Need feed suggestions for horse with allergies

[KTBKR]

Hi everyone! I know this topic has been talked about a lot before, and I have read many many many threads, but none of them really relate to him. So I very much appropriate any, and all input!

Horse background: he is a 3 1/2 year old American Warmblood, just this past summer he developed major skin issues and decided to stop sweating. We live in South Central Florida, and summers are hard on almost all horses. He is currently on Seminole Excta-14 (14% protein and 7% fat) and gets 6 quarts a day, and has access to O/A pasture block 24/7. He also gets electrolytes am/pm, and GrandCoat in the pm.

After a horrible summer with his skin, and trying every supplement and lotion to clear it up I decided to go for the allergy test. The results just came back yesterday, and no wonder he looks like crap, hes allergic to so much!

He tested positive to the following with a blood serum test:
Orchard, Bermuda, Johnson Grass, Timothy, and Bahia grasses
Australian Pine, Palm, Oak, Willow, Bayberry, and Melaleuca trees
Barley, Corn, and Cottenseed foods (and is borderline on beetpulp)
Wheat, and Barley grain.

I know with this test its not 100% accurate with the food allergies, but it gives me a pretty good idea. So I am at an almost total lost as to what to feed him.

The commercial feeds that I have easy access to are Seminole, Nutrena, TripleCrown, and Purina (which I would like to avoid at all cost) and I am not against mixing my own homemade feed either.
I will be switching him to alfalfa, and he is also getting a series of allergy shots starting next week.

Thanks again for any help!!!

[walkinthewalk]

You will get different answers as each horse reacts differently but here’s what I did for my horse with environmental allergies <----- which I live in the Tennessee Valley, aka The Basin or as the farm vet likes to say “allergy purgatory”

1. Remove ALL grains and do NOT feed any supplements or ration balancers that use soy as the protein source. I don’t see alfalfa on your list, so alfalfa as the protein source should be ok.

1.1. I feed a condensed vit/min supplement for grass fed horses that comes from Horse-Tech. You could mix it with alfalfa pellets.

2. I ORALLY fed my horse a total of 20CC’s of injectable cow Vitamin A&D, 5CC’s at a time, over the summer.

3. I put the horse on all natural human grade Vitamin E from Horse-Tech.

4. The horse has been on MagRestore for 3-4 years for his angst and it turns out MagRestore also helps his allergies. MagRestore is magnesium maleate which is more absorbable into the body than mag oxide.

****Hopefully your horse is an easy keeper because its diet choices are so limited. Feeding huge amounts of alfalfa is not in the best interest of a horse. One measuring cup to mix any supplements, twice daily is what I use in Timothy pellets:)

best set of luck — I’m sure others will come in with suggestions:)

[mmeqcenter]

The sweet itch in Florida has been horrendous this year for everyone. Head-to-toe fly sheets overnight for the warmblood with it here has been the only fix.

I know many people who have fed free-choice alfalfa hay without issue, and I have also done so myself.

Sounds like you just might need to go back to the simple “good ole’ days.”
Alfalfa and oats, rice bran or an oil for fat if needed, multi-vitamin/supplements to balance ratios.

[CanteringCarrot]

For my allgeric guy (and also a friend’s) I feed alfalfa cubes or pellets, a mineral to balance his specific diet needs (also high in vit E), and flax. Either flax seed oil or the seeds themselves. I had to make sure at first that his copper and zink were in order because that effected his skin and coat for sure. I also feed a higher dose of MSM.
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I’ve also mixed in oats before. I’d stick to basic ingredients.

If fat is needed and you don’t want to mess with oil I would think Cool Calories would be ok. We don’t have it here, but I think it’s just a non oil (dehydrated) form of oil, yeah?

[Peggy]

Mine is allergic to alfalfa, Bermuda, carrots, corn, barley some weeds, fungi, and trees, and mosquitoes. When I did the first test he was allergic to culloides (no longer allergic to those) instead of mosquitos. He was also previously allergic to rice bran, but apparently not now.

I took him him off alfalfa which probably also helped with some of the fungi. I switched him away from SmartPak (much was alfalfa based) and on to HorseTech supplements. The vet advised flax with extra DHAs so I use HorseTech’s Profile. He eats Timothy haty and oat hey pellets—OP could use alfalfa pellets which seem to be better at putting weight on than the hay itself and less likely to have molds.

The immunotherapy shots don’t include foods.

My my vet explained that the shots help even if it’s not a perfect match, either by helping with some allergies or maybe with the immune system.

I started slmost two years ago. The first summer was better but I had to resort to hydroxyzine. This past summer I used less hydroxyzine.

[Cynical25]

Personally, I’d try oats, alfalfa, and Horse Tech’s High Point Daily Vitamin for alfalfa-based diets. Even if he didn’t test positive to soy & corn - ingredients in most concentrates and supplements - those seem to trigger horses with other allergies so I’d be avoiding them.

My skin-crud-prone, allergy-ridden gelding also receives 5cc/week orally of the cattle Vitamin AD (keeps skin crud at bay,) and daily Histall H (for “improved immuno response.”) Histall H was a new find this spring, after 5 years of trial & error, steroid shots & hydroxyzine from the Vet, and I was incredibly surprised to discover it’s a God send for this horse! He required zero vet attention for allergies this year, didn’t itch any bug bites open, didn’t get a crusty/weepy sweet itch belly, and there was no nose & eye goop from North Texas’ gazillion environmental allergens.