Hops Offer Help for Laminitis Prevention

Hops Offer Help for Laminitis Prevention

If you have enjoyed sipping a cold beer on a hot summer day you have tasted Hops. Hops flowers provide those bitter, earthy and piney notes found in craft beers. Hops are more that a flavoring agent for your favorite beverage, they help our horses prevent laminitis as well.  

Recent research from the University of Kentucky and the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that compounds found in hops can help control the microbiological problems that lead to pasture laminitis.

Late summer and autumn pasture grass can contain high levels of a carbohydrate called fructans.  Carbohydrate consumption can accelerate bacterial growth in the horse’s large intestine. This bacterial overgrowth stimulates a buildup of lactic acid, which in turn, can trigger laminitis.

The antibacterial properties of Hops flowers, slow the growth of harmful bacteria and help maintain proper gut pH lessening the risk laminitis.

Hops are easy to feed and they are well like by most horses. One tablespoon of hops powder is good maintenance dose for the average 1,000 pound horse. 

By: Gloria Garland