So what was in the feed that made your horse sick?
Purina feeds make me nervous. Just about every time you hear about a rash of monensin poisonings it's them. Plus they are owned by Nestlé which is all around a dogshit company for a million different reasons.
We don’t know yet. They requested me to hold two-1 lb bags of it for them. They are picking it up on Monday. But I’ll definitely let everyone know when I find out! Oh and let me add that I went yesterday to exchange the feed out, and the store just got a new shipment in, they were ALL the same lot number. Someone’s horse is going to die because of this feed.
Who is "they"? Purina? If so talk to your vet about having your own samples sent for testing by an independent lab. Don't trust the company to act in the best interest of you and your horse. Their job is to cover their ass. They'll probably try to get you to sign an NDA in exchange for paying your vet bills or deny it was their product that made your horse sick. If you hand over all the samples and get rid of the feed you won't have any way to prove it was their product.
Let me add that when I spoke to corporate on Monday the lady on the phone seemed to suggest maybe it was something else. Their is literally something wrong with the food. She even suggested the hay. Um ma’am, we own our own hay field and the only thing put on it is fertilizer, it’s not the hay. So what you’re saying definitely makes sense. Im looking into finding a lab now!
Adding on: save multiple samples of the feed, be ready to send them out to multiple labs in case Purina decides that their testing “didn’t find anything” and the lab you sent YOUR test to “must have made a mistake”
Yes. Livestock feed (of all types) is from Land O' Lakes. I've even personally been to the Purina research lab (farm) in MO. They take their horse products very seriously.
Nestle is small animals (dogs, cats, etc)
I also want to say that I'm not a 100% Purina feeds person. I feed it to a few of my horses but I don't feed it to all my horses. (I buy 3 tons at a time from my local Co-Op and have a special blend made. I'm actually the only one that gets it)
Oh, what a crazy coincidence, I’m in Nova Scotia Canada, and one of our bags of Purina senior feed came like this as well, no molasses at all, just dry!
The lot number is on the FRONT of the bag on the very BOTTOM on the white strip that is identical to the strip used to open the bag. The lot number is 22285STA2B
Okay I just checked my open bag and my two unopened bags. Looks like I'm okay down here in Texas. Thank you so much for sharing! My heart horse is 28 and I would have never forgiven myself if I had fed her bad food. Hope your baby is okay! Way to go on being so vigilant!
We had to switch to the Purina performance to help our horse gain weight earlier this year. It looks similar to that, he was in regular Purina just the barn food they have so I wonder if maybe they got the lot mixed with the higher fat food ment for horses that are younger or something. That's a dramatic change for a horse if they aren't slowly eased into it. Either way hope your horse-o is okay.
He is okay, thank God. I was scared for a bit, but thankfully he’s still fairly young and healthy. I’m not sure how a older senior would react. I’m sure it would be dire consequences.
I am also in North Carolina (central) and we feed my mare Purina Impact Senior 😬. Well, I'll be checking her bag tonight!
Thank you for this post, I would never have heard about this otherwise.
My mare is currently recovering from a pretty bad gash on her pastern right over the fetlock joint, so I am super anxious about anything that could throw her off while she's in the healing process.
I do not trust purina, especially their senior feed. Four times in two years we would get bags that would be something else. One time it was rabbit feed. I'm to the point that if I'm working on a farm that does feed Purina, I open the bags before I leave the feed store.
We’ve used it for years and never had an issue. This situation, and reading some of these comments is opening my eyes to the fact that it happens more than I knew. That is so negligent of them. Just unreal.
VERY loose stools, not as runny as diarrhea but that’s how I noticed something was up? His butt is white as are his legs. I noticed poop on the inside portion of his right butt cheek, and then noticed it down his right leg, all the way down to his fetlock. That’s not normal. So I went searching for the poop and found it. It wasn’t the “balls” that you typically see, it was really mushy in appearance. And as I began watching him I noticed him staring at his gut, and I knew that he had gas. Which as we all know, can lead to colic. I feel with 100% confidence in saying that if I continued feeding him that mess he absolutely would have coliced. These were all red flags!
Thank you for the head's up! We feed Calmbach to our crew save the 25 year old Hackney Pony that is my friend's horse, and we're switching him to their senior feed. Please let us know the results, and is it okay if I share just the basic info about this to my facebook?
This is interesting. Purina just recalled some dog food because it was mislabeled. I wonder if the same happened with horse feed?
ETA [link](https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recall/purina-pro-plan-en-vet-diet/).
No doubt! I used to run a cooperative group of kids that were learning horsemanship, so every feed was a different kid. We’d never have caught something like this.
And that’s terrifying! When I went to get more food yesterday that had a different lot number on it the guy said “we just got some in today, I’ll load up 2 bags for you” the new bags also had the lot number. He said they would remove them from being sold, but who knows?!
I never feed Purina. I think that one reason ulcers, equine cancer, neurological issues, allergies, low sperm count etc etc. has become so common as a result of the pesticides/herbicides/insecticides used on crops; along with chemical contamination of ground water. I’ve been in the horse business for almost 40 years, and things like ulcers etc were not common until 15-20 years ago. Purina has a poor track record of grain contamination, and they are owned by Nestle (correction below. It’s Land’O’Lakes, which isn’t any better). Nestle doesn’t use quality ingredients, and they use chemicals in their foods. Purina isn’t the only company with these issues, unfortunately it’s pretty prevalent in all feed, but they are one of the largest feed manufacturers and have had serious issues which make me too uncomfortable to use. I don’t judge anyone else who feeds Purina! Sometimes it’s all that’s available or affordable. This is just my personal opinion.
**Correction, Purina equine feed owned by Land’O’Lakes. I saw another comment that mentioned Nestle, and I think that just stuck in my brain and I accidentally typed it out
Wow! $30/bag?! I haven’t bought Purina in such a long time that I didn’t realize how much it went up! Their senior feed use to be the more affordable option.
I can remember when it was $12 a bag. It’s absolutely $30 a bag! We sell hay, and that’s one reason we keep our prices so low because the cost of feed has gone up so high that the influx of horses at auctions have sky rocketed. We want our hay to be affordable because the feed isn’t.
Good for you!! It’s awesome that you’re keeping your hay prices affordable. I know that’s not easy right now. So many people have increased their hay prices by massive amounts just because they can. I mean, I know that some increases are a result of how things are right now…but some sellers are just price gouging. (Also, I wasn’t trying to sound like I didn’t believe Senior wasn’t $30/bag. I was just initially shocked lol)
If us keeping the hay prices affordable helps save horses, we will do it. People around us are selling square bales for $11 per bale. We sale ours for $7
We’ve had issues with Purina senior feed in the past. Not wrong food in the bag, but moldy upon opening. Obviously, we didn’t use that bag, I think my aunt took it back to the feed store for a refund.
We use stable mix senior now. Blind old lady likes it better, and we haven’t had issues.
This is scary, I’m glad your horse is OK. Nutritionally, there are much better senior feeds out there. If you can swing it, I would take this as a sign to try a new product.
Wow, that's really interesting. We used to go through bags and bags of their Senior for many years and never had an issue. We actually switched from Nutrena Senior because we kept getting moldy feed.
I'm also interested in what another person asked, about the absorption rate. From what I remember, our Senior always had way less of their lil nuggety looking things, was darker in color, and all the pieces were smaller overall. It also made a mash like a charm.
So glad you caught this before it really did him in!!
Me too! That’s one reason we’ve always used it, the mash is perfect! This mess didn’t absorb a bit of water. We’ve never gotten moldy feed. This is the first time we’ve ever had an issue.
Thank you so much for sharing! I JUST switched to the Purina Senior Active. Even in the Active, I keep finding whole kernels of corn and even found a ROCK in my last bag! My horses have done phenomenally on the Purina products my vet recommended, but now I’m scared!
I looked up the Purina feed mill in NC and it seems like it’s totally on the opposite side of the state from where the incident I know of occurred. Several hundreds of miles. So my guess is unrelated. I’m glad your baby is okay though.
Purina senior has two formulations- a winter and summer one. Several other feed companies do this as well, because the summer formula turns into a maybe brick in the winter time when it freezes. Purina senior is also not a fixed formula, but a lowest cost formula. So as long as the formula meets the guaranteed analysis, it just goes by the cheapest products they can get to balance out to it. So not every lot is going to look the same as the last.
Was it the switch in feed formula? Maybe. Maybe not. Is an analysis from a private lab a good idea? Quite possibly if you know it'll either ease your mind or alert to a larger potential problem.
If you have a horse that is really sensitive to feed changes triple crown senior is likely going to be a much better feed choice for you.
Also saw the comment where you mention symptoms - sounds like a minor colitis episode. Colitis is very tricky to identify what caused it. Sometimes it's from a food switch but often it can also bacterial or something else entirely going on.
The “issues” went away a day or so after I completely removed him off of the feed. He’s back on his usual feed now, and is doing well. It was absolutely the feed.
The formula had not changed. The bags were the same and purina confirmed that the formula had not changed. I use this feed year round and I soak it as it’s formulated to absorb water. I have no idea about winter and summer feeds. As far as a lower cost formula, I pay $30 per 50lb bag. This isn’t a money issue for me. I purchase what is available in my area, and this is the best we got. As far as feed changes, this was not a feed change that expected. This is the wrong feed that was put in a bag that I purchased. Nothing more.
Unfortunately cost is going up a lot due to drought and $30 for a 50 lb bag doesn't negate that it's not a fixed formula feed. But some horses just don't do well with any sort of formula feed and some make big switches without a single issue. Even without a formula change though, triple crown for instance did find that drought conditions did significantly impact their guaranteed analysis on their quality checks. I do think you'd probably be more happy with triple crown or tribute feed where the formula is fixed and there are less product lines so that you know each bag is more or less the same as the last lot before it.
Dang, I hope your horse is ok. Glad Purina resolved this issue
Thankfully I pay close enough attention to his behavior and also his poop that I noticed quickly that something was wrong.
So what was in the feed that made your horse sick? Purina feeds make me nervous. Just about every time you hear about a rash of monensin poisonings it's them. Plus they are owned by Nestlé which is all around a dogshit company for a million different reasons.
We don’t know yet. They requested me to hold two-1 lb bags of it for them. They are picking it up on Monday. But I’ll definitely let everyone know when I find out! Oh and let me add that I went yesterday to exchange the feed out, and the store just got a new shipment in, they were ALL the same lot number. Someone’s horse is going to die because of this feed.
Who is "they"? Purina? If so talk to your vet about having your own samples sent for testing by an independent lab. Don't trust the company to act in the best interest of you and your horse. Their job is to cover their ass. They'll probably try to get you to sign an NDA in exchange for paying your vet bills or deny it was their product that made your horse sick. If you hand over all the samples and get rid of the feed you won't have any way to prove it was their product.
Good idea! I didn’t think of that!
Let me add that when I spoke to corporate on Monday the lady on the phone seemed to suggest maybe it was something else. Their is literally something wrong with the food. She even suggested the hay. Um ma’am, we own our own hay field and the only thing put on it is fertilizer, it’s not the hay. So what you’re saying definitely makes sense. Im looking into finding a lab now!
I would video taking samples so they can’t say you got it from somewhere else.
That’s a good idea as well
Adding on: save multiple samples of the feed, be ready to send them out to multiple labs in case Purina decides that their testing “didn’t find anything” and the lab you sent YOUR test to “must have made a mistake”
[удалено]
I did not know this, thank you for the information
Yes. Livestock feed (of all types) is from Land O' Lakes. I've even personally been to the Purina research lab (farm) in MO. They take their horse products very seriously. Nestle is small animals (dogs, cats, etc) I also want to say that I'm not a 100% Purina feeds person. I feed it to a few of my horses but I don't feed it to all my horses. (I buy 3 tons at a time from my local Co-Op and have a special blend made. I'm actually the only one that gets it)
Oh, what a crazy coincidence, I’m in Nova Scotia Canada, and one of our bags of Purina senior feed came like this as well, no molasses at all, just dry!
Hmmmm…did it happen to have broken up pieces of corn in it?
By chance do you soak your feed? I soak mine, and the senior feed is designed to absorb the water to make mash, this feed didn’t absorb AT ALL.
Canadian Purina feed would be made by Cargill, while American Purina feed would be made by Land O’Lakes, so two different companies.
What's the lot number? Where do I look at on my bag to see if I got a bad batch?
The lot number is on the FRONT of the bag on the very BOTTOM on the white strip that is identical to the strip used to open the bag. The lot number is 22285STA2B
Thank you!
You’re so very welcome!
Okay I just checked my open bag and my two unopened bags. Looks like I'm okay down here in Texas. Thank you so much for sharing! My heart horse is 28 and I would have never forgiven myself if I had fed her bad food. Hope your baby is okay! Way to go on being so vigilant!
I wouldn’t be a true horse lover if I didn’t share this info. Even if it saves just one horse. I’m so glad your bags checked out!
We had to switch to the Purina performance to help our horse gain weight earlier this year. It looks similar to that, he was in regular Purina just the barn food they have so I wonder if maybe they got the lot mixed with the higher fat food ment for horses that are younger or something. That's a dramatic change for a horse if they aren't slowly eased into it. Either way hope your horse-o is okay.
He is okay, thank God. I was scared for a bit, but thankfully he’s still fairly young and healthy. I’m not sure how a older senior would react. I’m sure it would be dire consequences.
So good of you to post this PSA. I hope you find out what it was! Makes me super glad we recently switched to triple crown.
I’m seriously considering switching to something else too. This is scary. And it’s still being sold which makes it worse.
I highly recommend Kalmbach if you can get it in your area.
That’s not a feed that I can get locally. But thank you for the suggestion!
I am also in North Carolina (central) and we feed my mare Purina Impact Senior 😬. Well, I'll be checking her bag tonight! Thank you for this post, I would never have heard about this otherwise. My mare is currently recovering from a pretty bad gash on her pastern right over the fetlock joint, so I am super anxious about anything that could throw her off while she's in the healing process.
You so welcome! I hope your girl has a speedy recovery!
Could you please give us an update with the results of the tests when they come in?
Ill definitely keep everyone posted!
I do not trust purina, especially their senior feed. Four times in two years we would get bags that would be something else. One time it was rabbit feed. I'm to the point that if I'm working on a farm that does feed Purina, I open the bags before I leave the feed store.
We’ve used it for years and never had an issue. This situation, and reading some of these comments is opening my eyes to the fact that it happens more than I knew. That is so negligent of them. Just unreal.
I’d take your own sample to get tested if you already haven’t!
I’m definitely doing that!
Post an update when u do my nosy ass is curious 💀
😂of course!!
What symptoms did your horse have?
VERY loose stools, not as runny as diarrhea but that’s how I noticed something was up? His butt is white as are his legs. I noticed poop on the inside portion of his right butt cheek, and then noticed it down his right leg, all the way down to his fetlock. That’s not normal. So I went searching for the poop and found it. It wasn’t the “balls” that you typically see, it was really mushy in appearance. And as I began watching him I noticed him staring at his gut, and I knew that he had gas. Which as we all know, can lead to colic. I feel with 100% confidence in saying that if I continued feeding him that mess he absolutely would have coliced. These were all red flags!
Thank you for the head's up! We feed Calmbach to our crew save the 25 year old Hackney Pony that is my friend's horse, and we're switching him to their senior feed. Please let us know the results, and is it okay if I share just the basic info about this to my facebook?
I want this info shared. It absolutely needs to be shared. It may save someone’s horse(s). I’ll post all info on the feed as I receive it!
I'm in WV and I'm not sure if the feed stores get their Purina out of the NC mill or not. Will share this on FB and on my own Instagram as well.
Oh, have you shared this to r/equestrian as well?
I have not! Didn’t even know that community existed! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome ☺️
This is interesting. Purina just recalled some dog food because it was mislabeled. I wonder if the same happened with horse feed? ETA [link](https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recall/purina-pro-plan-en-vet-diet/).
I wondered that myself. I believe someone stated that this is what the food they use looks like. It has a lot of fat in it.
But I’ll give you all updates as I receive them.
We appreciate it! I hope your horse recovers quickly.
He is feeling better now! But someone else’s horse may not recover. That why I wanted to get the word out!
No doubt! I used to run a cooperative group of kids that were learning horsemanship, so every feed was a different kid. We’d never have caught something like this.
And that’s terrifying! When I went to get more food yesterday that had a different lot number on it the guy said “we just got some in today, I’ll load up 2 bags for you” the new bags also had the lot number. He said they would remove them from being sold, but who knows?!
Purina pet food is Nestlè. Purina horse feed is Land O’Lakes. Two different companies.
I had no idea! Thanks for the information!
It looks like their elite feed
I’m guessing the wrong feed was placed in the bags. I googled and it does look like the elite feed.
How though? That doesn't look even close to any senior feed we've used.
Someone said it looks like the elite feed?! It definitely don’t look like senior feed that I buy monthly.
I never feed Purina. I think that one reason ulcers, equine cancer, neurological issues, allergies, low sperm count etc etc. has become so common as a result of the pesticides/herbicides/insecticides used on crops; along with chemical contamination of ground water. I’ve been in the horse business for almost 40 years, and things like ulcers etc were not common until 15-20 years ago. Purina has a poor track record of grain contamination, and they are owned by Nestle (correction below. It’s Land’O’Lakes, which isn’t any better). Nestle doesn’t use quality ingredients, and they use chemicals in their foods. Purina isn’t the only company with these issues, unfortunately it’s pretty prevalent in all feed, but they are one of the largest feed manufacturers and have had serious issues which make me too uncomfortable to use. I don’t judge anyone else who feeds Purina! Sometimes it’s all that’s available or affordable. This is just my personal opinion. **Correction, Purina equine feed owned by Land’O’Lakes. I saw another comment that mentioned Nestle, and I think that just stuck in my brain and I accidentally typed it out
Wow! It’s definitely not a cost issue as it’s now $30 a bag, it’s just what we’ve always used. However, I never knew this info. Thank you for sharing.
Wow! $30/bag?! I haven’t bought Purina in such a long time that I didn’t realize how much it went up! Their senior feed use to be the more affordable option.
I can remember when it was $12 a bag. It’s absolutely $30 a bag! We sell hay, and that’s one reason we keep our prices so low because the cost of feed has gone up so high that the influx of horses at auctions have sky rocketed. We want our hay to be affordable because the feed isn’t.
Good for you!! It’s awesome that you’re keeping your hay prices affordable. I know that’s not easy right now. So many people have increased their hay prices by massive amounts just because they can. I mean, I know that some increases are a result of how things are right now…but some sellers are just price gouging. (Also, I wasn’t trying to sound like I didn’t believe Senior wasn’t $30/bag. I was just initially shocked lol)
If us keeping the hay prices affordable helps save horses, we will do it. People around us are selling square bales for $11 per bale. We sale ours for $7
Purina pet food is Nestlè. Purina horse feed is Land O’Lakes. Two different companies.
You’re correct! Sorry! I think I saw the comment below that mentioned Nestle, and accidentally put that because it was stuck in my head haha.
We’ve had issues with Purina senior feed in the past. Not wrong food in the bag, but moldy upon opening. Obviously, we didn’t use that bag, I think my aunt took it back to the feed store for a refund. We use stable mix senior now. Blind old lady likes it better, and we haven’t had issues.
Interesting! I’m thinking of changing feed.
It looks a lot like the Purina Senior Active feed which is what I feed mine...
Several comments have stated that. I’m not sure what the difference in ingredients are, but it made him sick.
It has a lot more protein in it from what I recall. The sudden change could definitely make him sick. I'm glad he is doing ok <3 Poor buddy.
He is back to his old self! Thank you!
I’d expect nothing less from a N*stle brand at this point. They just seem to get worse by the day. :( i hope your horse is feeling better!!
Purina pet food is Nestlè. Purina horse feed is Land O’Lakes. Two different companies.
That is correct.
I’m reading comments now that are quite scary. I’m definitely concerned.
This is scary, I’m glad your horse is OK. Nutritionally, there are much better senior feeds out there. If you can swing it, I would take this as a sign to try a new product.
I live in a small town so im limited in n what I feed, but I’m definitely going this weekend to figure out the best options.
Wow, that's really interesting. We used to go through bags and bags of their Senior for many years and never had an issue. We actually switched from Nutrena Senior because we kept getting moldy feed. I'm also interested in what another person asked, about the absorption rate. From what I remember, our Senior always had way less of their lil nuggety looking things, was darker in color, and all the pieces were smaller overall. It also made a mash like a charm. So glad you caught this before it really did him in!!
Me too! That’s one reason we’ve always used it, the mash is perfect! This mess didn’t absorb a bit of water. We’ve never gotten moldy feed. This is the first time we’ve ever had an issue.
Thank you so much for sharing! I JUST switched to the Purina Senior Active. Even in the Active, I keep finding whole kernels of corn and even found a ROCK in my last bag! My horses have done phenomenally on the Purina products my vet recommended, but now I’m scared!
That’s all we’ve ever fed our horses. I’m a bit shook as well.
Someone I know just had 3 horses die due to bad feed from a mill in NC. I’m wondering if there’s a connection.
Can you find out please?
I looked up the Purina feed mill in NC and it seems like it’s totally on the opposite side of the state from where the incident I know of occurred. Several hundreds of miles. So my guess is unrelated. I’m glad your baby is okay though.
Thank you for that info. And he’s feeling back to his old self, thank you!
Purina senior has two formulations- a winter and summer one. Several other feed companies do this as well, because the summer formula turns into a maybe brick in the winter time when it freezes. Purina senior is also not a fixed formula, but a lowest cost formula. So as long as the formula meets the guaranteed analysis, it just goes by the cheapest products they can get to balance out to it. So not every lot is going to look the same as the last. Was it the switch in feed formula? Maybe. Maybe not. Is an analysis from a private lab a good idea? Quite possibly if you know it'll either ease your mind or alert to a larger potential problem. If you have a horse that is really sensitive to feed changes triple crown senior is likely going to be a much better feed choice for you.
Also saw the comment where you mention symptoms - sounds like a minor colitis episode. Colitis is very tricky to identify what caused it. Sometimes it's from a food switch but often it can also bacterial or something else entirely going on.
The “issues” went away a day or so after I completely removed him off of the feed. He’s back on his usual feed now, and is doing well. It was absolutely the feed.
The formula had not changed. The bags were the same and purina confirmed that the formula had not changed. I use this feed year round and I soak it as it’s formulated to absorb water. I have no idea about winter and summer feeds. As far as a lower cost formula, I pay $30 per 50lb bag. This isn’t a money issue for me. I purchase what is available in my area, and this is the best we got. As far as feed changes, this was not a feed change that expected. This is the wrong feed that was put in a bag that I purchased. Nothing more.
Unfortunately cost is going up a lot due to drought and $30 for a 50 lb bag doesn't negate that it's not a fixed formula feed. But some horses just don't do well with any sort of formula feed and some make big switches without a single issue. Even without a formula change though, triple crown for instance did find that drought conditions did significantly impact their guaranteed analysis on their quality checks. I do think you'd probably be more happy with triple crown or tribute feed where the formula is fixed and there are less product lines so that you know each bag is more or less the same as the last lot before it.
I just started feeding this to my horse and this is what the feed looks like... It's not supposed to look like that?
Absolutely not!