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Veterinarian Joyce Harman suggests supplements that help your horse combat founder's metabolic triggers.
The bad thing about founder is that it's an expensive and devastating disease that causes intense pain and all too often leads to euthanasia. The good thing is that new research and alternative treatments are improving the odds of beating it.
In my August 2002 Practical Horseman article "Fight Founder Holistically," I explained an approach to founder that combines conventional veterinary medicine with a safe, holistic program using items available online or at your local feed or health-food store. The following excerpt suggests helpful additions to your founder-prone horse's diet.
My research has led me to conclude that in almost every chronic, hormonally based, diabetes-like or "cause unknown" founder, the horse needs help getting insulin into his cells. (One way to recognize this type of founder: The horse develops a cresty neck or sheds poorly.) Provide your horse that help by adding the following to his food daily:
Flaxseed, a great source of anti-inflammatory omega-3 and omega-5 fatty acids. You can feed as a couple of handfuls of whole, raw flaxseed (available from livestock or wild-bird feed stores), 4 to 6 ounces of good-quality stabilized flax meal (available online froom Advanced Biological Concepts) or three to four tablespoons of flaxseed oil (from your health-food store's refrigerated section). Be sure to keep the oil refrigerated--and don't attempt to grind your own; it will oxidize and go rancid almost instantly. If your horse tends to be a bit "funny" about new tastes, start with a small amount and gradually increase.
Chromium picolinate, four 500-mg capsules a day (available over the counter in drugstores and supermarket pharmacy departments). This mineral aids glucose and insulin metabolism-as does...
Magnesium citrate (available in health-food stores). Give 1 to 3 mg daily.
Loose, free-choice, salt-free minerals (available online from Advanced Biological Concepts and also in some feed stores). Make sure the minerals are salt-free so your horse can eat all he wants; provide separate free-choice salt as well.
The bad thing about founder is that it's an expensive and devastating disease that causes intense pain and all too often leads to euthanasia. The good thing is that new research and alternative treatments are improving the odds of beating it.
In my August 2002 Practical Horseman article "Fight Founder Holistically," I explained an approach to founder that combines conventional veterinary medicine with a safe, holistic program using items available online or at your local feed or health-food store. The following excerpt suggests helpful additions to your founder-prone horse's diet.
My research has led me to conclude that in almost every chronic, hormonally based, diabetes-like or "cause unknown" founder, the horse needs help getting insulin into his cells. (One way to recognize this type of founder: The horse develops a cresty neck or sheds poorly.) Provide your horse that help by adding the following to his food daily:
Flaxseed, a great source of anti-inflammatory omega-3 and omega-5 fatty acids. You can feed as a couple of handfuls of whole, raw flaxseed (available from livestock or wild-bird feed stores), 4 to 6 ounces of good-quality stabilized flax meal (available online froom Advanced Biological Concepts) or three to four tablespoons of flaxseed oil (from your health-food store's refrigerated section). Be sure to keep the oil refrigerated--and don't attempt to grind your own; it will oxidize and go rancid almost instantly. If your horse tends to be a bit "funny" about new tastes, start with a small amount and gradually increase.
Chromium picolinate, four 500-mg capsules a day (available over the counter in drugstores and supermarket pharmacy departments). This mineral aids glucose and insulin metabolism-as does...
Magnesium citrate (available in health-food stores). Give 1 to 3 mg daily.
Loose, free-choice, salt-free minerals (available online from Advanced Biological Concepts and also in some feed stores). Make sure the minerals are salt-free so your horse can eat all he wants; provide separate free-choice salt as well.