Feed for a Food Allergy Racehorse

Question
I have a 7 yo standardbred mare who we allergy tesetd since she fills up with lung mucous everytime we race her -and we have recently found out that this is a chronic problem thru her career.  My question is:  What do you feed a horse who is allergic to - barley,corn,oats,wheat,rice bran  - basically anything in a commercial horse feed that I can find???  She tested negative on alfalfa and pasture mix.  I would appreciate any info!  And she is allergic to all bedding but peat moss.  

Thanks for your help!

Answer
Hi Paula,

Thank you for your question.  You certainly up against a bit of a challenge with your mare, given her allergy condition.  It looks like your mare's problem is related primarily to cereal grains so you do have some options for choosing a complete feed.  Since yours is a racehorse, I would guess that you need to feed some sort of grain to meet increased energy requirements that come with that much work.  I would suggest that you choose alfalfa as the source of forage, because alfalfa is more nutrient dense and with racehorses you want every mouthful of food to count towards nutrient requirements.  As for a commercial grain mix, you will need to choose a high fat/ high fiber type feed.  Be careful though to choose one that is designed for performance horses as opposed to the ones for light pleasure horses...the reason being that the less performance based ones may use wheat by-products as the fiber source which may still create an issue for your mare.  Pick one that uses beet pulp as the fiber source, which is better for your racehorse anyway as it is more energy dense.  I'm not sure where you are from so I'm not sure what feed company to suggest exactly but could certainly find you one if you let me know what suppliers you have available.  The other option is to make your own feed from individual ingredients, which would ensure that you avoid the allergy-inducing ingredients that you have listed.  I would use a combination of soybean meal (for protein), beet pulp (fermentable fiber),  extruded fat (for carb-free energy) and a mineral/vitamin premix (preferably in a protein base to bring some quality amino acids).  If this is something you would like to try I would be glad to figure out mixing rates for you...I would just need more information like your mare's body weight, age, exercise level and any other pertinent medical information.  Personally, I would go with the make it yourself version primarily for peace of mind and quality control.  

I would imagine that your vet has made some suggestions of medication to help eliminate future reactions.  I would like to make an observation about food allergies in horses...from more a feeding/field perspective.  I'm a true believer that horses are not so much allergic to the feeds themselves but rather react to contaminants on the feeds.  Your horse is showing reactions to cereal grains, and cereal grains have the highest risk of mycotoxin contamination than most other horse feeds.  I have found that horses like your mare benefit greatly from the addition of mycotoxin binders in their feed.  For whatever, some horses can be more reactive to these contaminants than others and react when their stable mates may not.  This is not to say that you should not take your vet's advice in treatment, as that treatment certainly will control reactions.  But it is a suggestion that you try a good yeast-based mycotoxin binder and see if that doesn't alleviate some of your problems and allow you some wider choices in feeds.  My recommendation is Alltech's 'Lifeforce Formula', I think it could truly help.

If you can send me some information on which option you would like to try, I'll gladly help you out a little further.  

Thanks, Corlena