Wheat and Oats allergy

Question
Hi-

My 11 year old Percheron/Paint gelding has recently been tested for allergies, and he is highly sensitive to wheat and oats. He is constantly breaking out in hives. The hives are new this summer, and we have changed his feed to Blue Seal SBP 14-10, however, it does have some wheat in it.  I need a better solution, and wondered if you could formulate a feed for me. He is also sensitive to soybean. I had him on Purina Strategy for the past 3 years, until this outbreak. He is 16.3, and I ride him 45 days a week, dressage.  I'm afraid that my hay might contain some of the weeds that he is allergic to, but don't know what to do about that. I have started his immunotherapy shots, but need more help on the feed. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Tricia,

Thank you for your question.  Sorry it took a little while to get back to you, it took a while for me to formulate a home made ration with the ingredients we can't use.

You are best to make up your own grain mix given your horse's allergies.  Most sweet feeds or starch based feeds will contain either wheat or oats, so these are not your best choices.  Furthermore, many of the high fiber feeds use wheat or oat by-products as the fiber base so they may also be problematic.  Furthermore, soybean meal is one of the preferred protein sources in complete feeds because it has an amino acid profile that best matches a horse's requirements.

With your horse's size and workload, an average quality mixed hay will not meet all of his nutrient requirements so more nutrient dense feeds (grains)are going to be necessary.  I would start by adding beet pulp to the diet, as it a highly fermentable fiber source that horses convert readily to energy.  It has a higher energy value than forage, so I've used it in the ration as an energy source instead of using cereal grains (that are starch based) like wheat or oats. Another energy option would be to feed some beet pulp Plus some fat source (I like the Purina Athlete)which helps bring some of the added benefits of fat to the ration.  As a protein source, I would suggest you choose canola meal, cottonseed meal or oilcake meal.  They all have crude protein levels and amino acid profiles similar enough to soybean meal to be good in a horse diet.  I've given you a few options because some may be more readily available in your part of the country than others, but you only need to choose one.  You will not need to feed a lot of protein and most companies sell it in 40kg bags...so a more feasible option would be to ask at a feed mill that mixes it's own feeds as they may have the protein source in bulk and be able to bag off a little bit at a time.  As a mineral/vitamin premix I would suggest the Purina 'Enrich 12' or a similar mineral/vitamin premix with a 1:1 Calcium to Phosphorous ratio.

The ration is as follows:

Hay:  Free Choice
Beet Pulp:  2.5kg/day  OR  2.2kg/day Beet Pulp + 0.2kg/day Athlete
Protein:  0.2kg/day (200grams/day)
Mineral:  0.32kg/day (329grams/day)

To make enough mix for one week, mix:  1.4kg of Protein, 2.24kg of mineral (and optionally 1.4kg Athlete) and feed 0.52kg per day (or 0.72kg if adding Athlete).

To make enough mix for one month, mix:  6.0kg of Protein, 9.6kg of mineral (and optionally 6.0kg of Athlete) and feed 0.52kg per day (or 0.72kg if adding Athlete).

The beet pulp weight is measured as 2.5kg (or 2.2kg if feeding Athlete) dry weight, and then the water is added.  It would be best not to mix it with the other feeds, as you might not want to soak the other components with water.

All of the feeding rates are suggested as the total amount fed per day...and should be split up into a couple of feedings daily.

I hope this makes some sense, I realize that it can get a bit technical but essentially you have just made a complete feed just like they do in the feed mills.

Thanks, Corlena