Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity in Horses

Equine nutritionists and wise horse owners have long known that obesity in horses is not a good thing.
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Equine nutritionists and wise horse owners have long known that obesity in horses is not a good thing. The obese horse often is incapable of performing even moderate tasks without becoming exhausted and, as a result, placing itself in danger of injury.

Now researchers are adding still another dimension to these concerns. That dimension involves laminitis as a result of the condition that has come to be known as equine metabolic syndrome. Researchers have learned that obesity can decrease a horse’s ability to utilize glucose (sugar) in the bloodstream after eating grain. That condition occurs when the horse’s cells don’t respond appropriately to signals from insulin, a hormone, that instructs the cells to take in the glucose that is circulating in the bloodstream. The researchers believe—and are attempting to determine for certain—that often the end result of this process can be laminitis.

One of the leading researchers on equine metabolic syndrome is Philip J. Johnson, BVSc (Hons), MS, Dipl. ACVIM, MRCVS, professor of internal medicine at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Working as a collaborator with Johnson at the University of Missouri have been Nat T. Messer IV, DVM, Dipl. ABVP, associate professor, and Seshu Ganjam, PhD, professor of endocrinology.

The three have taken issue with a position held by some horsemen and members of the research community that obesity problems in many horses can be traced directly to hypothyroidism (low levels of thyroid hormones) in horses. They maintain that horse owners have wasted millions of dollars by administering hormone therapy to horses suspected of hypothyroidism. In many cases, they say, the horse was suffering from metabolic syndrome and the drugs to combat hypothyroidism have no effect on that condition

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Les Sellnow was a prolific freelance writer based near Riverton, Wyoming. He specialized in articles on equine research, and operated a ranch where he raised horses and livestock. He authored several fiction and nonfiction books, including Understanding Equine Lameness and Understanding The Young Horse. He died in 2023.

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