Protecting Your Horse from EMS
Last month we covered the fundamentals of carbohydrates and began addressing
some of the carb-related complications to be aware of. This month, we’re
taking an in-depth look at the top 3 biggest carb-related threats to your
horse and how you can properly avoid them.
Equine Metabolic Syndrome
Specialists have grouped the main metabolic issues for horses under a single
term: Equine Metabolic Syndrome or EMS. The term is used to describe horses
with both a metabolic and a hormonal disorder characterized by three main
features: obesity, insulin resistance (IR) and laminitis.
Who’s At Risk?
Not all horses are at the same risk of EMS, even if all the external factors
remain constant (diet, breed, etc.). Researchers believe that your
horse’s genes play a large role in whether or not they are pre-disposed.
Owners often call pre-disposed horses “easy keepers.” These horses
are incredibly efficient at utilizing calories and often require less
feed to maintain their body weight than other horses. EMS more commonly
affects ponies or thrifty breeds (quarter horses, etc.).
Obesity
The 3 different aspects of EMS (obesity, insulin resistance and laminitis)
are often connected to one another. For instance, researchers believe
an obese horse has a higher risk of developing insulin resistance and
laminitis.
How do you tell if your horse is actually obese or just a little bulky
around the edges? Obesity (also called regional adiposity) is characterized
by an accumulation of fat in certain areas, such as a cresty neck (see
image below), close to the tail head, just above the eyes, behind the
shoulders and in the sheath or mammary glands region. Of all these
places, fat over the crest of a horse indicates a much higher risk
of developing EMS.
Insulin Resistance
It helps to think of insulin as a school hall monitor whose job is to get
students out of the hall and into their classes as fast as possible.
That’s what insulin does, but instead of students it’s glucose (sugar)
in your blood. When a horse eats, their pancreas secrets insulin into
the bloodstream. As your horse’s body breaks down their feed and absorbs
glucose into their bloodstream, insulin directs that glucose where
it needs to go (into muscle tissues, fat tissues, etc.).
Insulin resistance is like when that hall monitor starts to get really
lazy. The insulin shows up to direct glucose into the horse’s body
tissues, but the act of actually absorbing the glucose happens at a
much slower rate. Because they aren’t absorbing the glucose out of
their blood as quickly as they should, the glucose begins building
up in the horse’s bloodstream.
To deal with the higher amounts of glucose in their bloodstream, a horse’s
body will start secreting even more insulin. This means horses and
ponies with EMS have a higher concentration of insulin in their blood,
which can be measured to determine if insulin resistance is present.
Laminitis
Laminitis is a painful and debilitating disease of the digital laminae
(the tissue inter-connection between the coffin bone and hoof wall).
One of the main issues with laminitis is that by the time clinical
signs are recognizable, crippling body changes such as sinking and
rotation of the coffin bone have already occurred. The problem is that
diagnosing laminitis can be incredibly difficult as its symptoms mimic
those of other complications. Acute laminitis may be mistaken for colic
or tying up. Lameness due to laminitis may be misdiagnosed as hock
lameness, bruised sole, and abscess. If in doubt, assume your horse
has laminitis until proven otherwise.
Risk factors for developing laminitis include: carbohydrate overload, colic,
diarrhea, excessive concussion, retained placenta, drug reactions,
systemic infection, injury, obesity, genetics, and insulin resistance.
While these might seem like a lot of complications to prevent, controlling
the risk factors to avoid laminitis is much easier than treating the
disease if it develops.
Management Tips
In the long run, it’s much easier to use proper management strategies to
avoid EMS rather than treating it. The first trick is to correctly
and constantly monitor your horse or pony to ensure they never become
obese. This can be more difficult to spot at early stages than one
might think. By the time obesity becomes obviously noticeable, often
a number of detrimental hormonal and metabolic changes have already
occurred. It’s imperative to maintain your horse at an optimal body
condition score of 5 or 6 (1 to 9 scale).
Properly managing your horse’s diet is also key to avoiding EMS. Most pastures
today are much more plentiful sources of food than earlier horses would
have had at their disposal. This means their bodies’ haven’t evolved
to account for such an excess of feed available. Essentially it’s like
dropping a human in a room full of cake and ice cream, we just can’t
help ourselves. To combat this, some nutritional experts suggest using
grazing muzzles. Another idea is to alternate between pasture turnout
and dry-lot turnout.
When feeding your horses or ponies for performance, choose forages low
in sugars and starches. For example, Alfalfa is typically lower in
sugar and starch than grass hays. Another key is to maintain a healthy
exercise routine for your horse. Research has shown that exercise affects
insulin sensitivity via several metabolic pathways. This makes it an
important element in treating and preventing EMS.
For more ways and information on how to properly protect your horse from
carb-related diseases, click the button below!
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