her off of it and I did re-challenge her and yes, it was the MSM:yes:.
My current horse was on it a couple years and no problem. She hasn’t been in serious work and seems fine without so in trying to minimize “stuff”, I took her off of it.
Susan
I thouht it was interesting that my horse who had bizarre reaction to MSM - jumping out of his skin- also acted like his skin was on fire if I used DMSO-
come to find out they are related substances-
anyway do not let anyone tell you this is bogus.
It is an easy one to check- just stop the msm for a month…
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PS- in my case the difference was immediate after taking this horse off msm- did not take a month.
And only one horse had this reaction- others are on msm with no problems
I wonder if he is allergic or extra sensitive to sulfur. Do not not know.
My TB gelding turned into a paranoid, fire-breathing maniac on MSM. Like, rearing up and flipping over at the sound of a car door closing and bolting through fences at the rustle of a blanket. He is the only horse I’ve personally met who had a reaction, but MSM caused a total behavior change in him. It was near immediate and would only worsen the longer he was on it. But as soon as you took him off, he went back to normal.
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IIRC, for mine, it didn’t take long at all to see the difference when I took him off - maybe a few days at most - but a little bit longer to see change when he went back on it - more like a week or so. And he was a TB. I’ve used MSM on other horses without problem but as we all know, they can all react differently to things.
Thanks everybody I took him off of it a couple of days before I posted and I already see a change in him.
I have used it with other horses in the past, but the change in my old guy was huge!
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[QUOTE=Kyrabee;9009264]
I had a mare that MSM made spooky and anxious. I took her off of it and I did re-challenge her and yes, it was the MSM:yes:.
My current horse was on it a couple years and no problem. She hasn’t been in serious work and seems fine without so in trying to minimize “stuff”, I took her off of it.
Susan[/QUOTE]
I had never heard this! Just took it out of my mares supps today!
I had both of my mares on it - the AniMed powder. My mare with spooky tendencies did fine on it. My usually unflappable mare became spooky and also began randomly pulling out of the cross ties. She was quite unlike herself.
I stopped the MSM and she stopped the troublesome behaviors.
okay, so what was the time frame that everyone saw changes in their horses on msm? as in negative side effects? how long after starting msm did they start showing the negative behaviors and how long did it take for them to return to normal after removing it from their diet? I’m beginning to think that this might be what’s wrong with my mare! she’s been far more reactive to things that never used to bother her, she doesn’t want to stand in the aisle to get tacked up, she gets herself all worked up and wont stop pawing, under saddle she’s been over reactive to sounds that usually shouldn’t bother her, vehicles passing the arena, car doors closing, the 4 wheeler, birds, you name it she’ll try to run from it. she normally loves trails but has been almost impossible to handle the last few times. she never used to like being brushed and tacked but she’s gotten better, and now gotten waaaaay worse again. she’s just not her relaxed laid back self anymore, she’s had ulcers in the past but her symptoms were NEVER like this! its really hard to see when exactly the symptoms started since she started the MSM the same time we moved 2000 miles to a different state and she had to get adjusted to everything being different. Im guessing, that if this is the problem, that some of her behaviors while we were getting settled were her reacting to the MSM, as the months went on she kept getting worse, now 6 months after moving and she still doesn’t seem settled and happy when she’s not in her pen! I’m taking her off the MSM today and going to monitor her behaviors CLOSELY to see if she changes back to her old self,
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When I had the mare that was reactive to it, it happened quite quickly, like within a week and similarly, the reactiveness resolved just as quickly. As I said, back in Jan ‘17, I did rechallenge her with it and she was again hyper-reactive and it subsided as soon as I took her off of it.
It is water soluble and should leave the body promptly upon discontinuing.
Susan
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that’s encouraging! my mare has now been off it for 3 days and I think I’m seeing a difference already! she’s getting better about standing in the aisle even after other horses get to walk past her and leave. she still runs around the arena like a mad woman when I first pull blankets and let her run and roll, but I think that’s more just her regular routine, she did settle and start wandering around after a few minutes. I’m still hoping that she continues to return to my mare I had 6 months ago!
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Could be a combination of the MSM and different barn practices, feed and turnout from what she was used to at her old barn as well. My mare has never reacted to being on it but as mentioned above a lot of horses do.
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I had an early-20s Hanoverian gelding who went nuts on MSM. He was ok getting a small amount of it in a multi-ingredient joint supplement but when I fed him straight MSM, he was scared of everything. I took him off of it and two days later, he was back to normal.
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