So on another bb, there has been an ongoing discussion on soy allergies and problems feeding soy products.

My EPSM horse (21 yr. old appendix QH) has done super on his soaked beetpulp/alfalfa cubes/ration balancer and vegetable oil diet. But he still has breathing problems (increased respiration in hot weather) and terrible oily dandruff (that does not seem itchy unless I curry him) that occurs during shedding (spring and fall). And a few yucky patches have remained this winter as well.

Could the skin/breathing problems be a soy allergy? I was going to switch him over to Canola oil and see how his skin looks this spring. Does anyone feed canola oil? Is it palatable? He has no problems licking up his veggie oil!

Thanks!

Sorry to be so long responding here - I was out of town for a few days. I honestly have not run into a horse that seemed to be allergic to soy oil. Most allergens are proteins and there is very little (if any) protein in the extracted oil. If this were an allergy to anything in the diet it would occur year round. In hot weather you want to make sure that he sweats normally. It would be interesting to check his body temperature during times that he is breathing normally and when he had an increased breathing rate - if he doesn't sweat normally he'll overheat and breath harder in hot weather. He could have allergies to things blooming in summer, also. The oily dandruff is more difficult to explain. It might be interesting to see what happens if you gradually change from soy oil to canola oil. It is palatable to most horses and some folks like the fact that canola oil is higher in omega 3 fatty acids than soy oil. Definitely let us know know things go if you try this.

He sweats normally although he stays pretty calm about things and just doesn't seem to sweat alot but he does sweat. I tried One A/C just in case a few years back with no improvement in his breathing.

He has also had allergy testing via the blood test not skin test. I don't recall all of his positives but there were not that many nor that many in the high range. He did test positive to oats (which he does not eat) and orchard grass (which is vary hard to totally eliminate from his diet as it grows in the pastures and is the easiest hay to purchase in MD) but again, I don't recall if these were "high" or not. We did try him on clenbuterol (very expensive!!) and equihist with some improvement. But I also saw a greater improvement when he started getting the full amount of recommended fat.

So I'm still looking for reasons for this problem. It is frustrating to not be able to ride him when the weather is warm. And he is my mother's trail mount and she does not like to ride when it is cold.

Someone mentioned Cushing's to me. He does not have a particularly cresty neck but it has always been a bit hard which did lessen on the EPSM diet so I attributed that to EPSM. He has always been a big drinker and thus a big urine producer...for 20 years and that has not increased.

So thank you for all your help! I did switch him over to the Canola oil (it is actually cheaper right now) and will see how things progress.

Cushings is a good suggestion and it might be worth asking your veterinarian about this next spring. Treatment with pergolide might give him some relief as perhaps he can't quite regulate his body heat properly in hot humid weather. That is a problem that can be associated with Cushings.