Complete supplement for picky cushings mini?

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slonewbt

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Hi everyone! One of my minis was diagnosed with cushings. I have him on low starch alfalfa/teff pellets and/or cubes and am trying to add the recommended supplements of chasteberry, magnesium, vit E and flax. So far, if I add anything to his feed (even a tiny bit) he goes off feed entirely. I'm looking for a simple and palatable form of the above mentioned supplements that might work (or others that support cushings horses). He definitely has a sweet tooth but, for obvious reasons, I can't indulge in that! I'm on the fence about putting him on prascend as the last cushings horse I had years ago went off feed completely and got terribly depressed on the drug. OH...forgot. He's a quidder so can't have hay if anyone is wondering why we have him on pellets /cubes. Thank you
Janine in California
 
Uckele has a liquid sugar-free flavoring, I believe it comes in peppermint and molasses flavors. I think it's ECIR safe, but double check that.
Stabul-1 feed and treats are low carb, and on the safe list from the ECIR group. [I order direct from the company, and get their "crumbs" to mix into my horses supplements. Seems to help. The crumbs are just easier for me, as I feed dry, but the nuggets would probably work to flavor, especially if you soak to fluff the pellets and cubes.]
Smartpak has chastetree berry pellets, might be more palatable than the powder. Evitex has a liquid chastetree berry extract.
You may have to make a syringable paste out of his chastetree berry and vitamin E to get him to eat it, at least to start (depending on the form of each). [I use 35 or 60cc catheter tip syringes for oral dosing.]
 
I like Chanda's idea of syringing in the things he really HAS to have right away - that way you're sure he gets them.

Then my idea for the other supplements is that since the cubes/pellets are his "hay", try to figure out a way to give him "grain" separately. Magnesium has very little taste so you just need something to hide the powder in (ultimately that would probably be better hidden in the wet cubes, due to the larger volume, unless you find a pelleted supplement - just start with a tiny amount and slowly increase until you're where you need to be). He'll either like the flax or not - so you can try ground flax by itself first and see where you're at with that. It is sticky when wet and some horses don't like that feeling in their mouths and prefer it mixed with other stuff. Anything that is pelleted, you could try billing it to him as a "treat" at first - i.e. hand feed it to him and see if you can give it a little cache that way. If it's still a hard sell then the idea of flavoring or really just anything he really likes is where you'd go next. Save that thing for only in his "grain".
 
The magnesium I use is MagRestore. It comes in a pelleted form that smells good and all three of mine will eat it out of my hand (about a teaspoonful is what they get) so it must taste pretty good. I use UltraCruz Vit E powder and it's aroma free and doesn't taste like anything (to me anyway). I also use UltraCruz Flax oil, my guys won't eat ground flax so I went to that option. Some don't like oil though, it seems to be an individual preference.

ETA: Celery makes a good treat :) all natural, no sugar
 

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