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“Carbohydrate pellets” - a better way to diagnose EMS?

Page reviewed:  05/08/2025

Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) is the most common cause of the painful hoof disease laminitis in horses. In recent years, several different methods for diagnosing EMS have been developed, making it difficult to compare results between studies.

Common to the methods currently available to diagnose EMS is that sugar in some form is given by mouth followed by a veterinary blood test to measure blood sugar and insulin levels.

This study investigated whether a commercially manufactured carbohydrate pellet, which the horse eats voluntarily, can be used as an alternative source of sugar in the diagnosis of EMS. Horses and ponies in Australia, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the USA took part in the study.

The results show that this alternative method works well and the majority of the individuals included (about 85%) ate the entire allocated amount of carbohydrate pellets while a smaller group, including warm-blooded horses, did not like the pellets.

The advantage of the method studied is that the product can be sold commercially in both Europe and North America, allowing researchers and veterinarians in many parts of the world to use the same method to diagnose EMS.

The study was funded by Boeringer Ingelheim.

Link to the publication

https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.16621

Reference

de Laat MA, Warnken T, Delarocque J, Reiche DB, Grob AJ, Feige K, Carslake HB, Durham AE, Sillence MN, Thane KE, Frank N, Brojer J, Lindase S, Sonntag J. Carbohydrate pellets to assess insulin dysregulation in horses. Journal of veterinary internal medicine 2023;37:302-314. 

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