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  Discussion on Beet pulp
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Member:
Ekdahld

Posted on Friday, Dec 17, 2004 - 11:03 pm:

This is just a warning for anyone considering feeding beet pulp to their horse. I recently decided to start feeding beet pulp so I looked up several articles on the internet. Of the seven articles that I found 6 of the authors had DVM behind thier name so I beleived them when they all said that it was a myth that you MUST soak beet pulp before feeding it, citing the volume capacity of the digestive tract and 1 even included a study that said that occurences of choke were no higher in the test group feeding dry beet pulp. However after 3 days of feeding one of my horses got choke! and my vet said that he has only seen 14 cases of choke in 10 yrs of practice, 11 of them on dry beet pulp! I was lucky I have a calm horse that has been roped off of because we spent an hour alternating between pumping water through a tube in his nose and twirling the end of the tube to auger the obstruction out. I know of many horses that would not have stood for the tube being inserted let alone the twirling of the tube by their heads! I guess what I am saying is dont beleive everything you read regardless of who wrote it or thier credentials.
Member:
Kthorse

Posted on Saturday, Dec 18, 2004 - 7:50 am:

Hi,
I know many people feed beet pulp dry. My vet insists never to feed it dry. She said she also has seen way to many horses choke on dried beet pulp. She says its a definate no, no.
She said that almost all her choke cases are dried beet pulp.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Dec 18, 2004 - 9:10 am:

Hello All,
Those who have read my notes on beet pulp know that I don't believe it has to be soaked. Those who have experimented with beet pulp feeding it to hundreds of horses over the years have not had problems with beet pulp. Our practice has had hundreds of horses on beet pulp over the years, have always said it is OK not to soak, and though I have seen more than a hundred chokes over the last 20 years, not one on beet pulp.

But horses can choke on anything: I have seen 2 horses choke on fresh cut grass simultaneously. Though I am not surprised that a horse might occasionally choke on beet pulp, as any feed, I am surprised there are practitioners have seen a incidence higher than that of other feeds. Derek if you will post the name of the practitioneer I would be glad to follow it up, and report what they said. After all, I have one horse that receives beet pulp (unsoaked) as part of their daily diet.
DrO
Member:
Ekdahld

Posted on Saturday, Dec 18, 2004 - 10:27 pm:

Well the horse in question is the lowest ranked in the herd. He basicaly grabs what he can and then gets chased off the feeder. I wonder if this is part of why he is the one who it happened to. The blockage started near the head and extended about 5-6" down his throat which I thought was an odd place for it. He has never had any problems before. Do you feed dry beet pulp to your horses as a group or individualy?
I would prefer not to publish my vets name here but he has a reputation as the best horse vet around and people bring him horses from a fair ways away instead of using their local vets. If I could give you his name confidentaily I would.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Dec 19, 2004 - 12:16 pm:

Individually Derek. You can email me at horseadvice@horseadvice.com, Thank you.
DrO
Member:
Sandbox

Posted on Sunday, Dec 19, 2004 - 1:08 pm:

Derek - I'm with you - I read tons of on-line articles about feeding beet pulp and decided that I didn't need to soak it. Out of the 17 horses boarded at this facility 2 of them choked on the dry beet pulp. My horse was one of them - he's never choked on anything else, doesn't bolt his food, and thankfully he was able to work it out within 5-10 minutes. OF course, I thought it must have just been a fluke thing and tried giving it to him again - this time in a very small quantity and, shame on me, he choked again. (My other horse didn't have any problems with it dry.)

My vet also advices against feeding it dry. So I would just caution people to observe your horse the first few times after feeding dry pulp. And know what to do if you see your horse choking.
Member:
Liliana

Posted on Monday, Dec 20, 2004 - 12:27 pm:

Why not soak your beet in the feed bowl after each feed, this way it will be ready for the next feed. I you use pellets, then soak over night after evening feed the amount you need for the next day, just add it to your winter routine.

This morning like many I was driving to the yard and there was the the quite frequent horse trailer with a corpse in it due to colic, cocking you name it. I know horses can put up with a lot, even dry grain! but, why risk long term effects and loosing your horse earlier than you would if only you go by prevention is better than cure.

To each its own, just a thought I am upset as you can imagine!
Liliana
Member:
Deggert

Posted on Monday, Dec 20, 2004 - 12:56 pm:

Dr. O and Derek,
I have been meaning to post this but I think I figured it out. I thought the beet pulp in Triple Crown Growth was causing my weaniling to choke. He has choked so many times but thankfully he works it out in about 5 minutes. it is very scary especially in a baby. I thought for sure it was the beet pulp pellets in it. So, I picked them out and was amazed at what it took to break them down. Either all night, or hot water for 30 minutes. I e-mailed the company they said they do not have complaints of this. I feed him small amounts 4 time a day, but if he is going to choke it ususally is in the first couple minutes of eating. I took him off their growth and put him on Equine Jr. Thought I had it figured out. Choked again, twice. I now soak his grain and he has no problems, I hope he outgrows this as he has no problem with hay. He must just bolt it and forget to chew or low saliva or something. have never had a baby do this. Rocks in his feeder didn't work either. Thanks, any comments welcome.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Feb 3, 2005 - 2:47 pm:

As I requested above Derek sent me his veterinarians number and I spoke with him today. It is as Derek states: in the last year and a half he believes he has seen 8 or 10 chokes of which 4 to 6 were associated with feeding straight beet pulp dry. He feels there may be 2 factors at work:
  • beet pulp fed straight (not fed mixed with other feeds)
  • these were probably horses which bolt their feed.
Most were cleared fairly easily but there was one TB that was difficult to treat and he had to return the next day when the choke was cleared.

Why has this veterinarian seen such problems when I, and others, have not I cannot answer. Either we have been lucky or this veterinarian unlucky. I also wonder if perhaps the beet pulp has been offered in a form different than what I see. I wish I had asked the vet. While most of my clients are using it mixed in a complete feed. Here we try to get the type that comes as small chips but I most often see the shredded type. Trying to research this further I see it is available as a cube. Derek what form of beet pulp were you feeding when your horse choked and how were you presenting it to your horse?
DrO
Member:
Paardex

Posted on Thursday, Feb 3, 2005 - 5:04 pm:

In the Netherlands beet pulp is only avalable as a pellet, I suppose you would call it a cube.It very often gives problems when fed dry.Even sheep are known to have problems with this form of beet pulp. It could very well be the cube form which causes the problem because we do have dried grass over here in cubes,same problem, though less then with beet pulp. Horses seem to like dry beet pulp better than dried grass cubes so they often try to eat the beet pulp to fast and this seems to enhance the problem.
Member:
Imogen

Posted on Friday, Feb 4, 2005 - 11:53 am:

Dr O, the small pellets are available here in Ireland and also the shredded beet pulp, which is usually sold "molassed" ie they mix in molasses before drying the shreds.

The pellets come in a bag with a sheep picture on because this is mostly what they are used for plus a small text warning about soaking for horse forage use. The shredded type has no warning on the bag. Personally I just soak the shredded stuff for 10 minutes (I changed from overnight soaking on the basis of this website) and I see no difference whatsoever between soaking for a long period or for 10 minutes.

But none of my horses are food bolters... I would be concerned about feeding the pulp nuts dry because when you soak them they swell up much more than the shreds.

Best wishes

Imogen
Member:
Sozkeogh

Posted on Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005 - 8:36 am:

I too feed sugar beetpulp pellets or cubes as you might call them. The pellets should never be fed without soaking them in water (twice as much as the pellets themselves) for at least 12 hours beforehand. I don't think it's as necessary to soak the beetpulp shreds as the way the shreds are processed is different from how the pellets are processed. The pellets are much more compressed so it's compulsory to soak before feeding to horses.
Member:
Louwhite

Posted on Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 - 8:47 pm:

After reading countless articles on it, I too fed my horse beet pulp. I soaked it, and after about a month on it, he choked. Vet came out and tubed him and said don't feed it. I went against my vets advice and continued feeding it, until yesterday, when the burro I've had for 2 weeks choked on a little dry beet pulp (the pellet form). So that's two animals in less than 2 months who have both choked on beet pulp. One the dried form, one the soaked. I was adamant that BP was ok, but will just not risk it anymore. Bolting food...the horse, maybe. The burro - definitely not. He eats very slowly and carefully.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Apr 18, 2005 - 8:10 am:

Thanks Sarah,
From all the reports you see here you have to wonder and I am trying to reconcile this with my experiences of over 20 years of recommending it for heevy (COPD) horses. I have not seen a horse choke on it. I think it important to understand that choke is a common problem in horses no matter what is fed, had one last week on regular sweet feed. I have to wonder if choke from beet pulp is very reportable but from other causes is not considered worth reporting. I know from your point of view Sarah BP looks pretty bad from a choke point of view and certainly don't blame you for stopping but I am not convinced this is a serious problem with the feed overall.
DrO
Member:
Louwhite

Posted on Monday, Apr 18, 2005 - 12:09 pm:

Hi Dr. O,
I know...I love the stuff (apart from the choking episodes) and I'm sure you're right that BP gets reported more because there's such controversy over it. I'm just too scared to continue and I think my vet would give up on me if I went against her words of wisdom again. All that said, now I'm trying to find a good replacement. Am researching Barley & Oats...if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.
Thank you! And thannks for such a great website too. I joined recently - it is so useful!
Member:
Redalert

Posted on Monday, Apr 18, 2005 - 1:08 pm:

I also feed beet bulp(shredded) to my COPD horse, and I have always soaked it first. Since you soaked it first, then if it caused a problem, it would surely be a problem that a horse might have had happen with just about anything else he ate. As I'm sure you are aware, soaking it causes it to swell to the size it would "swell" to be in the horses mouth,esophagus, stomach, etc. Soaking it allows the beet pulb to also carry water to the gut(almost always a good thing). If you just soak it first, then I do not see it could be a choke problem! Beet pulp is such a great fiber choice, and I really prefer it to hot bran mashes in the winter too! I can see the dry beet pulp causing a choke, but not the soaked version. Good luck, Sarah. I know a choke is a very scarey thing! And by all means, I know you will follow your vet's advice. Hope all is well now!
Nancy
Member:
Louwhite

Posted on Monday, Apr 18, 2005 - 1:49 pm:

Hi Nancy,
In this particular case with the donkey, it was dry beet pulp. My other horse had choked on soaked beet pulp about 2 months ago. FYI: before I bought him, my horse had been fed Alfalfa pellets for two years without one episode of choke. He is 10 and had never choked before.

I had read alot on the subject and thought dry was ok. Of the many websites, this one seemed to make most scientific sense to me: https://www.shady-acres.com/susan/beetpulp.shtml.

I switched from soaked to dried because I figured (after the first choke) that feeding soaked could be more dangerous than feeding dried if not COMPLETELY broken down. My rationale behind this being that if there are still some tiny hard bits in there, but the horse is swallowing it down more as a soupy mixture, he is even less inclined to chew any of those tiny hard bits that may not have expanded. I find, sometimes, that the beetpulp has the odd pellet that seems darker than the others and doesn't seem to deteriorate properly, even after extensive soaking.

I'm not a fan of bran mash either...calcium/phos rations too out of whack and bran doesn't have much fiber or do much good from what I can tell.

I do need something to hide the supplements in though, so am considering 1/2 cup of oats a day for that purpose. The rest of the diet will consist of grass hay and water of course.

In summary...I agree with you. The only reason why I'm not continuing with BP now is purely because I'm scared - its more an emotional decision as opposed to a logical one. Also, I just couldn't face my vet (or horse!) if I had to call her out again for choke on BP!!

Cheers,
Sarah
Member:
Redalert

Posted on Monday, Apr 18, 2005 - 2:29 pm:

You know what Sarah, if I were you, I'd be making the same decision. You can only go with what YOU experience! So if, after research and proper feeding tecniques, it still happens, then I would consider it not working for me! For whatever reason, the beet pulp is not working out for you.
You are at the right place for research and suggestions, so you will probably find a great alternative. I will follow your posts to see what you find... wish I had a suggestion, but I bet DrO and others will have some useful choices for you. Good luck on your hunt!
Nancy
Member:
Deggert

Posted on Monday, Apr 18, 2005 - 3:08 pm:

Sarah,
I have a yearling who chokes on even small pellets but I think it is personality, gulping food although he has no competition. It started with a growth feed that had beet pulp pellets in it but he also choked on equine jr. He now eats the JR soaked first (only takes 5 minutes) I have seen him choke at least 8 times and I nor he can handle it anymore. He passed the bolus of food within 5 minutes but it is scary and it scared him. He started to be afraid to eat out of his bucket. Poor thing, anyway, no problems now.
good luck, follow your good instincts
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 19, 2005 - 7:22 am:

The important point about beet pulp is that it is a alternate forage which neither barley or oats is. The advantage over grass hays is a higher energy and calcium level. However if you are looking for a good alternative, in fact in all ways a better alternative, unless your horse has COPD, a mixed grass alfalfa hay would achieve all these objectives. If you are just looking for something to get the supplements down alfalfa pellets would blemd well when moistened.
DrO
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