Aargh! Horselyx too luscious! Advice please!

Jane&Ziggy

Jane&Sid these days!
Apr 30, 2010
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Well, this will teach me to read NR first.

At the feed shop today I saw a garlic horselyx and thought, "Oh, the boys might like that". Gave it to them after their food and Ziggy bullied Mattie off it, so shot off to get another (don't like bullying).

By the time I got back - say 1 hour tops - Ziggy (horse sense score 10) was peacefully grazing and Mattie (horse sense score 0) was still licking. He had eaten about 10% of a 5 kg tub. I looked at the contents - 30% MOLASSES! Eek!

I took the offending lick away. But Mattie has now eaten about 200g of neat sugar.

Is this bad for him? Will he be bonkers tomorrow??? :help:
 
If Ziggy had first go, he might have eaten a fair proportion of that - for all you know Mattie had only been licking :tongue:at it for 5 minutes before you turned up
I think a sugar rush (at least in people) is come and gone within hours rather than days??? Therefore cant see why there'd be a problem tomorrow.
Lesson firmly learnt though I think!
 
May be footy though if barefoot particularily, just keep an eye on tootsies :)

Rascal bites the likits off in chunks, now banned in our house! He got excited when I bought out a salt block... sniffed it and walked off. It dissolved in a bucket in the rain and they never touched it :giggle:
 
LOL my boy has only supervised access to horselyx (and thats about to stop come the end of this tub). The supervision isn't for him - he has a wee lick at it and will keep some for later. His fieldmate on the other hand comes away looking like he's covered in blood (a grey) and tries to eat it rather than lick it. He's dug a hole in this one after one day of being left alone with it so from experience I wouldn't imagine it should cause too many issues but sounds like its best not to leave unattended again!!
 
This is off the Horslyx website FAQ section. :nerd:

1. Horslyx contains Molasses, isn’t all that sugar bad for my horse?
No! Horses are designed to eat sugar (grass can be 20% sugar) and are therefore efficient at digesting it, as long as the intakes of the sugar are little and often (like when the horse is grazing or when they are licking Horslyx).

You should also consider the types of sugar, treats such as polos and sugar lumps are 100% sugar, made from highly refined pure white sugar granules. Molasses is unrefined and is the same sugar as found in grass and hay.


Horslyx is 33% sugar. The recommended intake of 250g per day provides the same amount of sugar as just 2lbs/1Kg of good hay or 2.5Kg of fresh grass.
The type of sugar and the rate of intake is the key to safety. Like most things, sugar is good in moderation. The central nervous system, including the brain, can only use glucose (the purest form of sugar) as an energy source.


Horslyx should be viewed as the equine equivalent of a human multi vitamin tablet, which is also sucrose (sugar) based. The sugar is present as a palatable carrier, as in Horslyx, for the essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements which both the horse and the human needs to promote health and vitality.
 
Hmm, very interesting, Laura! I also :nerd:

And no madness today, so probably ok for them to have a lick after dinner, so to speak.

Thanks all!
 
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