Sorry - another supplement/ balancer question

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Jericho

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Am a bit sick of trying to sort out my horses diet and am utterly confused by everything on offer. I wish there was a high oil, vit/min balanced cereal free with added joint supplement and extra biotin that was not bulked out with high fibre/chaff and not cost the earth....

I basically have a retired TB who needs a very good hoof supplement (he is retired due to lameness caused by collapsed heels, navicular syndrome), a joint supplement and ideally some natural pain relief such as boswelia or devils claw.
Sooo good people...
1) Is there a supplement out there which provides all essential daily vits and mins plus extra biotin and also MSM, HA?
2) what is high in calories and low in volume?

I am currently feeding him Top SPec Comp balancer for vits and mins, a biotin/zinc/methione supplement and Premier FLex (MSM, HA atc with devils Claw) with sugarbeet and some Outshine becuase he drops weight so quickly. Its costing a fortune for a retired horse......and I have to change it somewhere.


Out on 4 acres of fairly poor grazing 24/7, haylage in winter as much as he can eat and rugged when below 10 degrees or windy/wet.
Someone recommended giving him half rations of Baileys Endurance mix becuase high in oil and linseed and protein and slow release emergy (not worried about barley fizzing him up as wont be riding him!) and sugarbeet and Formula for feet. But I still need the joint stuff... arghhhhh

He just wont eat huge amounts of hard food anyway so cant get the recommended amount of conditioning foods in him to get right vit / min levels. No point adding chaff as lots of grass/haylage available and he gets bored and walks off if too much chaff. Wont tolerate neat oil in his diet (and actually found this expensive way of feeding it anyway!)
 
Feeding Farriers Formula or Formula4feet would sort out the the feet and general supplement into one.

I can't think of anything that has joint supplement in it that isn't specifically for that, other than the Horslyx Glucosumine lick (the box orange one). Would he lick that? 10mins of licking should give him all he needs, plus it's very high in calories. And cheap! If not NAF Superflex is prob the best cheapest way of getting MSM etc into him - it's a decent sized tub with only a tiny scoop required.

I'm not sure how much good Devils claw will do him. It's a powerful 'drug' (yes, it's a chemical like all other drugs) that is untested and probably not praticularly great for them. If he's stiff enough to need it then he's be better going onto something like half a packet of Dannilon every other day. Cheaper too!

There are various different oils avalible, some of them 'taste- disguised'. It might be worth looking at them. That would solve a lot of your problems if you can get him to eat it! Low volume, high calorie.........

OR how about looking into TLC? It's a mollase based general supplement, which should taste strong enough to disguise the oil. It's also got biotin in it, and all the other vits and minerals needed for good feet, though not as highly as something like FF or F4F. Mind it, it cost a quarter of the price!

Extra magnesium and biotin can be bought off ebay cheaply, mixed together in the required amounts and added to his feed as a small scoop . If required.

P.S crap feet is very often caused by low grade lami, is is VERY common in TB, mostly due to their too-high-in-sugar diet. Which makes life extra difficuly for poor doing TB.s

PP.S NAF Pink powder is brilliant stuff and can make a world of difference to poor-doers. It's not only a probiotic but a very concentrated, balanced general supplement to. Very cheap to feed as such a small amount if needed. Just to add further complications
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Have you tried Synequin? Yes, it's expensive but after the loading doses a tub should last two months and you won't need another supplement at all so could feed something like Bailey's Economy Mix/nuts or even micronised barley with sugar beet.
A friend has something similar and she was giving hers all of those things you are with two bute a day and with Blue Chip Dynamic too; costing her a fortune as you say but she tried the Synequin and within a month dropped the bute down to one a day, a month later dropped the other one too and horse has never looked back; he's as sound as a pound and is a hooligan in the paddock whereas before he could hardly move and looks a million dollars.
 
have you tried Feel good 30 Joint & relief? Has devils claw & boswellia as well as Glucosamine and MSM? about £28 a tub for a month's supply. works on my old arthritic boy
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also has Antioxidants (Grapeseed Extract Micronised Linseed)
 
Just a few suggestions, I give my boy VetVits EquiFlex, by Healthspan. It has Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Manganese and Vitamin C formulation. It works for me, and isn't too expensive, a 496 grams pot costs something like £17, stating it lasts about two months (62 servings for average sized horse).

Good luck! Feed can be so confusing =S
 
Move up to topspec senior. My poor doer retired arthritic TB is bouncing around on this and actually looks a bit porky right now!
 
Call the topspec line, you may be able to reduce some of the extras you feed with a change in one of their balancer ranges - They are very helpful!

I would also try the topspec conditioning flakes very good and I think a lot cheaper than outshine or just add a straight cereal, a friend feeds topspec, oats (could use barley or mixed flakes) and oil to keep the costs down.

I did not find that farriers formula worked for my old horse, 2 years on that and his feet were OK, 6 months on topspec and they were loads better. Do you need the additional supplement?

Add alpha A to bulk the feed out - a cheaper option

I would tend to rug up more often then when it is below 10C as lots of energy can be used keeping warm.

Good luck
 
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