We are considering adopting a horse from our local rescue. We were told that he had and was treated for EPM over a year ago. As we understand this will always remain in his system and can flair up if stressed. The problems we have noticed are that he can be a little wobbly at times and drag his hind feet, also when he is eating his hay he will leak small amounts of urine frequently. He is on the thin side and lacks muscle tone. We were told that if we can start working him and put him on supplements to build his immune system it could help these problems.

Any input would be appreciated.
Cindy T.

We have successfully helped many EPM horses. Not always but very frequently.

You are correct in that it does frequently come back regardless though. The organisms effect the nervous system etc. In my opinion they actually become "trapped" in the fat cells. (spinal cord, brain, liver etc) AND in my opinion they do so because of the hydrogenated fats being fed today. These are common in commercial feeds. Before such feeds there was not even such a disease. Of course I havn't "proved" this scientifically BUT when we "flood" the body with good fats instead of these bad fats they often get better. Of course not putting such back in the body helps too as does supporting the immune system and helping the body get rid of "junk" in general. Every cell in the body is surrounded by fat. It is these cellular membranes that let the nutrients inside the cells and the waste products out. Hydrogenated fats make these cellular membranes like little plastic balls instead of vibrant functioning these cells. Of course the big question is what else have we done to our horses making them susceptible to an organism from opossum manure. the two species co mingled for millions of years.. why now is it a problem… vaccines, of course this type of fat, overuse of chemicals etc. etc.  

 

My protocol is simple. Get off all commercial feed. Follow the advise at www.whattofeedyourhorse.com to the "T". Do double the suggested amount of Weight Check (good fatty acids for flushing) suggested on the label. Also for immune support start on the Aller Check supplement and to help get rid of other "junk" in the body put the horse on the Health Check as well.  

 

Dr Dan

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Yes, even if they lick some its oK. Which of course they will, but use thin coating so they don't excessively lick.

Thanks For Asking!

Part #: C-1005

8 Oz. Jar – Grape Balm Herbal Wound Healer
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Thanks, Eileen

Definitely add the Gut Check. If he has a cresty neck then the Critical Care supplement. Be sure he has access to Red Cal "free-choice" all the time too. Unless he has the cresty neck, I would just use the regular version of Red Cal instead of the Hi-Mag version.

Thanks for asking Eileen
 

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Grape seed is awesome and part of many of our products. Please go to www.askdrdan.com and use the seacrh box to search for "allergies" and  you will find much info through past questions and answers. You can most likely have a new horse soon. Simply follow the advise to the "T" at www.whattofeedyourhorse.com. Got to get all such horses off commercial feed. To the feeding program also add our Health Check supplement of ours to help get rid of the "junk" in the system. Also add for immune support our Aller Check.  These will all help the iR situation as well. Should your horse have a fat cresty neck add our Critical Care IR formula.

It would be very difficult to get enough GS from human products. AND of course you can see our products are so much more than just grape seed. Many of the product ingredients look similar but the amounts of each are unique also all the products are designed to work together. FYI "fun facts".. actually introduced grape seed to horse nutrition over 12 years ago.

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The biggest cause of colic, which seem to be so in your case is explained in the article on page 20 of the magazine (the article is called "Mineral Wise and Salt Poor") and also is the article called "Perfect Pastures"). The episodes occurring when there is a weather change is a tell tale sign in my opinion of too much potassium during these times. the answer is simple .. throw away the salt and mineral blocks if using and have our RED CAL available free choice at ALL TIMES. The article explains how changes in weather affect such. of course they can also have periods of high potassium from hay etc. (especially fertilized hay and pasture since all that is in fertilizer is nitrogen, potassium  and phosphorous). I also suggest our entire feeding program at www.whattofeedyourhorse.com Follow the program to the "T" and add our GUT Check for added digestive support. Just in case stones are also involved you may want to give a little more of the Weight Check oil than the maintenance amount on the label to keep the gut well lubricated yet healthy too. Expect a new horse soon. At least if anything will help nutritionally the above will and I would be very surprised if it didn't. Thanks for asking!

Thanks for your input. I placed an order today & I’m very excited about the articles I’ve read !  You have a lot of products that make sense & I plan to order in the near future. From the below description of my horse I remember that the  4^th mild colic happened after spring shots at our  barn. Unfortunately vaccinations are mandatory at our barn since it’s a boarding facility. I have been able to get my vet to skip rabies to every other year on my horse. My vet is the only local vet that does not do strangles which I’m glad for. One thing I forgot to mention that all this week I’ve been hearing strange “grunting” type noises coming from my horses nostrils. It’s not all of the time but its almost if someone socks you & you go “umph”. I can only hear it because I’m right by her face. I gave her 2 slices of carrots & after she ate them I heard that noise again today. It sounds like a discomfort. Can you tell me about stones in horses?  If a horses has a huge stone that is moving through how long do you think it would take to be fatal?  I am really hoping that your products will fix my mares issue but I am still uneducated regarding stones. Thanks again & I cant wait for your products to get here next week!!! Amie

Grunting sound would be more apt to be from a stomach rather than intestinal issue??? Ulcer perhaps..or joint age related. I would suggest for added support our Gut Check supplement (will help entire gut regardless of cause) and also our  Joint Check which will help get rid of "junk" from previous vaccinations and help with discomfort in general. Thanks for asking!

Hi Dr. Dan. Sorry to bother you again but I went to the feed store to get the oats & they have 3 choices; Recleaned Flat rolled Crimped Which ones? Thanks again, Amie

Any are fine. At www.askdrdan.com you could also search for the word "oats" and it will give the previous answers to similar questions too. Regardless once the oat hull is broken by crimping rolling flattening or whatever they start breaking down and they are only 6 percent more efficient anyway digestibility wise. So generally I suggest "whole" (in your case the re cleaned) since one generally doesn't know how fresh the others are. Thanks again for asking!

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Hello Sheridan,

Others may say otherwise, but Scratches, in my opinion, is the body attempting to discharge something through the skin, the bodies largest organ. The key is to help the body get rid of such junk, not put more back in and support the immune system.  To accomplish this I always suggest our "Health Check" supplement.

But please note that the BIGGEST source of such "junk" is commercial feed with hydrogenated fats etc. I don't know what your feeding program is, but I also always suggest following our feeding program which you can learn much more about at the easy-to-remember site www.WhatToFeedYourHorse.com and follow it to the "T". No commercial feed at all.

To further support the immune system I suggest our "Aller Check" supplement (somewhat pricey but is awesome!).

Regardless of what others might say, The problem is not a fungus and treating such only makes worse.

Of course, vaccinate, deworm etc with chemicals and other sources of toxins as little as you feel comfortable with. We do fecals.  Topically, I would only use our Grape Balm herbal would healer. It is ugly and stinks but works great.

There is an audio in my online library about Thrush and White Line (all similar to scratches) that you might enjoy listening to at www.DrDanLibrary.com You can also see other questions/answers dealing with Scratches at: http://askdrdan.com/?s=scratches

Scratches are not easy Sheridan and can be a pain, but by focusing on working on it "inside-out" has helped hundreds if not thousands through the years.

Keep us posted and thanks for asking!


Dr. Dan

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Hello Joyce,

Please look over our website at www.WhatToFeedYourHorse.com
as well as these search results at http://askdrdan.com/?s=cushings for
lots of information.

I don't know what you are feeding now, but Our Feeding Program that you will
learn about at the link above is the needed foundation! It consists of an
Oats diet (no commercial feed!) along with our "Just Add Oats" supplement,
our RED CAL (no blocks!) and our Weight Check Oil (with Omegas).

Again see more at:www.WhatToFeedYourHorse.com

In some cases I would also suggest our Gut Check supplement and
have also asked others to consider our Critical Care Hypothyroid formula.
(I know it says overweight formula too but basically it is great for cushings and regulates sugars)
It is pricey but really nothing else like it and generally only a tub or two is needed.

Please keep me posted and thanks for asking!

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I have a 1/2 quarter 1/2 fox trotter gelding about 9yr old. He always looks thin through the hips an spine, I feed open pasture plus always have fresh 1200lb round bale of clover mix available. I worm on a schedule with my vet but I think he looks thin, everyone else in the neighborhood thinks my horses are fat. Is this just his breeding or am I missing something? I grain only in the winter as they are not worked but just pets, yes we ride but not enough these days its to hot and Charlie doesnt like to sweat.

Thank you-  Martha
 

Hello Martha,

If he doesn't sweat I would seriously look at the minerals he is not getting. Truth is that today a horse can't get all he needs from grass or hay. Our soils where grass and hay grow are just deficient….period. They have plenty of fertilizer in them but all those other minerals on the periodic chart we learned in high school just aren't there. Also vitamins are few and far between as are good fats deficient.  Please look the website www.whattofeedyourhorse.com. Bottom line horses today must be supplemented. See the article about salt and minerals on page 21 of the magazine and the one called "perfect pastures" too.

I really suggest at a minimum our Red Cal free choice, our product called Just Add Oats (just a handful of oats needed to add the supplements to).  Our Weight Check Oil is a real must to either lose or gain weight.  2 oz help lose and maintain. More will help gain.

Also please look over www.wormcheck.com. It may give you an unique view point on "regular deworming".

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We have 6 acres of fields that we use for hay.  We are new at making our own hay.  This year I seeded the field and then we fertilized it for the first time.  I am really intersted in your opinion about using fertilizer and am wondering if there any books that talk about making hay more naturally.  I know you talked about lime in one of your articles.  

Do you put that on every year and at what time in the year?  

Any info would be appreciated.  

Thank you,  Carrie D.
 

Yes lime and if you see weeds you need lime. Every area is different amount wise. I would check out our "Pasture Check" product as well.

There is an article about it in the magazine. Other than these lime and it..only natural sources of fertilizer such as manure, compost or perhaps some natural form of minerals quarried locally.  On the amount of lime and that availability of such I would suggest you just "ask around" since every area is different. I just feel like salt based fertilizers (10 10 10 or similar) are destroying our soils and environment. I also did a CD called "animals don't lie" that I think is the one has some info about such. It may be the one called "Uncivilized Health".

Use the links below to not only visit our website, but also for direct links to the Audios at DrDanLibrary.com and Magazine articles at DrDanMag.com

Thanks for asking

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Mikey has never missed a day of work in our six years until two months ago. This horse…well, eats, alot while working…I feel it is the way God made him, to eat thru-out the day. He eats, or was eating, carrots, apples, cubes (alphalfa) as treats throughout the day, and then would have Safe Choice, 1 scoop, three times a day along with two handfuls of Stay Stron twice a day (i really love that stuff). I do not stall my horses.

They get to be horses. So, we had four days off beginning of June. My dad had fertilized a month or so before with no rain. Then, we had lots of rain about the same time we were off. I go to get him to go to work, which btw is usually a 10 hour day,  and he can barely walk. Took about a week to dx. (won't go there). Founder, (.8 on one foot and 4.6 on the other) probably due to grass. He stayed with vet three days then my farrier put steel shoe with gel padding and he's in eighth week with one change of shoes/padding. Many questions, I guess. Mike loves his job, or rather, the attention he gets from his job, but as a Rocky, he really "pounds the pavement", ie, nothing ever really slow about this horse even walking, never running, but I do allow him to gait and if he is in a hurry to go to the potty spot (yes, they are potty trained), I have allowed him to lope.

Should he ever go back to work, even part time? Should I pull these special shoes off of him and let him heal w/o the shoes even though It hurts him to stand on them? How often should I get an xray to see how he's doing? I enjoy my job almost as much as Mikey does, but I don't EVER want…his health to suffer because of me…I have a mare I can take to up there to work, but she seems to…not really show emotions..she will pretty much do what i ask, but then not eat her feed or Stay Strong for 3 days after, and I don't know what to do about that either.

HELP!

Do I just need to get another job? And if so, are you hiring! LOL,

Thanks, Tasia

I have lots of foundered horses that get back to "whatever". In fact, I can only think of a few out of hundreds and hundreds that haven't. I only wish you had read my articles ("Laminitis", Mineral Wise Salt Poor"-page 20, "Perfect Pastures" all in the magalog)….also wished you had found and watched my videos in the library section of the website BEFORE all this happened.

Right now personally I would get rid of the shoes for now.

I would follow the feeding advice on www.whattofeedyourhorse.com to the "T" and add for support the Joint Check supplement. Additionally I would add the Critical Care Laminitis   formula since he is painful. Get him off all the other supplements and feed. If you don't have "new horse" with time of course that greatly varies I will be very surprised. The Critical care is the only pricey product but like your horse "there just isn't anything like it"

Hang in there and do not give up.. If anything will help nutritionally the above will but do follow the advice to the letter.

Thanks for asking

Dr Dan
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