Tainted feed blamed for 4 horse deaths at Florida stable

MIAMI (AP) - Eighteen poisoned horses are being treated to spa days in their Florida stables, with their young riders brushing their manes and tails, painting their hooves, feeding them hay and petting their noses.

There's nothing else anyone can do for the doomed horses at Masterpiece Equestrian Center in Davie.

A batch of feed tainted by additives safe for other livestock but toxic to horses arrived at the center in September, and all 22 horses there ate the feed for a month before anyone realized something was wrong.

Three horses died in October, and a fourth was euthanized Monday. The rest will die, some possibly as soon as this week.

"There's very little to do other than keep them hydrated, giving them lots of hay, giving them lots of comfort, brushing them, giving them attention and love and baths - it makes the horses happy to be attended to," said Debra Buis of Weston, whose two horses Don Tavia and Ultimatum are among the afflicted.

"It's really quite hopeless, to be honest with you," Buis said Tuesday.

"It is hopeless and there are no words."

The Lakeland-based company that sold the feed to Masterpiece has recalled the product, stopped producing equine feeds and acknowledged that feed delivered to the center contained monensin and lasalocid, another anti-bacterial additive toxic to horses.