Loading doses

[Roxylola]

Random brain musings. Often when introducing supplements etc there is a recommended loading doses - usually double maintenance dose.
While I understand for medication I'm not sure that I really see the point for a supplement that will be fed as an ongoing thing. I also find that often they're a bit picky about new things and it can take a good few days to get up to a normal maintenance dose. At the point that I've built up to a full normal dose were out of the loading window anyway. Do you then attempt a loading dose or just continue maintenance or something else? And, in the grander scheme, does it really matter?

 

[Clodagh]

I never bother. Tbh it’s unlikely they do anything anyway, other than make us feel better, so why chuck twice as much at them.

 

[Birker2020]

Random brain musings. Often when introducing supplements etc there is a recommended loading doses - usually double maintenance dose.
While I understand for medication I'm not sure that I really see the point for a supplement that will be fed as an ongoing thing. I also find that often they're a bit picky about new things and it can take a good few days to get up to a normal maintenance dose. At the point that I've built up to a full normal dose were out of the loading window anyway. Do you then attempt a loading dose or just continue maintenance or something else? And, in the grander scheme, does it really matter?

I've always done a loading dose for things like Pink Powder or Magic but the horses I have loved would eat anything! .

 

[Roxylola]

I'm not totally averse to the idea but when it takes a week or more just for it to be deemed edible I'm not sure there would be an advantage to then doubling it. And, @Clodagh makes an excellent point too

 

[poiuytrewq]

With my horse I always have to start at least half dose as he won’t contemplate eating anything new!

 

[HopOnTrot]

I have a 12.2 and a 13.2 so a loading dose is usually a horse dose, saves a fortune

 

[ycbm]

Depends whether the supplement contains something of therapeutic value rather than just nutritional value.

So devil's claw/boswellia/glm/4cyte/etc I would do a loading dose if it says so and the horse will take it.
.

 

[Roxylola]

Kind of therapeutic in that it was cortaflex that prompted my musings.
If I run out then bought a new tub do I need to load again? Usually I don't have to introduce over a couple of weeks at least.
Generally though I'd follow instructions if I could I don't object to the expense it's just seeing a bucket of feed being wasted that I mind

 

[MuddyMonster]

Mine can be fussy so it's usually a pinch to a half dose to start, then when he's eating the recommended maintenance dose, I'll do a loading dose (or as close to it as I can get) for the length of time recommended if I can.

I often can't though so if he won't eat the loading dose, I figure at least he's eating the usual dose and it might just take longer to be as effective.

 

[Roxylola]

I'm sure there must be some science behind a loading dose. But I've never as a human taken anything like that long term to know what effect it has on me so I've no benchmark I guess.

 

[Glitter's fun]

I'm sure there must be some science behind a loading dose.

So there's something called a "half life" of drugs. It means the time taken for the concentration in the patients blood to halve.
It's a useful measure of how long it takes to metabolise the drug (the body getting rid of it again) and helps decide what dose is needed.

What you want is a steady level of drug in the blood. If you start giving the recommended daily dose it will take a time to be at a stable level in the body & how long that time is will depend what the half life of the drug is.

For a drug with a long half life, if you take a big dose each day, there will be still some of yesterdays drug left in your blood that will add to today's dose. You don't need to keep doing that daily for very long to end up with an overdose. For these drugs with long half lives the daily dose is small, because you are just really topping up what is already in your blood.

The down side of that is that it might be a couple of days or more before the level in your blood gets high enough to actually do something. If the drug is critical/urgent and has a long half life, such as digoxin for your heart for example, the solution is to take a bigger dose on day one (the "loading dose") then go to the smaller topping up dose from then on.

 

[Glitter's fun]

My guess is that supplement sellers are trying to sound more "medical" by using scientific terminology. Feeding the recommended daily dose from the start will give the same benefit after a short number of days, or straight away, depending on the ingredients.

 

[Roxylola]

@Goldie's mum - thank you, that makes sense. So essentially even with weaning the dose up for a picky eater the loading dose could be beneficial but is not essential

 

[Glitter's fun]

@Goldie's mum - thank you, that makes sense. So essentially even with weaning the dose up for a picky eater the loading dose could be beneficial but is not essential

Yes, as long as the effect you are looking for isn't urgent, you can start as low as you like. (As long as you're not talking about antibiotics or wormers - that's different.)



Edited - @MuddyMonster - hope you don't mind me saying - giving the loading dose later, after getting gradually used to the product isn't necessary & could theoretically result in an overdose, depending what the product is.