Multivit/Balancer recommendations

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BethH

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Hi

My horse has always been fed Benevit multivitamins since I've owned him (12years!) and has always looked well. He is now 16yrs old & has been struggling a bit lately for various reasons so I thought I should ask if there is a better alternative or is this still the best multivit supplement out there. He has very simple feed as a good doer i.e., a small scoop of Agrobs museli, a handful of charnwood lineseed & benevit.

He is really struggling lately with lethargy & mild spavins (lowest part of the joint & joint injected as xrays not conclusive but scintigraphy showed hot spots and he became 90% sound with nerve blocks) that seem to have really flared up in the last few weeks with the damp weather so he has started on Arthriaid to help. He is currently barefoot but I am seriously thinking of popping shoes back on to see if it will help him as I think I may be stuck in the vicious circle of feet having weakened with the wet and therefore not being able to work him enough to toughen them up and then the spavins niggling means he can't cope with work - sigh! think spavins and feet are hindering each other!

Any recommendation on the multivit and/or the arthriaid or an alternative would be great. I am thinking of trying synequine if the arthriaid doesn't help as I have heard good reports and after the loading dose it seems to be good value as although I gulped when I saw the price, it does seem to last for ages tho.... Feedback gratefully received!
 
BethH said:
Hi

My horse has always been fed Benevit multivitamins since I've owned him (12years!) and has always looked well. He is now 16yrs old & has been struggling a bit lately for various reasons so I thought I should ask if there is a better alternative or is this still the best multivit supplement out there. He has very simple feed as a good doer i.e., a small scoop of Agrobs museli, a handful of charnwood lineseed & benevit.

He is really struggling lately with lethargy & mild spavins (lowest part of the joint & joint injected as xrays not conclusive but scintigraphy showed hot spots and he became 90% sound with nerve blocks) that seem to have really flared up in the last few weeks with the damp weather so he has started on Arthriaid to help. He is currently barefoot but I am seriously thinking of popping shoes back on to see if it will help him as I think I may be stuck in the vicious circle of feet having weakened with the wet and therefore not being able to work him enough to toughen them up and then the spavins niggling means he can't cope with work - sigh! think spavins and feet are hindering each other!

Any recommendation on the multivit and/or the arthriaid or an alternative would be great. I am thinking of trying synequine if the arthriaid doesn't help as I have heard good reports and after the loading dose it seems to be good value as although I gulped when I saw the price, it does seem to last for ages tho.... Feedback gratefully received!
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Dont give in and put shoes on!

Have looked into progressive earth supplements?
Lots of people use pro hoof, I use pro balance + but there are other option too.
 
Hi thanks for the reply, nothing wrong with his feet/horn quality & I've got the t-shirt on shoes versus no shoes, he has been barefoot for the past 2yrs, I need to keep him in work because of previous surgery, his feet have weakened because it is so wet and muddy and the roads near me are very busy so doing roadwork on my own is a no no in Winter as he gets fatigued and panicky, so I am struggling to find enough good surface to toughen them up. I'm only considering shoeing over Winter to rule out whether soreness is causing the ridden issues as I think he is sore on fronts and his back end is very unhappy with the spavins, so problems all round for him.

I just want to make sure he is getting the best quality multivit as there are some others out there that might be better for him eg, better levels of the minerals like copper etc. And I would love feedback on any good supplements that can help him with joint issues. I've spent 12years trying to keep my horse in 1 piece and he is lovely but tricky to manage, so this is a genuine request as I have tried everything and am now considering whether my wondeful boy needs to be retired or PTS as I can't get him right.

Thank you for the suggestion of Pro balance I will go google.
 
Would Keratex help toughen your horses feet? My farrier recommended I put Keratex on my (shod) horses feet as this constant mud and rain meant he was taking 1 of his back shoes off. Seems to be working so far.
 
Hi it's not his feet i'm worried about, it's his joints & general wellbeing so I'm after recommendations for joint supplements and multivit supplements but thank you, his feet/horn is good, it's the digital cushions that have weakened.
 
BethH said:
Hi

My horse has always been fed Benevit multivitamins since I've owned him (12years!) and has always looked well. He is now 16yrs old & has been struggling a bit lately for various reasons so I thought I should ask if there is a better alternative or is this still the best multivit supplement out there. He has very simple feed as a good doer i.e., a small scoop of Agrobs museli, a handful of charnwood lineseed & benevit.

He is really struggling lately with lethargy & mild spavins (lowest part of the joint & joint injected as xrays not conclusive but scintigraphy showed hot spots and he became 90% sound with nerve blocks) that seem to have really flared up in the last few weeks with the damp weather so he has started on Arthriaid to help. He is currently barefoot but I am seriously thinking of popping shoes back on to see if it will help him as I think I may be stuck in the vicious circle of feet having weakened with the wet and therefore not being able to work him enough to toughen them up and then the spavins niggling means he can't cope with work - sigh! think spavins and feet are hindering each other!

Any recommendation on the multivit and/or the arthriaid or an alternative would be great. I am thinking of trying synequine if the arthriaid doesn't help as I have heard good reports and after the loading dose it seems to be good value as although I gulped when I saw the price, it does seem to last for ages tho.... Feedback gratefully received!
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Contact Alex Gingell at Hack Up Bespoke he will make you up a supplement especially designed for your horse. It can have multi vits, joint support, digest, detox whatever you want. If you go on the website and fill in the form on there then speak to them on the phone, they are very helpful. A lot of people have had a lot of success with Hack up, its certainly worth a try and not over priced.
 
16yrs old and lethargic and a bit sore would scream cushings to me! It might not be, but I'd want it testing before I started changing feeds that have always worked :)
 
Another recommendation for Hack-up bespoke. They will make you a bespoke supplement. My lad is coming up 20 and I recently started him on hack up multi vit (to replace blue chip) with a joint supplement and something for his hooves. Still early days but I have been on another of their supplements over summer for itchy skin and this is the first year we've gone into winter with a full mane. He also has their air supplement and cured his coughing In 48 hours (he suffers with COPD) last year he had a course of ventapulmin and so far this year the air is keeping it under control.
 
I like the forage plus performance balancers but they are not very palatable IME .
I get good results with 365 complete
If they are really down I had a fantasic result with propell plus with one .
But I would be considering a cushings test .
 
I know the shoeing thing is not the main issue, but could you use boots while his feet are struggling in the winter? My older horse can't really hack comfortably that much without them but the ones I've got now are excellent.
Synequin does certainly get rave reviews - I've swapped to suppleaze gold after years of feeding Feedmark joint supps - lots of people seem to think it's a good alternative to the megabucks ones - too early days for me to say either way.

Re feed - As the others have said, I'd be inclined to start with vet to make sure there is nothing else niggling away like cushings or low grade virus etc. It may be that the feed is a red herring.
FWIW I have recently swapped to Horse & Pony Direct bog standard balancer, it's a very good price and looked good on the ingredients compared to the main brands. I add Pro Hoof at a reduced rate for Millie (barefoot) and add grass chaff to bulk it out a bit. My cob who has dropped off a bit in the last few weeks is also getting Saracen Releve as an experiment ;)
 
Hi Sorry have been away for a few days but thank you all for your replies. Sadly I've bored the H&H vet forum half to death with my woes over my horse and his lethargy. He has tested negative twice now for cushings and vets have said that lethargy is the hardest thing to diagnose a reason for. I too was convinced it might be cushings even though he has a very natural lifestyle, loads of turnout and has only ever been fed 100% fibre as he can't do sugar, but he has had many bloods/scans and all sorts over the last couple of years, we are many £000's in and I am now on the verge of giving up.

I really just want to make sure I am getting a decent balancer into him so he gets a good range of all the vits and minerals he needs, I can't decide if all this is down to barefoot and hocks not coping with it or if there is something else going on or it's really simple like unbalanced grass. He has the odd good day and then it all goes to pot again, he changes so dramatically from day to day that he has lost all fitness/condition/muscle as I can't get him into enough consistent work to build him up again.

I will go investigate all of the ideas thank you, I have heard of "Hack up" before but was scared I would have a conversation that would involve me paying an arm and a leg for a supplement that may or may not help as I have already spent serious money on my horse and not for the 1st time. It has been 12years of not quite right & vet bills for various reasons.

He is such a nice person I couldn't ever give up on him but would just love to find something that actually works and helps him cope with even gentle ridden work.

Thank you all for your recommendations, I will go (yet again!) do some more research!
 
Hi. Hack doesn't work out expensive compared to others and compared to balancer feeds. You can also split your payments which is a big help. Definitely speak to them - they aren't pushy in the slightest. I pay less per month for a multi vit, joint supplement and hoof supplement then I did for a bag of blue chip a month.
 
Thanks fliffkins, I guess I can only give it a try and see if it helps. Do you find their addition of a joint supplement works? My horse is sound but without enthusiasm some days and looks lame on the back end on others, some days like he has difficulty weigh bearing through the back left & other days like its a mild mechanical lameness on the back leftg that didn't originally have mechanical lameness - in fact I think he is struggling on all 4 legs bless him! I persevere because he doesn't appear to be in pain and is quite happy strolling over stones and grazes in a very relaxed fashion in the field. He rolls and gets up easily and he crosses his back legs easily when turned on a circle. In fact he shows no signs of spavins including no heat or swelling!!!!

I guess I hear alot about expensive supplements that don't work which makes me wonder if it really is his hock joints that are the problem. Horses are wonderful but a complete pain to own - am still wishing they could talk!!!
 
At the risk of being jumped in have you tried using turmeric especially as you are already giving linseed? I feed it to 4 of mine 2 of whom have arthritis, one is aggressive ringbone and it has made an amazing difference to their mobility. I feed the Global Herbs turmeric which has added black pepper, 1 heaped scoop each a day. Ideally it is better to split it over 2 feeds but with this mild weather I am only feeding a small feed per day. It's cheap and it really works for mine.
It sounds like your horse may also benefit from some straightness groundwork. There are some great videos on YouTube explaining the biomechanics by Marijke de Jong. I have a 17.1hh WB who was written off LOU at Newmarket with chronic sacro illiac dysfunction. Through rehab and then extensive straightness training he is back sound. It's very interesting and the horses enjoy it.
Marijke shares loads of free information.
http://straightnesstraining.com/str...-logical-system-of-ever-increasing-exercises/
 
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Ok, here's my take on the situation. I've had a look at the Benevit supplement (is it the Benevit Advance?). I don't think it is particularly high quality, and here is why: At the recommended feed rate, it supplies less than the full RDA of copper and zinc. (You can look up levels with this calculator: http://nrc88.nas.edu/nrh/ The default set is for a 500kg horse at maintenance.) True, the forage will supply some copper and zinc, but UK forage is typically low in these two, and the RDA I'm comparing against is from the NRC guidelines, which really gives you the absolute minimum levels needed to avoid deficiency, and optimum requirements might well be a bit higher. The selenium in the supplement is provided in sodium selenite form. This is a supplemental form that may not be absorbed fully as other minerals can compete for absorption sites. Selenium in the form of a selenium yeast is more likely to be actually absorbed at near 100% levels. The supplement contains no essential amino acids. If these are lacking in the forage, it may inhibit protein synthesis, and considering that virtually all body tissues are made up of protein, it's good to cover the bases and supplement some amino acids. The vitamins included in the supplement are mostly ones that the horse can get from forage anyway, or that are produced by gut bacteria for the horse. The exception is Vitamin E, but levels are quite low for that. Notably, there are no B vitamins supplemented.

I think in your shoes, I'd choose a different vit&min supplement. One that has the full dose of copper and zinc, more Vitamin E, selenium in the form of selenium yeast and at least lysine (amino acid) added. On top of this, I'd go for a supplement with a full range of B vitamins. Healthy horses fed on forage usually don't need supplemental B vitamins because they absorb them from the gut. The reason I'm thinking this might be a good idea is because pretty much everything on my list above is important for building haemoglobin. Sometimes horses are a bit off/anaemic, and they respond to supplementation with so-called blood builders. These contain all of the above, plus iron. The reason I wouldn't choose a blood builder is because dietary iron is virtually never the reason for anaemia in horses (barring blood loss), and too much iron is not good either. Rather, it is other nutrients (list above) that are required to use dietary iron and build haemoglobin from it, and those might be lacking.
You need to read the labels to find a supplement that fits the bill, there are quite a few on the market. Pro Hoof mentioned above is one of them. Equimins Advance Complete another, or Forageplus Winter perfomance balancer. These are just examples. Have a look at their ingredients lists, and compare with others on the market. Not all of them are ridiculously expensive (well, maybe the Forageplus one is). It might be worth a month's trial on a different supplement to see if it makes a difference.
 
Wow - super helpful answers thank you. I have had my horse on tumeric before and sadly it didn't make any difference, in fact I've just given my 5kilo bag to a friend but expect at some point I will go full circle and try it again. Funnily enough, a lot of liveries on my yard tried it last year and a few are very convinced by it, especially a lady where it helped her horse's sweet itch, he does have uber sensitive skin especially in the Summer. I've also tried other things like the suppleaze gold which didn't work either, in fact nothing seems to work, global herb restore (blood tonic) was amazing 1st time round, thought I had my horse back and then when I finished the course he went back to being lethargic so my vet suggested I try it again to see if it worked and the 2nd time it made no difference. Bloods have shown nothing obvious, major organ function all normal etc etc. The straightness stuff is interesting. He has always been very straight as has been classically trained slowly with no gadgets and always with a request for self carriage, but he has been banana-ing with his right side curving and a dislike for standing straight lately, he finds it very hardbecause of his hocks so I will look at the videos and see if I can find some tips to help.

Supsup, a very interesting post as I have been wondering if my horse has some sort of copper difficiency & he does have a little brewers yeast added to his feed, I have also just put him through a course of protexein 14days recover aid and a month of gut balancer which I thought helped initially but really I don't think it has changed anything in the long run - I am convinced that he is lacking something that is causing lethargy but as the vet said "where do you want me to start, I can test for anything and everything!" He was suggesting I could pay a fortune out in tests and still not get an answer! He was cleared for anaemia but I will go and investigate the supplements you mention, I think the Benevit has been enough for him in the past but isn't now, he clearly needs something with a bit more substance in it. Lots to think about. Thank you for taking the time to post, especially a few days before Xmas.
 
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