Immune Supplements ??

[Clannad48]

Some advice please. I have an 11yr old Dutch Warmblood mare who, to say the least, is quite accident prone. We have had the vet out today to see to a cut that despite cleaning etc has resulted in an infection. It seems that everytime she has the slightest cut she ends up with an infection, no matter how well the wound is cleaned. The vet considers her a bit of a wimp!

So the question is, would immune supplements help reduce the infection risk. I would have asked the vet but my daughter who was there with him forgot!! If so is there any you can recommend to give a try.

Thanks

 

[Oberon]

Some advice please. I have an 11yr old Dutch Warmblood mare who, to say the least, is quite accident prone. We have had the vet out today to see to a cut that despite cleaning etc has resulted in an infection. It seems that everytime she has the slightest cut she ends up with an infection, no matter how well the wound is cleaned. The vet considers her a bit of a wimp!

So the question is, would immune supplements help reduce the infection risk. I would have asked the vet but my daughter who was there with him forgot!! If so is there any you can recommend to give a try.

Thanks

Rather than adding a supplement - what is she fed on now?

Is your forage low in selenium or Vitamin E?

Is your forage low in zinc and copper (common)?

Is there molasses in her feed (believed to slow wound healing)

There are many herbs to use for purification and detox....

 

[diamondrockharvey]

I don't think boosting her immune system will stop an exisiting wound becomming infected?? I would use Neem oil on the wound, it's natural, it's soothing and it's anti bacterial and anti fungal.

Boosting her immune system is a good idea in general though, I would look at her diet first and then if you feel you need to give her a boost add some Neem leaf to her feed for a while, or you could try Echinacea. But you shouldn't feed these for pro longed periods as they body becomes used to them, they should only be used when the immune system seems to be low for some reason.

 

[Clannad48]

Thanks for the replies, at the moment she is on Mollichaff Cherry Showshine and Top Spec Cool Condition Cubes, - we give her Codlivine, Biotin and at the moment Oestress as supplements. She also has adlib hay.

Not wanting to cure the current wound, antibiotics from the vet today should sort that out, just wondered if there was anything else we could give her as a sort of preventative. Someone has mentioned a good multivitamin, but I would like to know what other people give or think.

 

[Oberon]

Thanks for the replies, at the moment she is on Mollichaff Cherry Showshine and Top Spec Cool Condition Cubes, - we give her Codlivine, Biotin and at the moment Oestress as supplements. She also has adlib hay.

Not wanting to cure the current wound, antibiotics from the vet today should sort that out, just wondered if there was anything else we could give her as a sort of preventative. Someone has mentioned a good multivitamin, but I would like to know what other people give or think.

I'm a fan of keeping it simple.

Horses are amazing at using their forage, sunlight and internal synthesis by bacteria and enzymes to provide all the protein, calories, electrolytes, minerals and vitamins they need.

They often struggle with minerals though as they are often imbalanced in the forage (same old fields for grazing and haylage).

A good mineral supplement (there are only two I recommend - pm if interested) in a 'neutral' base (Fast Fibre/unmolassed beet/hay chaff/oat straw chaff - or alfalfa pellets if the horse can take them). This can also replace the Oestress that is mostly magnesium anyway)
Linseed (raw and ground or micronised) to use as a joint supplement.
Salt - 25g or more if worked
Soya oil if she needs more calories for work
1000iu Vitamin E capsule squeezed in each feed (for immune system and to balance the oil)
Oats after work if she is working hard.

You can feed herbs like dandelion, nettle, mint, milk thistle, turmeric (joints), clivers for detoxing (or a Global Herbs mix if she'll eat it).

You will often find horses do better with less grain feed and more fibre as they gain most of their calories by fermenting fibre.

The gut is actually a major immune stimulant and very important for the immune system. So a healthy gut = a healthy horse.
And the gut likes fibre and minerals!

 

[popularfurball]

I use global herbs immuplus

 

[alsiola]

And the gut likes fibre and minerals!

Although not directly to do with horses I remember a story from one of my farm animal lecturers that is very relevant. In the past he had spent 5 years trying to get better milk yields from dairy cows by feeding different rates and types of concentrates, with only a small amount of success. Struggling to work out why all this (expensive feed) wasn't getting good results, he tried adding some chopped straw (at a fraction of the price) to their ration and saw huge yield increases soon afterwards. Increasing the fibre had finally allowed the gut to do something with all the carbohydrate it was being fed.

 

[Clannad48]

Thanks again folks for the replies - I too like to keep it simple, perhaps its having horses 40 years ago when all these supplements and special feeds were only for those horses at the top of their game. Will certainly consider trying what has been suggested.

 

[Oberon]

Although not directly to do with horses I remember a story from one of my farm animal lecturers that is very relevant. In the past he had spent 5 years trying to get better milk yields from dairy cows by feeding different rates and types of concentrates, with only a small amount of success. Struggling to work out why all this (expensive feed) wasn't getting good results, he tried adding some chopped straw (at a fraction of the price) to their ration and saw huge yield increases soon afterwards. Increasing the fibre had finally allowed the gut to do something with all the carbohydrate it was being fed.

In one of his DVDs, Pete Ramey was discussing lami - as he's specialised in rehabing foundered horses for many years. He was saying how far ahead the US dairy industry is compared to horse owners.
He says that a hay merchant wouldn't even bother to try and sell to a dairy farmer without a certificate saying exactly what is in the hay, so that the farmer can mix his own mineral balancer. Without this analysis - the farmer would just laugh at the merchant and walk away.

In contrast - horse owners buy their hay because, "it looks nice" "it smells nice" or "it's what the feed seller had in the shop".

Most of the research in equine nutrition is sporadic and from the 1970s and 1980s. There's so much to learn still