Cooking for Kaswyn

Every Sunday I prepare Kaswyn's grain for the coming week. He's getting a different feed than everyone else because I wanted to try and keep him on the same program he was on at the other barn. Besides that, he gets supplements that he won't eat unless the grain is wet. At the last barn I had his supplements pre-measured in little containers. The barn owner would add the supplements to his grain and wet the whole mix with water (or applesauce if he was getting bute or aspirin) right before he was fed. This isn't convenient to do at this barn, so I pre-mix his grain, supplements, and hydroxyzine in containers, and wet it down with corn oil (because water or applesauce will freeze in this weather!).

This is what my setup looks like when I'm mixing everything together -

Kaswyn is not getting what is considered a traditional grain; he's getting a diet balancer. It isn't really a grain because it doesn't contain corn or grain products. It's formulated to help horses use the maximum amount of nutrition they can from their hay so that most of their calories come from hay instead of grain. This is really good because you don't need to feed nearly as much of it as you do traditional grain, and it prevents the horses from having bellies full of grain that is difficult to digest and hard on their systems. It's low in starch and sugar so it's great for horses who have foundering issues and those who are glucose sensitive. The brand is Progressive and the product is the Grass Formula. He used to be on "traditional grain", but a gal at the last barn has a degree in Equine Nutrition from Cornell and suggested the switch to a diet balancer instead of grain. All the horses seemed to do very well on it. If Kaswyn needs more calories the best thing to do would be to provide those calories in fat instead of more hay, and Progressive has a product to do that also. It's called Envision, and I haven't had to add that to his grain mix yet. I might have to do so when (if!) we get working at full capacity again.

For supplements Kaswyn is on 4-in-1 by Med-Vet. It's kind of an all-in-one supplement and gives him glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, biotin, plus microbials and amino acids. He's also on an herbal supplement by Earth Angel Herbs called Easy Stride that's supposed to increase circulation to the feet and lower limbs to help decrease inflammation and speed healing. He used to be on another product as well called Nublada's Formula, but I stopped giving him that when I realized that it didn't shrink his navicular cyst like I had hoped it would.

Of course right now he's also on 500 mg twice a day of hydroxizine. The capsules are 50 mg each, so for every feeding I have to crack open 10 capsules. By the time I'm done my fingers are sore! The dexamethasone I mix with water and shoot it in his mouth with a syringe so I can be sure he's getting all of it.

Susan and Barb (another gal at the barn) tease me every time they see me setting up my assembly line. I tell them that I know it's a pain, but my horse is awesome and he's worth it.