Advice on feed balancers for teenage horse

[shokkyy]

My boy is 16 years old, doing very well, zero stiffness so far and looks very good. However, he did come out of last winter with a slight but persistent cough on working, his energy levels seem a little lower and if I work him fairly hard in the school he's taking longer to recover. All his life he's been a little prone to fluid build in the hind legs when he stands in a box, and that's become noticably worse in recent years but really only in winter, when he gets less turnout.

Since 3 years old he's been on a broad spectrum vit/mineral supplement. I've put him on garlic recently because of the cough (hasn't helped), and he's been on a Riaflex joint supplement since 12 years, as a prophylactic measure rather than to treat any problem. He's always been a pretty good doer but not prone to weight gain, so he gets plenty of hay plus alfalfa and grass pellets at meal times, so he doesn't feel left out. And I should mention that he had an isolated episode of laminitis just once, a few years back, and all his life he's had a poor tolerance for sugar (i.e. goes off like a roman candle), so I'm a little wary of anything that might aggravate that.

So I'm kind of looking at feed balancers right now, hoping to find something to address the cough, the energy level and recovery time, maybe the fluid build, and just as a good all round system support in view of his age. I want to keep him fit, strong and working for as long as possible. Everybody has their favourite, I know, but any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated. I did try him on standard Blue Chip for one bag a while back, and didn't notice any difference then, but maybe it takes longer.

 

[shokkyy]

It's really very frustrating trying to compare the feed balancers with each other or with something like a vit/mineral supplement, because they never list the ingredients. But the more I look the more I become convinced that Blue Chip = Feedmark Benevit + Biopro.

 

[CrazyMare]

TopSpec. Really.

My 17 year old mare is on it. With Alfa A and nothing else.

She is easily triggered by sugar, but remains level on this combination. She has a slight cough, triggered by high levels of dust as she has a unilateral paralysis of the larynx.

I would say in my experiance, feed will not help the cough, management will - for example hayledge over hay, or soaking hay for 10mins.

 

[TGM]

To answer your question about what a balancer does that a vit/min supplement doesn't:

A broad spectrum vit/min supplement will supply a good range of vitamins and minerals.

A balancer will also supply the above, but with the addition of some protein and some sort of probiotic/prebiotic (the theory being these help boost friendly bacteria in the horse's gut) and sometimes some oil as well.

This site is quite useful as compares several brands of balancer and supplements:

http://www.freewebs.com/higgyleiko/

 

[shokkyy]

Thanks for that link, TGM, that's the first time I've ever seen a breakdown of ingredients for some of these balancers. I don't think the information for Blue Chip is complete, though. On the Blue Chip website it lists a lot of those vitamins/minerals as ingredients, but without quantities, whereas the spreadsheet seems to be saying they're not included. Top Spec balancer looks pretty well loaded with all the vits/mins you'd want, but it would have been nice to have comparison figures for Blue Chip.

I guess basically it's down to whether you want to feed a separate vit/min supplement plus probiotics or use a balancer to provide both. The probiotic used by both Blue Chip and Top Spec is exactly the same one used in the Feedmark Biopro supplement. I'm really not fussed about getting protein from a balancer, because he's already getting that from his feed. Blue Chip Pro does also throw in a few things like garlic, menthol, eucalyptus that might be helpful for clearing the lungs, but on the other hand the Top Spec Senior does include glucosamine and MSM, which would make an additional joint supplement redundant.

Crazymare - his hay is soaked, always has been, and his environment is as dust free as I can make it. It's really not a bad cough, just the odd cough when he's well into a schooling session, so basically a bit of mucous or irritant down deep somewhere. I just wanted to try to give him a bit of help to clear that, because this is the first time he's ever had any coughing for more than a few days.

 

[huskimo12]

Top Spec feed balancers are all very good, and i dont think they dont contain any cereal so prevents fizz. I havent used teh senior one but use the stud and the genreal balancer I keep a fit eventer on general and alfa beet with a small amount of cubes and she looks amazing and this is a horse that isnt a particluarly good doer.

Give each of the places a ring they are generally very helpful Top Spec will advise on the rest of your feeding aswell if you like.

Btw one thing i will say about comparison with blue chip and top sspec is that i have come across a few horses that get fizzy on blue chip that dont on top spec not sure if this is cereal related worth looking up
Good luck

 

[rlhnlk]

I use blue chip pro as a rule and find both my tb and welsh are great on it, they live out so have ad lib grass and come i for about 1hr a day to pick at some hay. I can't really comment on other balancers as I haven't used them. It does take a little while to see the change though and a lot of your choice will probably come down to which marketing you believe the most.
I use a joint supplement called easi joint form equiform basically beacuse it was cheaper and seemed to have a higher spec than the blue chip joint relief, they both get this, the tb has it as a preventative (hopefully) and the welsh gets it due to her arthritis, I have been quite impressed with how she has been since she hasa had it.
My tb was a bit quiet a couple of weks ago which I think was possibly a virus or due to her recent experience with flooding so I've put her on the maintenance level of equiforms equicell until I use the bottle up. You would have to look at the website for their blurb on it, but I find it helps pep them up a bit and boost their immune system. I gave it to my welsh a couple of years ago when she had a low grade sinus infection rumbling on- it wasn't getting worse but she couldn't clear it. I gave her the loading dose of the equicell and the virus went- obviously this might have happened anyway but it did seem to clear quite quickly after about 3-4 days on the stuff. The equicell is meant to help with energy levels and recovery rate so might be worth a look