Hello my name is Georgia and I have a 13 year old thoroughbred/riding pony gelding. My horse has had many years of laminitic attacks, rotation in all four pedal bones including a near pedal bone petrusion in his near fore. He is now barefoot, on a track system with very limited grass, supplied adlib low NSC hay and fed a diet of speedi-beet and mineral supplements. He has been doing extremely well, however over the past few years what once was a fat pony has become rather skinny. His ribs are clearly visible and he has absolutely no top line, he shuffles when he walks and I thought he might be developing dementure or blindness as every time I would go up to him he would shy or run away as though he didn’t know I was there. He is very stiff behind and almost drags his back feet, lacks energy and looks aged. He has been on some new supplements for about 3 months from www.gotcha.com.au which includes calcium/magnesium, Yeast extract and Pyslium Husks along with a vitamin and mineral supplement. Our soils are currently being tested and we plan to re sow our paddocks with appropriate grasses. In the meantime I was reading about the possibility that my horse may have EPSM as he appears to exhibit many of the symptoms of an EPSM horse, so I started feeding him some oil. I initially started him with 1 teaspoon morning and night of Flaxseed oil and 1 teaspoon morning and night of Coconut oil. Initially his energy levels improved and he was a lot more pleasant to handle. After a few days his muscles started to tighten so I stopped the oil for a few days until he started to improve again. This time I tried 1 teaspoon morning and night of Flaxseed oil and 1 teaspoon morning and night of Canola oil as he really didn’t like the taste of the coconut oil. Everything was going along well so I increased the oil (over a period of about 2 weeks) to 2 Tablespoons of Canola Oil twice a day leaving the Flaxseed oil unchanged. He is now having a rather bad laminitic attack (I missed the early signs this time)so I have had to stop the oil. It is the only thing I have changed in his diet for 3 months so I believe it can only be the oil causing him to have this recent attack. Could you please explain to me why you might think this could have happened as everywhere I have read basically says oil won’t cause laminitis as it is not a starch and is easily digestible for the horse even though that doesn’t necessarily make common sense to me as they don’t have gall bladders so I’m not sure how they can convert fat to energy. Anyway I would very much appreciate any advice you may be able to give me as it appeared to be making a positive change to my horse in the first few days before he became laminitic.



I look forward to hearing from you.



Kind regards





Georgia O’Connor

Melbourne, Australia

Hi Georgia. I will certainly try to help here. First of all I doubt that your added oil had anything to do with the laminitis bout. As you have found fat calories do not contribute to laminitis unless the horse becomes obese, cresty necked, and insulin resistant. And, the amount of fat you are feeding is miniscule - most horses I work with work up to about 2 cups oil per 1000 pounds of horse per day - and he probably isn't even digesting all of it. Horses don't have a gall bladder but, similar to people whose gall bladders have been removed, they do have a biliary system and make bile and so they can digest fat very well. It is interesting that studies show that the more fat you feed the better the horse digests it. At low levels they do not digest all of it, whereas at higher levels (such as the 2 cups per day) they digest virtually all of it. Being off the fat right now is good, but we definitely need to look for other possible causes. If there is truly nothing different about the diet other than the fat I would ask your veterinarian to make sure he has not developed Cushings, which will make him very prone to laminitis and which could also cause muscle atrophy. Cushings horses as well as EPSM horses do well with added fat. For laminitis prone horses, where we really don't want to risk insulin resistant issues, Cocosoya oil is recommended as the coconut oil is processed differently in the body than other oils and is less prone to causing insulin resistance. Or, perhaps, the exercise was a bit too much and he concussion with the ground has led to a "road founder." Rely on your veterinarian to help him through this bout. I certainly hope he comes through and that you can work with diet, exercise, and farriery to get him back on track and keep him there. Please let us know!