Is This Horse Fed Right? A Vet’s Guide to the Rapid Assessment of Nutrition
Podcast # 31
When a horse presents with ulcers, colic risk, poor performance, slow healing, unexplained weight change or a plethora of other health conditions, nutrition may be part of the story—even if it isn’t the primary cause. In this episode, Dr Nerida, PhD shares a practical, vet-friendly framework for a rapid field assessment of diet: the same fast mental checklist nutritionists run through when they first meet a case.
You’ll walk away with three high-impact screening steps:
Is there enough forage (and are there long fasting gaps that increase gut risk),
Is grain being fed appropriately and in a digestible form (to avoid starch overflow into the hindgut), and
Is the horse actually receiving correct supplementation—meaning a fortified feed/balancer/mineral at the proper feeding rate to cover common forage gaps and prevent “silent” deficiencies.
✅ See all the figures and tables used in Dr Nerida’s AAEP presentation and read more about the rapid diet assessment framework https://www.myhappy.horse/rapidassess
👇 Download the MyHappy.Horse app and use the Rapid Diet Assessment tool to quickly find red flags and decide when a full nutrition assessment is needed. https://apps.apple.com/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324
