What type of diet is best for starved horses?
Top A study at the University of California (UC)-Davis Center for Equine Health experimented with feeding three diets to starved horses that had been seized by animal control and humane organisations. Diet one was oat hay, which is high in fibre but low in protein. Diet two was lucerne hay, which is high in protein but lower in starch. Diet three was a complete feed that combined grain, fat, molasses, and lucerne and contained 19% starch. The horses were offered the diets, which varied in volume but contained the same caloric content, for ten days. Horses responded best to the lucerne hay diet. In addition to protein, lucerne provides necessary electrolytes that have become depleted in starved horses. Lucerne’s relatively low starch content did not cause a steep rise in insulin, a reaction that can contribute to kidney, heart, and respiratory failure in horses without sufficient electrolyte stores. The oat hay, with its high-fibre content, caused diarrhoea in some horses, and the high-
