The Equine Wellness Foundation Introduces

Equine Veterinary Nutrition (EVN) Bermuda Plus Pellets (ingredient link)

The Therapeutic Nutrition Solution to Prevent and Treat Equine Endocrine Diseases

“To treat and prevent digestive disorders in horses, we want to feed a diet that is lower in carbohydrates. EVN Bermuda Plus Pellets is a complete feed providing sufficient proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals for all horses.”

-Dr. Barbara Page D.V.M., Dr. Emily Graves V.M.D.

Dietary Management is Key to Your Horse’s Good Health

The equine community has long needed an improved feed option for horses with endocrine and metabolic disorders. Mountain States Feed Co., G-Cal Research and Colorado Equine Clinic have developed a pellet feed that can be used to help manage those metabolic disorders. Equine Veterinary Nutrition (EVN) Bermuda Plus Pellets are a therapeutic, complete feed designed to meet necessary dietary needs in today’s horses. EVN Bermuda Plus Pellets are made with:

1. Bermuda grass hay, which is naturally low in levels of starch, sugars, and fructans. Mountain Sunrise Feed Co. measures the starch and sugar levels in its Bermuda hay and keeps them consistently low to reduce contributing to endocrine disorders.

2. A balance of macro and micro minerals along with vitamins, to complement those naturally found in Bermuda hay.

3. Magnesium and chromium, to help treat horses with endocrine disorders.

This combination of natural Bermuda hay, minerals and vitamins gives you a key tool to help manage your horse’s diet and promote good health.

Inadequate Feed Contributes to Endocrine Diseases

The equine diet has evolved over the past 40 million years, adapting to new environments to ensure the survival of the species. In more recent history, the wild horse grazed a variety of grasses in the western part of the United States. The combination of this natural diet of sparse, dry desert grass and the need to walk at least twenty miles a day to forage helped create the digestive system of the horse we know today. However, horses’ food and environment have changed more rapidly than evolution.

Today’s feed options and living conditions no longer resemble those required to provide the best nutritional balance for the horse digestive system. The common foods available for horses today - oats, barley, timothy hay; alfalfa, molasses, and even carrots - are higher in carbohydrates than what is healthy for the horse. Think of humans eating dessert for every meal. Hay grown for production is fertilized and watered, producing an end product rich in protein, starch, and sugars. Foraging is no longer a daily activity, and horses stand for the majority of the day and night. Lack of exercise causes sugars to sit in the cecum (a pouch at the junction of the small intestine and colon, like a human appendix) instead of moving more quickly through the digestive system. The combination of a high-carbohydrate diet and low activity contributes to an increase in endocrine diseases, such as Cushing’s Disease and Equine Metabolic Syndrome.

High-Carbohydrate Diets Affect Cushing’s Disease and Equine Meta bolic Syndrome

Cushing’s Disease (CD) and Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS), conditions similar to human diabetes, both alter cortisol metabolism; however, the causes are different:

* CD results from the pituitary gland producing excess hormones, which in turn stimulate the adrenal glands to overproduce cortisol.

* EMS results from excess production of active cortisol, primarily in fat cells. Unlike CD, the pituitary gland function is normal.

Symptoms of CD and EMS very similar and include abnormal fat deposits along the crest, over the tail head and in gelding’s sheaths, as well as laminitis and dull hair coats. In some CD patients, and a vast majority of EMS patients, insulin resistance develops, leading to poor glucose utilization and secondary diabetes. Some horses may be genetically predisposed to CD and EMS, as they appear more often in Morgans, American Saddlebreds, and ponies. However, any diet higher in carbohydrates can stimulates further insulin production, causing this state in any breed.

How to Order

To order EVN Bermuda Plus Pellets:
[ in Colorado please contact Colorado Equine Clinic]
[outside Colorado go to www.MountainSunrise.com ]

The quantity to feed is 1 ½ to 2 pounds of pellets per 100 pounds of body weight per horse. Increase or decrease this quantity to maintain ideal body weight.