I am looking for high potassium horse foods that shouldn’t be fed to horses with hypp?
We currently bought a registered Quarter Horse that is HYPP (Hyperkalemic Period Paralysis). I am trying to find something that can show me how many grams of potassium are in certain feeds. AQHA wasn’t any help when I emailed them with any questions. Just about everything I have found on the internet just says to feed grains and hay that are low in potassium…recommending not feeding alfalfa hay or sweet feeds with molasses. Then I was vaguely reading through an online blog on HYPP and someone mentioned something about not feeding apples so I looked up the potassium level in one apple and found that it has 170+grams of potassium. This is 70 grams more than what is recommended as a daily allowance. This scares me because who doesn’t stop to think about apples ‘poisoning’ horses. Carrots are about 3x the potassium level as apples.
Filed under: High Potassium
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I’m not sure of any particular web site. Although if you are to go to the feed store, they can tell you what you need to look out for and you can look at the ingredients on the bag.
Beet pulp is reletively low in potassium and is to be soaked before consumed to prevent choking (although it is high in calcium so be aware). Look for feeds that contain beet pulp and soy hull because of their low potassium levels. They also have a great amount of fiber.
There are also certain mixed feeds already formulated out there for low potassium (I think Tripple Crown is one of them?).
Also soaking hay before it is fed for at least thirty minutes can reduce potassium by as much as 50%. It also kind of depends on where you live, and when the hay is cut, how its cut and if its has been fertilized (ask your feed store manager about these things too). Grass hay and mixed are the best for HYPP horses because they still maintain a good amount of protein.
WHOA! I did not know apples had that potassium, hmmmm might have to reduce my horses amount of apples then ! lol
But anyway, check your facts, look this apple potassium thing up on another site or in a book and if 2 different websites say the same thing exactly, then the fact is right. Otherwise it could be made up.
Also, keep in mind the digestive system of a horse. it’s not very good, half of what they eat isn’t absorbed properly.
keep lookin’
best of luck with your horse!