Now that Butterball is back at the GY's, I took the move as a time to re-evaluate his current supplements. His base is Purina Enrich Plus, a ration balancer. On top of that, and the topic of this post, he is currently receiving:
- Purina Outlast: 1 cup twice a day; additional servings given before and after trailering
- He had been on the Relyne GI for a while, but there was a difference when I added in the outlast
- Ingredients: Alfalfa, wheat middlings, seaweed derived calcium, cane molasses, magnesium oxide, citric acid
- Goal: maintain a happy stomach
- Cost ~ $1.15/day, depending on how many middle of the day servings he gets
- Relyne GI: 1 pump (30mL) twice a day
- Ingredients (active): 120mg TBG-136TM Schizophyllan Beta Glucan, 120mg hyaluronic acid
- Goal: maintain a happy stomach
- Cost: $2.99/day
- Platinum Refresh: 1 scoop twice a day
- Goal: not tempt fate to see if he truly needs a sweating supplement
- Cost: $2.70/day
- Purina Free Balance: 1 tablespoon twice a day
- Vitamin and mineral supplement to balance a forage/pasture based diet
- Goal: maintain electrolyte levels during the never ending summer
- Cost: $0.17/day
- Adequan series q6 months
Our goals with all that:
- Happy gut
- Happy joints
- Sweating pony
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| Happiest pony napping flat in the sand |
He inherited the Relyne. I had Goggles on it and still had two jugs of it when he left, so Butterball has been getting it ever since then. It kept Goggles happy, but given the change I noticed when I put Butterball on the Outlast, I'm not sure it was keeping him totally happy. So once that runs out I likely won't replace it.
We're probably doing the two most important things for joint and gut health already though - he lives out 20 hours a day and has two friends that he goes out with in the big (8 acre) pasture. So they mosey and graze the majority of the time.
But now that he is an only child, I want to do all I can to support his overall soundness and longevity.
What I would like him to be receiving:
- Collagen - 480-640mg per day
- A 2009 study in horses compared undenatured type II collagen to glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation in horses with moderate arthritis (visibly lame with joint effusion, decreased range of motion, crepitus within the joint, and increased lameness after flexion). Horses receiving 480 or 640 mg of collagen per day showed a reduction in overall pain and pain on joint manipulation. This reduction was larger than the horses receiving glucosamine and chondroitin (although this also showed a statistically significant benefit over placebo).
- Application to Butterball: he is not visibly lame and does not have any of the other criteria used to diagnosis OA in the horses in this study. However, there are additional studies like this meta-analysis focused on people that concluded that "hydrolyzed collagen has a positive therapeutic effect on osteoporosis and osteoarthritis with a potential increase in bone mineral density, a protective effect on articular cartilage, and especially in the symptomatic relief of pain."
- MSM - 10g/day
- Omega-3 fatty acids - 5-10g/day
- Specifically long chain poly unsaturated fatty acids have been shown to decrease the severity of gastric ulcers.
- There are likely anti-inflammatory benefits for joint health as well
- Omega-3s are now one of the major things I recommend for dogs with OA, so it makes sense to me that this would translate over to horses
- Application to Butterball: it seems he needs some gut support based on his response to the Outlast. And as stated several times now, I want to do everything I can to support joint health.
- Acid buffering similar to Purina Outlast
MadBarn has an article that does a pretty darn good job summarizing the current state of knowledge of joint supplements.
What I ended up ordering: SmartCombo Ulitmate Pellets. I had launched into an extensive internet search, somewhat aided by Perplexity, about where to get bulk glucosamine, collagen, and acid buffering ingredients. I ran into two problems there - making sure I was getting quality ingredients (alibaba bulk glucosamine seemed slightly sketch) - and shipping costs from various suppliers were starting to add up. Ultimately (haha) because of the DVM discount that SmartPak offers, they ended up being the winner here, both in cost and in other ingredients that maaayyyy be helpful.
The supplement doesn't contain green lipped mussel nor does it contain enough omega-3s, but it checked every other box. On my quest I discovered that to get the levels of green lipped mussel that have been studied - 25mg/kg of body weight- it is quite expensive, $2.10/day from a reputable source. The studies look pretty good for effects on lame horses, so if that ever became an issue, it would probably be worthwhile, but until then...
Once the Relyne runs out, I'm going to start supplementing omega-3s in the form of KER EO-3 Oil. I can only ask Ms. GY to top dress so many things on the feed each day though, so that will be a few months.
What do you all feed your horses? Or are you of the of the opinion that management and training practices are the most important and supplements are an unnecessary expense?
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