I have a 27 year old Appaloosa mare that was diagnosed as an IR horse by UC Davis. She was being fed alfalfa and apparently it was way too good a feed for her considering her state of health. I didn't have access to grass hay so did the next best thing, I started soaking her alfalfa, I would put a flake in a mortar mixing pan, and leave it overnight, take the hay out and feed and put in another flake for the next meal. I was really curious to see just how much sugar was actually leaching out and let some of the water sit in a bucket for a couple of days and I had a lovely alfalfa beer develop, wow, loaded with leached sugar. As soon as I could I purchased grass hay that had been tested to be low in sugar...
This mare had the typical cresty neck and rolls of fat over her tail, and she was being fed a minimal amount of hay. She also had a serious bout of laminitis as a result of her IR situation. She was rolled back on her haunches, wouldn't put weight on her front feet, a totally miserable horse.
I have a good friend that recommended giving her a teaspoon of cinnamon daily and adding a herb called jiaogulan at the rate of one teaspoon a day. My friend is an herbalist and regularly treats her herd of Arabians and draft animals with natural remedies and she has lots of very old very sound and healthy animals, so I gave it a try.
In a matter of two days there was a remarkable change in my mare, no heat in her hooves, no pain at all was demonstrated when my vet checked her again, and x rays revealed no rotation had occurred. I kept up the treatment for the length of time it took for her weight to normalize, then I stopped the jiaogulan and continued the cinnamon.
I really feel that this saved both her soundness and her life. She is now four years post laminitis, totally sound, and beautifully healthy.
It might be worthwhile to explore adding cinnamon to this mare's feed daily, it really helps with the easy keeper issues, and consider adding jiaogulan if she has a flare up.
Here is a link to a website with a little information about the J herb
http://www.all-natural-horse-care.com/Jiaogulan.html.
And about laminitis in general
http://www.all-natural-horse-care.com/laminitis-in-horses.html
And information about using cinnamon.
http://www.wholehorse.com/articles/cinnamon_article.htm
I will add another experience, one of my friends has a 14 year old quarter mare that according to her farrier, has flat feet, that is why she was chronically tender if not shod on her fronts. This mare also had the cresty neck, fat tail head lumps, was an easy keeper. I told her of my experiences with my mare and after about a year of thinking about it, my friend put her mare on 1/2 teaspoon of the J herb and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and called me a week later and said the mare was not sore..at all...She recently told me her farrier remarked about the wonderful condition of this mare's hooves and was astounded that she was totally sound, so my friend told him about the two things she was doing, he is now researching for himself and has said he will tell his clients about it. She also shared the information with her vet, with the same result, amazement that the formerly sore mare was now sound...
This is just my experience and that of one of my friends that is giving the herbs to her mare. Might give you something to think about.
Personally I would buy a horse that had laminitis in the past because I am convinced this simple treatment helps keep them sound.
Regards from wet California
Lee
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