horse treats

Peppermint – Good tasting and good for your horse!

Diane Weinmann Animal Health, healing your pet, Nutrition , , , , ,

by Hilary Self, BSc (Hons), MNIMH comments by Diane Weinmann

Peppermint is one of the main herbs for digestion and contains between 0.5% and 1.5% of volatile oil, found in all parts of the plant. The oil content is highest just before flowering. The quantity of oil in the plant can vary depending on the variety of mint, the soil it is grown in and the climate. The oil consists of about 50% menthol.

The reason peppermint is such a valuable herb for the digestive system is because of this oil. It has a carminative action, helping to relax sphincters and the smooth muscles of the digestive system, assist in the expulsion of intestinal gas, tone mucous membrane surfaces and increase peristalsis. Peppermint oil is sometimes administered to people in capsules for irritable bowel syndrome.

The oil has a cooling, soothing and anesthetic effect on the smooth muscles of the stomach and intestines, which makes it one of the key herbs to choose when dealing with horses prone to colic, gastric or duodenal ulceration, smooth muscle spasm, trapped gas, digestive cramping or poor appetite.

Peppermint contains a bitter quality that increases bile secretion and helps stimulate the appetite as well as tannins, which can help with horses who suffer from loose droppings or bouts of diarrhea.

Other internal and external benefits

For the respiratory system, antibacterial peppermint oil can be added to a pad or steam inhalant and used to help loosen residual mucus/catarrh, relieve and reduce the frequency of a troublesome cough, encourage perspiration in the early phases of colds and flu, or help combat lung infections.

The menthol content of the plant is antiseptic and when used in high concentrations can act as a disinfectant. The oil has been extensively trialed and shown to offer very significant antimicrobial and antifungal effects against over 25 bacterial and 20 fungal species.

Externally, peppermint oil can be sparingly added to topical lotions or blended with a carrier oil (such as almond oil) and applied directly on the skin or mucus membrane. The oil can act as an insect repellent and is often used to reduce the sensitivity of skin receptors, helping to reduce pain, itching, or sensitivity to temperature, making it fantastic for topical use on skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and neuralgia.

In the winter time I used to melt peppermint candies in hot water and add sweet feed and some bran to make a hot bran mash for my horse.  It helps keep things moving (if you get my drift with the bran) and it’s a favorite treat to warm their bellies!

Next time you brush past some peppermint and smell that fresh aroma, remember how many benefits this humble herb has to offer.

Sugars and Peppermints: Not Safe Treats for All Horses

Diane Weinmann Animal Health , ,

By Clair Thunes, PhD, The Horse newsletter with comments by Diane Weinmann

peppermint-candy-istock

Ok, I admit it—my horse loves peppermints! In fact, he has that cute little ball that you put unwrapped mints into and he can nose it all around in his stall to keep him occupied when the weather requires him to be stall bound. So I saw this article by Clair and I thought I better read it and share it with other horse lovers who indulge their equine pets!

Simple sugars, such as the sucrose found in peppermints and sugar cubes, are absorbed by the horse’s small intestine as glucose and fructose. Glucose causes release of insulin to facilitate the entry of glucose in to cells. Fructose (not to be confused with fructans) is metabolized differently. Only metabolized in the liver, fructose is more lipogenic than glucose, meaning that it’s more likely to lead to production of fat.

Most concern about sugar and starch intake has stemmed from our increasing knowledge about insulin resistance (IR), laminitis, polysaccharide storage myopathies (PSSM), and equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS). Horses with IR release more insulin than is normal in order to remove glucose from their blood stream. As a result, while circulating glucose tends to be normal, circulating insulin is elevated. High circulating insulin creates an increased risk for developing laminitis. Horses with PSSM store glycogen (the storage form of glucose) abnormally in their muscle tissue, and diets high in starch and sugar cause increased production of volatile fatty acids in the gastric stomach causing a more acidic environment and a greater likelihood of a horse developing EGUS

I think it’s important to put the questions of sugar in treats in perspective of a horse’s typical daily non-structural carbohydrate consumption. If we assume a 1,200-pound horse eating 2% of body weight as dry matter from hay a day, and that the hay contains 10% moisture and 10 % nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) on a dry-matter basis (a value often used as the recommended upper NSC level for horses with metabolic issues, such as IR and PSSM), this horse is consuming 1,090 grams of NSC (starch and simple sugars) per day.

A pure sugar cube weighing about 4 grams is 100% sucrose. The popular round, red-and-white peppermint candies have a human serving size of three pieces (about 15 grams) and of that between 8 and 10 grams are sugar. Traditional peppermint candy canes are heavier at 18 grams and provide about 12 to 14 grams of sugar. You can see that in the context of the above horse’s daily diet these are tiny intakes of sugar. However, there are some important considerations.

When feeding a horse hay, you’re also feeding it proteins and minerals that help buffer stomach acid. Additionally, hay’s fiber component impacts the rate at which the NSC reaches the small intestine and is absorbed. The sugar in sugar cubes dissolves quickly and will move with the liquid fraction of the digesta, which moves more rapidly than larger fibrous particles. This means that that the sugar will likely be absorbed relatively soon after it is fed. This makes it potentially more likely to cause a spike in blood glucose than the NSC contained within hay.

Feeding a healthy horse three or four sugar cubes is unlikely to cause a significant glucose spike; however, for a horse with uncontrolled IR, PSSM, or a laminitis history, feeding sugar cubes isn’t a risk worth taking. Skip the sugary treats, too, if your horse is overweight, especially if he has a cresty neck. After all, every calorie counts and calories from treats mean feeding fewer calories from “real” food. Human research shows that tissues in insulin resistant people are more sensitive to insulin after exercise. This may or may not be the case in horses, but if it is, then your horse might be better able to handle the sugar in these treats when they are given shortly after work.

For the otherwise healthy horse, consuming a candy cane or a few peppermint candies is unlikely to have any major impact. Bottom line for me—my horse has never had any laminitis history and is healthy so he will continue to be entertained by his treat ball but I will ensure I only put less than 5 peppermints in the ball at a time (he doesn’t get it every day –it’s weather induced). He sure loves to hear those mints rattle around in there!