If you follow my blog you know I am always talking about this. Vets use it, nutritionists use it, animal welfare organizations use it, because a BCS is a universal way of determining the current condition of your horse. Specifically, what is the score on a ratings scale from 1 to 9 of your horse’s current weight.
Category Archives: Nutrition and Health Issues
The ABCs of Equine Nutrition; The Letter B
Wow! There are a lot of topics in horse nutrition that begin with the letter “B“. And those topics have a LOT of information! Before we get into nutrients, toxins or any other nutrition topic, I would like to begin with a tool for you to use in determining your horse’s health. A way to help you see if your nutrition program is on the right track. With that in mind we will start the letter B with Body Condition Scoring.
Alternative Options for Stomach Ulcer Treatment & Prevention in Horses
Have you noticed your usually hearty eater has become grumpy at dinner time? Maybe pinning his ears? Eating slower or not at all?
Has your horse started swishing his tail or moving around when you tighten the girth but you have already ruled out poor saddled fit?
Well you might be dealing with an equine ulcer. Since horses can’t verbally tell us what is wrong, behavior changes are usually the first indicator that something is amiss. Horses associate a negative result with the most recent thing that has happened so they might be associating eating with pain. Cranky behavior around dinner time might be a sign that your horse is getting the pain of a stomach ache after eating.
If you have ever had to deal with an equine ulcer (and since 65% of horses have had them so chances are you have) then you might find this article helpful. Even if you are lucky enough to not have had to treat an ulcer yet, it’s always good to understand all aspects of horse health.
Why Alternatives Treatments?
My journey into alternative treatment for ulcers started with a nutritional consultation for a client in California. She was interested in finding a more natural way to treat her 10 year old Arabian gelding for his reoccurring ulcer issues.
She is a firm believer in a natural and organic lifestyle for herself and her horse. This represented a bit of a challenge, a fun and fascinating one, but still quite a task. My traditional protocol suggests utilizing Omeprazole or another pharmaceutical treatment so to treat and prevent re-occurrence without them required viewing the equine ulcer from a different perspective.
Choke in Horses
Green slobber, gasping horse, frantic owner. An episode of choke is one of the worst things a horse and horse owner can experience.
As an equine nutrition nerd I deal with all kinds of feeding programs and in every type I have heard of an incident of a horse choking. Heck horses can even choke on long grass. With that said, let’s look deeper in to “Need-to-Knows” about equine esophageal choke.
Good Articles About Nutrition from EcoEquine
I have decided to re-post on my site the nutrition-related posts from Laura’s blog EcoEquine. She has decided to blog about Farm Sustainability and General Horse Health while I blog about equine nutrition (which only makes sense). Just click the picture below to go to that article.
Peace & Good Feed,
~The Nerd
The Equine Nutrition Nerd 
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