[shawnee1020]

Originally Posted by ejforrest

*"Hay should contain no more than 10% sugar and starch combined".
*"Horses that suffer from Cushings usually do quite well on hay-only diets, beet pulp is an excellent addition to the diet because it actually is more digestible than hay and has a calorie value that is roughly equivalent to plain oats(alot less starch)."
I feed a gallon of beet pulp and a gallon of alfalfa pellets to my Cushings horse. He is 29 this year and still being riden. He has never foundered on this diet.

Beet pulp was suggested so I've been trying for about 3 days now, And he won't even touch it. I bought the mollasses free beet pulp pellets and have been soaking. Well he obviously just likes the sweet stuff. So I am just at a total loss as what to try. He has really bad founder already and can barely walk some days. In his feed he gets thyroid med, groundflaxseed and STP so I need to find something he will eat. I was also told no alfalfa so is there a difference with the pellets?

[PeggySue]

maybe give him the meds though a syringe maybe that is what he is not eating

[Dawn]

If his meds are being added to his feed, that could be his reason for turning his nose up at everything. Is there any other way to dose his meds and leave his feed, just feed?

With the severity of his case, I would not be feeding him any grains at all. (Which I'm sure you realize.) So due to that, your options with the Wellness line would be limited to Perform Safe and Safe and Sound (this one would be a complete diet replacer and might actually be a viable option for him so as to keep his entire diet low in NSC). I would want to know the NSC on those products first though. The starch content is listed on both and is well within acceptable ranges, but who knows what the sugar is. Still likely low, but perhaps not suitable for this situation.