09/09/2021
๐ฆด๐ฅ๐ช๐ผ
โ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒโ or nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism is a severe calcium deficiency that results in weakened bones and will occasionally cause horses to have enlarged facial bones, giving the disease its common name โBigheadโ.
Bighead is difficult to diagnose and will often result in subtle symptoms like stiffness, changes in behaviour, general body soreness, strange breathing noises and difficult-to-pinpoint lameness. Unfortunately, the first symptom you might really notice is a broken leg or pelvis.
๐๐ป๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ.
Know the types of grass your horse is grazing and their likely oxalate content. Because unless you recognise that the pastures you have are putting your horse at risk, you wonโt realise you should be doing something to prevent it. The highest risk grasses are setaria, kikuyu, buffel grass, green panic, pangola grass, guinea grass, purple pigeon grass, para grass and signal grass. If you have any of these grasses in your pastures your horse is at risk and will need specific supplementation with calcium, phosphorus and magnesium to avoid ending up with Bighead.
If you canโt identify the pastures yourself, collect entire plants (preferably with roots and seed heads) and take them into your local rural supplies store or DPI office. There should be an agronomist there who can help you.
๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ถ๐ฝ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ
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Feed Lucerne hay
Feeding lucerne hay will reduce your horseโs pasture intake, thereby reducing your horseโs oxalate intake. It also increases your horseโs calcium intake, making the job of adding enough calcium to balance the calcium to oxalate ratio, much easier.
DIET TIP: Feed 2 to 4 kg of lucerne hay per day for a 500 kg horse. Doing this is particularly important for lactating mares.
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Avoid feeds high in P
When choosing feeds to use for horses on high oxalate pastures, avoid unfortified, high phosphorus by-products like rice or wheat bran. Like oxalate, phosphorus reduces the absorption of calcium and may make a calcium deficiency occur even faster.
DIET TIP: Ensure you feed fortified, complete feeds that have a balanced calcium to phosphorus ratio.
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Balance ratios
To prevent bighead disease, the calcium to oxalate ratio of the diet needs to be at a minimum of 0.5 parts calcium to 1 part oxalate.
DIET TIP: To make the maths of calculating your horseโs calcium to oxalate ratio easy, use FeedXL.com. FeedXL will work out the calcium to oxalate ratio for you and will also help you keep the calcium to phosphorus and calcium to magnesium ratios balanced.
๐๐ซ๐ง๐ฅ๐ ๐ง๐๐ฃ
Horses on high oxalate pastures often end up with dry, dull coats. Balancing the diet to meet calcium (and all other) requirements will help. But you may find your horse still has a dry coat. If you find this is the case, try adding 60 ml of EasiOilยฎ or 100 g of Polishedยฎ (based on a 500 kg horse) to help skin conditions and get that coat sparkling!
High Cal product link - https://www.prydes.com.au/high-cal
๐ If you are already using Pryde's High Cal, we would love to see your story with how it has helped in the comments below.
