TC Senior making horse nervous???

[Coobie]

After years of being on BS Vintage Sr, I switched my 22 yr old over to TC Senior few months back. All of a sudden he has had an extreme amount of nervous/pent up energy. In trying to rule everything out, I'm wondering if the grain could be contributing?

[Mimi La Rue]

TC senior made my very calm + lazy Oldenburg a huge spook. I took him off it once I started to notice the changes in him and he eventually was back to his normal pokey self. I didn't mind that he had extra energy, which it seemed like he did -- I just did not like how he seemed to be so spooky on it. I mean he spooked at a damn hay bale and that's when I called it quits with the TC senior for him. :eek:

Now I gave my old horse who was an OTTB TC senior when I had him and it didn't do anything. It seems like it would have made him crazy being he was a hot horse to begin with but I never noticed a behavioral change with him. I guess it only affects certain horses.

[pintopiaffe]

Alfalfa meal is very, very high in the ingredient list for TC Sr.

I LOVE it as a feed, but I have an alfalfa intolerant horse, and his leetle brains leak out his leetle ears if he gets a whiff of the stuff. It's like horsey crack for him. He also gets photosensitivity--which is the outward expression of his issue with it--but if he gets the smallest amount, he's spooky, jumpy, forgets his (normally impeccable) manners and basically acts like he's uncomfortable in his skin.

He was not always this way. He ate alfalfa as a staple in Texarkansas, Arkansas where he came from. He ate alfalfa based feeds his first few years with me. And then one winter he started loosing his mind... I finally figured out why. That was BEFORE the photosensitivity showed up. The scratches/dew poisoning came later. The mental meltdown came first.

I will even sheepishly admit to feeding him 'just a bit' of it when he had low energy times... Was a foolproof way to add 'spark.' Once I really realized what was going on, no more of that... :no:

[Coobie]

Pinto~ Reeeaaaallllyyyy good to know! And you explained it perfectly, he seems uncomfortable in his own skin! He has even been getting this like dazed look in his eyes like he was having a senior moment. Yup, it's like he's on crack!!!

Now, since he's been on it for a few months, does it make sense to you that it would be showing up now versus earlier?

[pintopiaffe]

The thing is, in the horses I've known with 'falf issues (or soy for that matter) it's NOT like they were born with it.

Whatever changes... and it might just be that the body has had *enough* of fighting it at a low level? I dunno... but yes, in all of them--soy and 'falf--all of them ate those products for a long time before it became an issue.

Again, purely anecdotal. As I understand it, allergies get worse with exposure... think bee sting, many people can be stung once and just feel a little off. A second time they react... the third time 12 seconds to get to the Epi Pen or else...

I don't know enough about allergies to actually be speaking to that, honestly. But yes, every horse I"ve known with issues, they have 'built up' or come on after a long time of NOT having a problem.

My guy ate soy happily for 10 years. Then he had a bad WNV vaccine. He and his son both. Both ended up with chronic scratches and cellulitus, (that's when the photosensitivity from 'falf joined the meth bugs) it wasn't until I finally pulled soy that I finally got them to clear up. So in his case, I can clearly point to an immune insult. The son moved across the country (the whole reason I was vaxing them in the first place for WNV where it is very low risk here) and continued with the same issues as Da, on completely different forage, footing, shavings, grain, different EVERYTHING, ya know?

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Makes sense. My TB who was hot on everything else is quiet on TC Senior--like too quiet when he's in work (getting 10lb a day). Oats make him batty. But he and alfalfa do just fine together (well the winter he was on an alfalfa roundbale 24/7 he got a bit hot, but in general).

I love the TC Senior because he is an ultra hard keeper and this works well for us without the energy.

[Coobie]

I've LOVED the TC. My other horse is doing Amazing on it! The horse I had to euth last fall who was an extremelly hard keeper thrived on it. This one has always been a very easy keeper until now. He was on BS Vintage Sr forever, like I said. I switched b/c I had such wonderful results with the other kids. Looks like I'll be trotting to the grain store tomorrow for Vintage!

[BornToRide]

Sure - very possible. Your horse would not be the first one to react to it :)

[JLR1]

I love the stuff for my young Arabian...it has done nothing to shake up his laid back attitude though! I always find it interesting how all of our horses are so unique in what feed they can and can't have.

[Coobie]

Especially since there has been nothing this horse can't tolerate until now. I'm a bit bummed b/c I'm starting to be able to tell that he really is getting older :(

[aiken4horses]

It only takes a cup of food to create a "change" in a horses behaviour.

I had a mare turn into the Devils Spawn on a cup of TizzWhiz. Everyone said no way, but I took her off of it and within a week she was back to her sweet self.

I'd take the horse off the food, give it time to clear his system and see if he returns to his "old self", then obviously you don't want to feed that again.