# Alfalfa intolerance



## YorksG (9 November 2007)

Does any one know about/ heard about horses having an intolerance to alfalfa? If so what symptoms etc. were in evidence? I am sondering if Ambers recent odd behavior may have a link to this. Thanks


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## Halfstep (9 November 2007)

My horse has an intolerance to Alfalfa.  He gets bad diarrhea from it.


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## YorksG (9 November 2007)

I see, was his behaviour any different or did you find out before that could happen? Amber doesn't seem to have the same response as yours, but does seem odd, and the only thing left on the list is feed! Gone from spooky but good to a bit of a nightmare, but this also was orignially linked with her needing chiropracter (sp) on her neck. We have now worked through every other possible cause!


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## sleepingdragon10 (9 November 2007)

[ QUOTE ]
I see, was his behaviour any different or did you find out before that could happen? Amber doesn't seem to have the same response as yours, but does seem odd, and the only thing left on the list is feed! Gone from spooky but good to a bit of a nightmare, but this also was orignially linked with her needing chiropracter (sp) on her neck. We have now worked through every other possible cause! 

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe stop her hard feed, give her nothing but hay for a week or two, then slowly re-introduce each individual foodstuff and see how she reacts.


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## YorksG (9 November 2007)

That's the plan! Was just interested to see of others had sim ilar experience. The only feed she has at the moment is alfalfa and applechaff, and hay of course, as she is the worlds best doer! We had one in the past who was intolerant of grain and sugar, fortunately she was fine with alfalfa


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## MontyandZoom (9 November 2007)

My tb's behaviour dramatically improved once I removed alfalfa from his diet. 

After alot of trial and error it seems it was alfalfa making him loony!


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## lastresort (9 November 2007)

mine had allergy tests and it came up as a no no to feed,have fed it though with no probs??!!


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## sleepingdragon10 (9 November 2007)

The little grey in my sig has an adverse reaction to garlic of all things, makes her really itchy! It's funny what they are sensitive to, isn't it? :

Beth


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## Halfstep (9 November 2007)

Apart from the very runny droppings, I didn't notice much difference behaviour-wise, but I only had him a few weeks at the time and he came off it pretty quick!


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## YorksG (9 November 2007)

That's really interesting littleroboat, Amber is a reg appy but has Tb in her breeding, the one we had who was intolerant to so much was TbxWelsh D. I'm beginning tp think that any Tb means watch the feed. 
	
	
		
		
	


	




 How long did it take to stop having an effect (if that makes sense)


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## jumpthemoon (9 November 2007)

Alfa A used to send my last mare absolutely loopy 
	
	
		
		
	


	




 I switched her to hifi and she was much better.


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## ColouredFan (9 November 2007)

Mine cant have Alfalfa it makes him really itchy but didnt effect his energy levels in any way


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## barrymeningen (9 November 2007)

I've not had any experience with alfalfa intolerant horses but I've plenty of horses that are intolerant to molasses, many chaffs including mollichaff, Alfa a etc. are heavily coated in molasses to make them more appetising. I would suggest trying an unmplassed brand such as Northern crop growers or Simple System. PS those that are intolerant to molasses are also often cereal intolerant.


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## emzkes (9 November 2007)

alfaalfa sends my TB crazy!! not just hyper to ride but nasty on the ground too 
	
	
		
		
	


	




 swapped him onto spillers cool fibre which is non mollassed and he is back to normal! if you change him to something similar you should see a diference within afew days if it is the alfaA causing you problems. watch out for sugar beet too a lot of it is very high in mollasses. my boy is now on cool fibre and alfa beet as he is sugar and cereal intolerant!


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## KatB (9 November 2007)

Its often the molasses that cause the problem. Also Alfa Oil is very high in ev#nergy and often causes "fizziness". Try Alfa Lite wich has a lower sugar level and see how you get on....


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## YorksG (9 November 2007)

Thanks all, she has had apple and cabbage(didn't eat the cabbage!) only tonight. She is such a good doer I shall leave it at this for a couple of weeks and then maybe try some unmollassed chaff to get the supplements in.


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## YorksG (9 November 2007)

One of ours won't eat garlic and on the few occasions she has done she has had odd reactions, including blood from the vulva!


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## SpruceRI (9 November 2007)

Think Alfalfa made mine more spooky.  I've always fed her Alfa A and she's always been very spooky but since I stopped the Alfa about a year ago she's been about 25% better.


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## nuffield (9 November 2007)

One of my horses gets mudfever badly if fed anything which had alfalfa in it.


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## Louby (10 November 2007)

Mines shown up allergic to Alfalfa but finding a feed without it in has been hard.  Feed merchant hides when I turn up as my boys also allergic to wheat.  Im now feeding Mollichaff Showshine as a chaff and Cool Mix as a mix but hes loosing condition so Im going to get Top Spec feed balancer I think.  Alfalfa is a good conditioning feed so I wouldnt feed it to a good doer.  I had to watch how much I fed too as it made my spooky horse very spooky.


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