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 Jr. Detective
    
Location: Beggs, OK | PLEASE GO TO MY PAGE ON FB:
IS YOUR HORSE FEED SAFE
I have been sharing stories, articles, studies, and my own personal experience with my horses exposure to this toxin. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | That's right, often times it could be a complete innocent mistake. I was told a story of a feedyard that was having cattle dying. Took months to figure out the problem and they kept having them die. It turned out to be the cleaning crew, sweeping toxin into the feed piles, unknowingly. So many ways for mistakes to happen.
Edited by Tdove 2015-10-22 10:43 AM
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Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | No matter the source of the contamination...It's a MUCH larger issue than most people realize. The feed mills look at it as an acceptable risk and are hedging their bets on the fact that people don't think to test their feed or even consider the feed as being the reason their horse is sick....especially if it's only one horse out of ten that is having trouble. |
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 Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
Location: Opelousas, LA | winwillows - 2015-10-22 9:59 AM The tradition of making both medicated cattle feeds and horse feeds is not unusual for many feed mills today. More so than ever based on profit generation. They do have protocols for doing this in a way that they feel is safe. The problem remains that human error is the one factor that can't be completely controlled. The only way to be 100% safe is if no medication is at the facility where horse feed is made. No matter what your protocol is, one ****ed off employee can change everything. If the medicated ingredient is on site, there is always a risk.
Exactly, and your protocol is only as good as your worst employee. Anyone who has tried to hire help lately will understand how scary that is, it is a rarity to find people who pride themseves in a job well done. |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 11:21 AM
No matter the source of the contamination...It's a MUCH larger issue than most people realize. The feed mills look at it as an acceptable risk and are hedging their bets on the fact that people don't think to test their feed or even consider the feed as being the reason their horse is sick....especially if it's only one horse out of ten that is having trouble.
Do you have a link to some of the "mild" symptoms? The mill we were using had horses get sick, and a couple die. Of course the facility tested clean, but they had ample time to "clean up" so to speak before an inspection was made. After that spell, we were also feeding Nutrena feeds.
My gelding has been "off" all year. And his weight has fluctuated, his coat has come and gone, dull then shiny, then dull again. Not running hard. Just coasting, seeming to run out of gas. Dull look in his eye at times.
We recently swapped everything on the place over to a Putina feed, but this horse in particular, along with my other barrel horse are now on alfalfa cubes and while oats, both from safe companies. It's been a week since I began the swap, and they've been off processed feed for 3 days now and I swear he looks better each day. I noticed today his top line seems to have filled out more.
I just wonder if the feed was contaminated. Just enough to cause issues, but not make him deathly ill. He's the only horse on the place that had problems. He practically lost all of his hair this summer, just crazy weird stuff. I've owned him 5 years and he's never had issues like that before.
Hmmmm....  |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
| dashnlotti - 2015-10-22 9:55 AM
rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 11:21 AM
No matter the source of the contamination...It's a MUCH larger issue than most people realize. The feed mills look at it as an acceptable risk and are hedging their bets on the fact that people don't think to test their feed or even consider the feed as being the reason their horse is sick....especially if it's only one horse out of ten that is having trouble.
Do you have a link to some of the "mild" symptoms? The mill we were using had horses get sick, and a couple die. Of course the facility tested clean, but they had ample time to "clean up" so to speak before an inspection was made. After that spell, we were also feeding Nutrena feeds.
My gelding has been "off" all year. And his weight has fluctuated, his coat has come and gone, dull then shiny, then dull again. Not running hard. Just coasting, seeming to run out of gas. Dull look in his eye at times.
We recently swapped everything on the place over to a Putina feed, but this horse in particular, along with my other barrel horse are now on alfalfa cubes and while oats, both from safe companies. It's been a week since I began the swap, and they've been off processed feed for 3 days now and I swear he looks better each day. I noticed today his top line seems to have filled out more.
I just wonder if the feed was contaminated. Just enough to cause issues, but not make him deathly ill. He's the only horse on the place that had problems. He practically lost all of his hair this summer, just crazy weird stuff. I've owned him 5 years and he's never had issues like that before.
Hmmmm....
I would say that if your seeing such good results after only a few days off processed feeds then it was pretty likely! |
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Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | FLITASTIC - 2015-10-22 12:07 PM dashnlotti - 2015-10-22 9:55 AM rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 11:21 AM No matter the source of the contamination...It's a MUCH larger issue than most people realize. The feed mills look at it as an acceptable risk and are hedging their bets on the fact that people don't think to test their feed or even consider the feed as being the reason their horse is sick....especially if it's only one horse out of ten that is having trouble. Do you have a link to some of the "mild" symptoms? The mill we were using had horses get sick, and a couple die. Of course the facility tested clean, but they had ample time to "clean up" so to speak before an inspection was made. After that spell, we were also feeding Nutrena feeds. My gelding has been "off" all year. And his weight has fluctuated, his coat has come and gone, dull then shiny, then dull again. Not running hard. Just coasting, seeming to run out of gas. Dull look in his eye at times. We recently swapped everything on the place over to a Putina feed, but this horse in particular, along with my other barrel horse are now on alfalfa cubes and while oats, both from safe companies. It's been a week since I began the swap, and they've been off processed feed for 3 days now and I swear he looks better each day. I noticed today his top line seems to have filled out more. I just wonder if the feed was contaminated. Just enough to cause issues, but not make him deathly ill. He's the only horse on the place that had problems. He practically lost all of his hair this summer, just crazy weird stuff. I've owned him 5 years and he's never had issues like that before. Hmmmm.... I would say that if your seeing such good results after only a few days off processed feeds then it was pretty likely!
And to think he got that feed for years...
we never had any kind of issues before. Then I started reading about monecin on BHW. Then we got wind of sick horses eating the same mix as ours. It was at that time that he looked like poop. But I kept attributing it to other things. It was his first summer in 24/7 turnout, I moved him from home, etcetera etc. Ugh. So disheartening. And it's almost frustrating that nothing else on our place or my mom's got sick. Although now that I THINK about it, my mom has an older gelding that went down over the summer too. Same feed. Lost weight, felt like doodoo, stopped eating. Since he swapped to Purina he has started clocking faster with his young rider. Her parents even bought her a new horse bc he had slowed down so much lol.
I can't prove it was the feed, but I'm happy to say that everything in my feed room is from a "safe" feed company. So hopefully we don't deal with these issues again!! My horse goes to the vet next week for a lameness exam, and I will certainly ask him about possible damage that could have been caused. I'm glad that BHW is such a wealth of knowledge. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11494
Location: 31 lengths farms | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-23 8:33 AM
PLEASE GO TO MY PAGE ON FB:
IS YOUR HORSE FEED SAFE
I have been sharing stories, articles, studies, and my own personal experience with my horses exposure to this toxin.
Rachellelynn80-can you list the safe feed companies again on here? The ones that do not produce any medicated feeds in their mills, I think you had gotten a list together a while back. |
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Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | dashnlotti - 2015-10-22 11:55 AM rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 11:21 AM No matter the source of the contamination...It's a MUCH larger issue than most people realize. The feed mills look at it as an acceptable risk and are hedging their bets on the fact that people don't think to test their feed or even consider the feed as being the reason their horse is sick....especially if it's only one horse out of ten that is having trouble. Do you have a link to some of the "mild" symptoms? The mill we were using had horses get sick, and a couple die. Of course the facility tested clean, but they had ample time to "clean up" so to speak before an inspection was made. After that spell, we were also feeding Nutrena feeds. My gelding has been "off" all year. And his weight has fluctuated, his coat has come and gone, dull then shiny, then dull again. Not running hard. Just coasting, seeming to run out of gas. Dull look in his eye at times. We recently swapped everything on the place over to a Putina feed, but this horse in particular, along with my other barrel horse are now on alfalfa cubes and while oats, both from safe companies. It's been a week since I began the swap, and they've been off processed feed for 3 days now and I swear he looks better each day. I noticed today his top line seems to have filled out more. I just wonder if the feed was contaminated. Just enough to cause issues, but not make him deathly ill. He's the only horse on the place that had problems. He practically lost all of his hair this summer, just crazy weird stuff. I've owned him 5 years and he's never had issues like that before. Hmmmm....
It could have been some sort of contamination or it could also be attributed to changes in ingredients. Companies use alternate low cost ingredients that will still meet the nutritional guarantee, but may not necessarily be the best form for your horse. If you look at the ingredients list you can see that it's very vague and really isn't much that you would choose to feed your horse separately. Regardless, I'm so happy that you've seen positive changes. Good nutrition and a healthy gut are the key to a healthy and sound horse. Good nutrition means different things to many people though and we are all guilty of falling into the "horses have to have concentrated feeds" mindset. |
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Veteran
Posts: 144
| You know, I'm almost wondering if the little yearling that supposedly died from Quest didn't have monensin toxicity. Last I heard there was no definitive diagnosis? |
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Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | BayRoan - 2015-10-22 1:10 PM You know, I'm almost wondering if the little yearling that supposedly died from Quest didn't have monensin toxicity. Last I heard there was no definitive diagnosis?
The videos that I saw on the pages that were after Quest and other wormers were absolutely a neurological reaction to a toxin, but with no more information than was given, there's no way to know. I don't think that it had anything to do with Quest from the little bit that I did read about it. The timeline didn't match up at all. |
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 12:21 PM BayRoan - 2015-10-22 1:10 PM You know, I'm almost wondering if the little yearling that supposedly died from Quest didn't have monensin toxicity. Last I heard there was no definitive diagnosis? The videos that I saw on the pages that were after Quest and other wormers were absolutely a neurological reaction to a toxin, but with no more information than was given, there's no way to know. I don't think that it had anything to do with Quest from the little bit that I did read about it. The timeline didn't match up at all.
I was just wondering the same thing! |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 10:33 AM
PLEASE GO TO MY PAGE ON FB:
IS YOUR HORSE FEED SAFE
I have been sharing stories, articles, studies, and my own personal experience with my horses exposure to this toxin.
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Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 12:49 PM dashnlotti - 2015-10-22 11:55 AM rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 11:21 AM No matter the source of the contamination...It's a MUCH larger issue than most people realize. The feed mills look at it as an acceptable risk and are hedging their bets on the fact that people don't think to test their feed or even consider the feed as being the reason their horse is sick....especially if it's only one horse out of ten that is having trouble. Do you have a link to some of the "mild" symptoms? The mill we were using had horses get sick, and a couple die. Of course the facility tested clean, but they had ample time to "clean up" so to speak before an inspection was made. After that spell, we were also feeding Nutrena feeds. My gelding has been "off" all year. And his weight has fluctuated, his coat has come and gone, dull then shiny, then dull again. Not running hard. Just coasting, seeming to run out of gas. Dull look in his eye at times. We recently swapped everything on the place over to a Putina feed, but this horse in particular, along with my other barrel horse are now on alfalfa cubes and while oats, both from safe companies. It's been a week since I began the swap, and they've been off processed feed for 3 days now and I swear he looks better each day. I noticed today his top line seems to have filled out more. I just wonder if the feed was contaminated. Just enough to cause issues, but not make him deathly ill. He's the only horse on the place that had problems. He practically lost all of his hair this summer, just crazy weird stuff. I've owned him 5 years and he's never had issues like that before. Hmmmm....
I had finally just decided that there must've been a weed or something out there that he was allergic to. Since he was new to the property. Who knows. I hope he wasn't exposed to the toxins, but I also hope I don't deal with the same thing every summer. But yes I have decided to be proactive about his nutrition and am excited about the horse I'll have in 30, 60, 90 days. He's capable of winning, and this year he struggled. It's a let down when you have that awesome year winning money against girls you always thought "better" and the next year you can't clock with them to save your life. And it's not bc they were outrunning me. My horse wasn't running. Thank you for all of your research and knowledge!! |
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Veteran
Posts: 194
Location: OKLAHOMA | HUGE THANK YOU to Rachellyn80 for all she has shared with us all on BHW and FB. Just in my little bit of research the
time involved is crazy. So THANK YOU very much Rachellyn80, I know you have gigantic passion for this and I for
one am greatful for your willingness to share. Be Bless girl.... |
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Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | run n rate - 2015-10-22 12:26 PM rachellyn80 - 2015-10-23 8:33 AM PLEASE GO TO MY PAGE ON FB:
IS YOUR HORSE FEED SAFE
I have been sharing stories, articles, studies, and my own personal experience with my horses exposure to this toxin. Rachellelynn80-can you list the safe feed companies again on here? The ones that do not produce any medicated feeds in their mills, I think you had gotten a list together a while back.
I think SKM had a pretty comprehensive list that she had put together. The northern girls I know were having a harder time finding clean mills. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11494
Location: 31 lengths farms | I'll try to PM her and see if she'd be willing to copy it here again too...or maybe we could just do a paste at the top specifically for this ... |
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Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | rostymom - 2015-10-22 2:41 PM HUGE THANK YOU to Rachellyn80 for all she has shared with us all on BHW and FB. Just in my little bit of research the
time involved is crazy. So THANK YOU very much Rachellyn80, I know you have gigantic passion for this and I for
one am greatful for your willingness to share. Be Bless girl....
You are welcome, and Thank You. It's been a mixed bag for sure. I have made myself a target for some and disregarded by others...but, I've never learned more because of something so awful in my life than I have about this subject.
It's not anywhere close to being over and I know I will irritate the devil out of some, but they're not the ones that I'm concerned about anyway. I hope to bring about some new regulations to protect horse owners from ever going through what we have been through this year. |
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  Witty Enough
Posts: 2954
Location: CTX | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 3:31 PM rostymom - 2015-10-22 2:41 PM HUGE THANK YOU to Rachellyn80 for all she has shared with us all on BHW and FB. Just in my little bit of research the
time involved is crazy. So THANK YOU very much Rachellyn80, I know you have gigantic passion for this and I for
one am greatful for your willingness to share. Be Bless girl.... You are welcome, and Thank You. It's been a mixed bag for sure. I have made myself a target for some and disregarded by others...but, I've never learned more because of something so awful in my life than I have about this subject.
It's not anywhere close to being over and I know I will irritate the devil out of some, but they're not the ones that I'm concerned about anyway. I hope to bring about some new regulations to protect horse owners from ever going through what we have been through this year.
I am pretty sure you saved a bunch of horses already with your research! I know from now on if I ever have to change something in my feed schedule I will research it extensively before I give it to my horses!
So, thanks for your time and effort!!!
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-22 10:33 AM
PLEASE GO TO MY PAGE ON FB:
IS YOUR HORSE FEED SAFE
I have been sharing stories, articles, studies, and my own personal experience with my horses exposure to this toxin.
You have been a blessing with all your hard won knowledge and information. Thank you again. |
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