The main dietary goal in managing an HYPP (Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis) horse is keeping total dietary potassium under 1.0%. It is key to look at the total dietary potassium instead of just the hay or just the grain source.
To figure out total dietary potassium (or any other nutrient level), use the following formula:
((Pounds of hay x percent potassium in hay) + (Pounds of grain x percent potassium in grain)) / Total pounds of feed.
For example, if you are feeding 15 lbs a day of a grass hay that measures 1.0% potassium, along with 6 lbs a day of a grain mix that measures 0.8% potassium, then your calculations would be as follows:
((15 x 0.01) + (6 x 0.008)) / 21 = 0.942% total dietary potassium.
Find out the potassium of your hay source, and of your grain, and then you can figure out your horse’s total dietary potassium level.
I feed Lite balance and Senior Nutrena feeds-the probelm is everyplace carries the Senior and Safe choice but only one place carries the Lite Balance and they don’t have convient at all hours. Why do the places that carry the other 2 not carry the Lite balance also–I know there are plenty of hefty horses out there!! Please don’t tell me it’s up to the stores –they say it’s up to their Nutrena Rep. what they carry. I’m in S.W. Wis. so Gassers in Boscobel or Farm and Fleet would help out !
Hello Randi – Thanks for commenting, and we’re glad you like our products so much! We do allow any of our dealers to purchase from us any of our products. That said, chain stores such as Gassers or Farm & Fleet take a bit more to carry a product due to being a chain versus a single-location independent store. I’m going to have one of our local reps contact you via email to help get you situated, OK? Thanks again for contacting us! ~Gina T.
I wanted to know which Nutrena feed to use for our HYPP horse? He is an aged guy, 22. Gets all of the grass hay he can eat. Unfortunately in our area stabling is our only option so he stalled but gets regular daily excersize. The owners we are leasing him from said they feed a complete feed (or senior), all the grass hay he can eat as well as a flake of alfalfa daily. We do have another horse who is strictly fed whole oats (Nutrena’s of course!) with a vitamin supplement…he is not HYPP and is a easy keeping Arabian. What I read says to use whole oats and few other feed stuffs. I’m a HUGE Nutrena fan and wish to use Nutrena feeds only. This guy has had very few eppisodes in his long life time and we wish to keep it that way!
BTW..he is not an easy keeper!
Great question. Sound you have two entirely different diets to maintain.
With any HYPP horse the goal is to keep the potassium level below 1% in the TOTAL diet.
1. Hay your grass hay tested to see what level it is currently. Alfalfa hay contains about 2.4% potassium.
2.As for feeds straight oats are always a good feed with potassium ranges from 0.4 to 0.6% per pound. However, two products that Nutrena offers that would also work for your horse, and provide appropriate potassium levels are Vitality 10 and Vitality Ultra (if available in your market area) as they have potassium contents of about 0.8%.
You stated this horse is a hard keeper, and I feel the Vitality feed would work well for him, providing good quality calories, as well as quarantined lysine and methionine levels, biotin, organic trace minerals, as yeast culture for enhanced protein digestion and absorption.
For the easy keeper Arabian, I would suggest SafeChoice. With high fat, fiber and controlled starch you will minimize the risk of nutritionally related problems. The balance of vitamins, minerals, biotin, yeast culture provide a well balanced feed program for our easy keepers. The feed rate for easy keepers is .25 for every 100 pounds of body weight.
You will need to determine your horses weight to calculate the proper feed amounts. Click here to see a blog post on how to weigh your horse.
Ideally 1.5 – 2% of their body weight per day should be forage.
We hope this helps you, and if you have any more questions, let us know! ~Gayle R.
Good information that you offered here, I think I can derive what I might consider feeding my QH. I have not had her HYPP tested though am suspect. Will likely have her tested when next the vet is out. Let me get your advice: 11 y/o fleshy, easy keeper QH w/ all day turn-out, La. heat, lite summer work load (I can’t take the heat in the summer here!!), no hay, feeding 1/3 scoop mix of oats/10% grain twice daily. Over the winter I had weighed her feed but at that time she was getting 1/2 a scoop twice daily. So not sure the weight. Anyway, it amounts to about two, two handed scoops of feed. If it wasn’t for her herd mates coming in for dinner, I suspect she wouldn’t always bother with coming in for what little she is being fed.
I would like to feed an oat/grain mix as oats are low in potassium and a good grain will assure I am meeting her nutritional needs. What are your thoughts?
Hi Stephanie, Great question! We generally recommend feeding our Vitality Perform products to HYPP horses, due to the cereal grain (and thus lower potassium) content. If fed at the minimum recommended amount for her size – which would be approximately 3 lbs per day) then it would contribute about 0.024% potassium to her daily diet. You could also drop the straight oats from her feeding plan, as they are already in the Vitality, and adding more oats actually throws off the nutritional balance of the feed.
And of course, don’t forget this doesn’t include the amount of potassium from pasture, which is the bulk of the diet and the main contributing factor to achieving that overall 0.1% or less potassium level in the diet. It is hard to know how much potassium your horse could be getting from pasture, but you could contact a local ag extension agent to get an idea or get soil sampling done. You also have to be careful of fertilizer application that is used on pasture for HYPP horses. If you feed hay in the winter time, you may want to consider having that tested.
Hope that helps!
Thanks ~ Gina T.
Is Teff hay(grass) OK to feed my HYPP horse ?
Hello Sally, Thanks for checking in with us! There is not a lot of available information on Teff hay in regards to the potassium content – your best bet would be to have your local supply tested to know for sure. Most of the information available on this hay that was originally imported from Ethiopia revolves around the protein & sugar content, although there is some conflicting information even on those two nutrients. Many claim it to be high in protein and low in sugards, however Rutgers University has some conflicting information on the subject.
Good luck! Gina T.