Tying up

[Jean]

Mare ties up. a worrier. Would like to not feed any grain. Ideas as to good feeds. She is a 4 year old .

[Laurierace]

What do you do with her?
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[Diane]

http://www.cvm.umn.edu/umec/lab/RER_new/
This link spells it out pretty well.
Good luck

[Laurierace]

You obviously have to feed the race horse differently than a broodmare or a pleasure horse which is why I asked what she did with her.
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[Jean]

She is a racehorse. 3 starts, 1 win 2 2nds.

[Laurierace]

Very good! I would feed her a ration balancer and black oil sunflower seeds for fat. If needed rice bran or non-molasses beet pulp for extra calories. I like alfalfa pellets as well but not all horses can handle that.
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[Jean]

What do you mean by a balancer?

[Laurierace]

Rationer balancers are the backbone of my feeding program. Think of it like total cereal, it provides 100% of the day's requirements in a very small amount ie 1 or 2 pounds. You just have to supplement for extra calories which for a horse that ties up should come in the form of fat. I use Pennfield All Phase but most lines have their own balancer. Triple Crown has a good one as does Progressive Nutrition.
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[Joltman]

Some of the extruded feeds (not pelleted) are easily digestible because they are cooked/processed to be easy to break down. One vendor has a rice based product that is supposedly real easy on the system.

jm
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Run the race - the one that's really worth winning.

[kimberley mine]

Look into a magnesium supplement--if she's low on mag, that will add to the tension and nervousness.

Magnesium oxide is cheap as chips and can be bought a most feed stores in a 50lb bag, or there are various supplements on the market. I've had a lot of success with one horse with SmartCalm Ultra. After being on the mag a few weeks, a cool horse with a sweet personality, lots of brains, and fantastic work ethic rose from the ashes of a flighty, spooky, crabby, and temperamental grouch. I've heard very good things about Mag-restore (dimagnesium malate) for extremely nervous horses, but haven't used it myself.

If the weather's nice, you can give her a hot bath with epsom salts. Some of the magnesium will absorb straight through the skin.

Another great alternative for calories without grain or much starch are straight-up hay (NOT ALFALFA) pellets or cubes...both provide calories, cubes long-stem fibre, and may be an option if your mare won't eat beet pulp. You do need to soak them before feeding to prevent choke.

Note about alfalfa: it has a lot of calcium, and she'll uptake the calcium before she uptakes the mag, so mineral imbalance. If she's on alfalfa, try taking her off of it and adding the mag supplement, and see how she does.

[Jean]

Thanks everyone. She will eat beet pulp but the vets say not to feed that as it is high in sugar and last year she never tied up till we tried getting her more calories by feeding it so I think we will eliminate that , she is just beginning to train again for 2012 and we are looking for some ideas.

[kimberley mine]

[Shammy Davis]

http://www.ker.com/library/proceedings/10/The%20Management%20of%20Tying-Up%20in%20Sport%20Horses.pdf

[wilf]

Incredible article there Shammy and very informative which basically says that there are dozens of reasons that bring on tying -up. I had a mare last year that sometimes would tie -up terribly but I would hit her asap with Banamine and Acepromazine and she would be ok in an hour or so. She won 3 races at 3 different racks when the weather cooled off but she was a nightmare when in heat. I guess she fell into the "hormonal issues" category.

[Shammy Davis]

And to think that there are those on other threads who say nobody reads my links. Thanks, Wilf. My spirits are rejuvenated.

The KER resource links are absolutely great. To be honest, like you, banamine and ace are my line of first defense when these frightening situations occur.

Best wishes.