Is Alfa-beet suitable for laminitics?

[Laura+Phantom]

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[artemis]

You should feed unmollassed sugar beet such as speedibeet & avoid high sugar feeds. The competition mix is probably high sugar. You could ask Spillers, or the laminitis trust.

[doris]

Ditto above, I'd certainly try to cut out anything 'high' energy etc and put onto laminitis trust approved feeds. Many horses do very well on just the fibre type of feeds plus hay, and don't actually need anything else. Having said that, there are always exceptions that drop weight and condition. All these feeds, Speedibeet, HiFi, Simple Systems all have their own websites and they will certainly help if you do have a horse that needs low sugar diet, but also needs a bit of help to keep the weight and condition on.
I use Speedibeet, Happy Hoof and HiFi Lite for my two and am quite happy so don't want to change, but if I did, I would probably opt for Simple Systems range of feeds.

[Jessey]

Alfa-beet in moderation should be fine, but really it will depend a bit on how much you are looking to feed and with what.

The other feeds you mention - competition mix is generally molasses (pure sugar) covered which is terrible for lami, Molichop is straw (no real nutritional value) covered in molasses, so again not good for a lami and sugarbeet (the regular old fasioned pellets that need soaking for 24 hours) are also molasses covered :o

I would seriously consider changing her feeds to something which is high fibre low starch and low sugar as this will be more suitable for a lami horse and generally much healthier for her :p Lami as I am sure you know can be triggered by many different things and the wrong feeds is one of them, feeding to much energy for the work can make a horse unusually stressed or anxious which can be a trigger and tummy upsets could also be a trigger, as can running on hard ground and being overweight etc :p

Pleanty of forage should be the first thing on the feed list, choosing a low quality (by this I mean older and not rich but never damp or dusty) hay and/or high quality oat straw is the best idea, then you can feed as much as she will eat, trickle feeding is essential to keep horses guts functioning properly and to prevent things like ulscers.

Answering these sort of questions will help assess what type of feed and how much she will need - How much feed does she get now? is she a good doer? how much work does she do? what condition score is she currently? what turn out does she get?

Next I would look at the base for her feed - I would probably opt for a nice quality chaff, dengie do HiFi Lite which is a very lightly mollassed (about the lowest chaff I can think of) or they also make their Alfa range, but I would be careful about feeding too much alfa to a lami prone pone :D

Next I would look for a high energy feed (if she genuinely needs high energy)that supplies this energy from fats rather than from starch as your current feed does. Dengie make the Fibremix range - its a range of feeds that are high in digestable energy but lower in starchs etc. Spillers feeds are also higher in digestable fibre and oil and lower in starch - the cubes would be less sugar than the mix.

Then if she needs to gain some weight adding Speedy beet (or alfabeet) to the diet gradually would be a good idea, it is high fibre and unmollassed so very good for them and will help keep weight on.

Remember any changes you make to her diet should be done over a week or more - take out 1 cup of the old feed and add 1 cup off the new feed each day - that way she shouldn't get any more but the change can be made gradually :D

J x

[MelanieD]

Most likely alfabeet would be better than the competition mix, but some horses really don't react well to alfalfa and I've had more foot related problems (very mild laminitis) with one of mine when feeding alfalfa then when feeding build up mix and mollassed sugarbeet and chaff with it!

[Laura+Phantom]

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[Jessey]

Perhaps if you spoke with the owner and explained what the concerns are over the feed and how you would rectify them maybe list out what alternative feeds there are and how they give similar results but with less risk - she might wholely agree with the changes once s/he understands where you are coming from :p

[puzzles]

As always ( ;-) ), ditto Jessey! :-)

fed in moderation it should be fine, hopwever i would instead recommend that you feed Speedibeet as it is Laminitis Trust-approved, unmolassed and an excellent, quality feed.