08/30/2024
UPDATED
You have likely heard of the tragic death of over 70 horses at the Buetler Ranch in Elk City, Oklahoma. Horses that are descendants of over five generations of legendary rodeo horses perished when accidentally fed horse feed that was contaminated with Monensin, an ionophoric antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections in cattle and sometimes mixed with cattle and livestock feeds. In cattle, it can improve feed efficiency and average daily gain.
However, in horses, tiny amounts of monensin causees damage to the mitochondria in horses, and disrupts the sodium potassium ion fluxes in the heart, leading to cardiovascular failure.
Attached is a list of horse feed mills that are ionophore free - no ionophores are on the mill property and risk of contamination is eliminated. Ionophone "safe" mills have separate facilities and equipment for livestock and horse feed production, however, ionophores are present and the risk of contamination is not eliminated.
This list is not exhaustive. In California, Stable Mix made by Elk Grove Milling and Integrity Feeds made by Star Milling are both ionophore free facilities.
If in doubt about a feed manufacturers ionophore status, call or e mail them. Unfortunately, some small local mills may not be able to guarantee ionophore free status.
UPDATE! Dr Rachel Mottet of Legacy Equine Nutrition has updated their list of ionophore free equine feed mills. Her team contacted all the mills listed to verify their ionophore status, a huge task!
Here is the link to that document.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17IVu88GVlLU04C3uitCTPHQ5Q2cB-khka_-eMJaMSCY/edit?fbclid=IwY2xjawE-069leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZsDAwMxkfCeS5Oq4osuGzIi2GXrhepntpC1ObUyxrlHRqjBQTAgPdrLug_aem_-mb63idLfO55NZmTqeKnVw&gid=0 =0
And,Bluebonnet was spelled incorrectly, in the photo - Bluebonnet is named after the flower, not a hat!
