Isis supplement update
Mom Mom sent me a link to a new product from Platinum Performance, called Platinum Metabolism Support. The ingredients, Magnesium and Chromium, are common in metabolic support supplements like Quiessence. Platinum has good research info available, including a study of Glucosamine in metabolically challenged horses. I didn’t know about the Glucosamine study, for example, showing that feeding metabolic syndrome horses glucosamine had no adverse effect.
Isis is currently on Quiessence (for Mg and Chromium, $25/month), people Vitamin E 5k units/day ($25/month), MSM for joints ($10/month), and PreOx from Horse Tech for trace minerals ($20/month). This combo gives the same vitamins Isis was on before except at about half of the cost: Foxden Flex IR ($80/month; removed completely because it didn’t seem to help), D-Carb ($55/month; equivalent of Quiessence + PreOx), MSM ($10/month), and Vita-E 5000 ($70/month). I purchased most of my supplements from Smart-Pack Equine and was pleased with their service.
The biggest difference in the two sets of supplements was switching from D-Carb to Quiessence / PreOx. D-Carb contains trace minerals that IR horses need. Quiessence by itself does not contain the trace minerals. My vet wanted Isis to have those minerals. The Cushings list had talked about two options from Horse Tech: a custom Arizona mix and PreOx. I chose PreOx because it also has additional Vitamin E and uses a flax base. For Isis’ EPM recovery, she is supposed to get 5-10k units of Vitamin E per day. The PreOx adds another 2.5k on top of the 5k from the Vitamin E gel tabs. (Other people on the Equine Cushings list were using the people Vitamin E gel tabs as well, so I thought it might be safe to try them.)
The proper way to choose supplements for an IR horse is to do a blood test on Isis, and then test hay, soil, pasture, and grain and then custom balance minerals. Easier to do if you own your own place and are not boarding. It’s one of the things I need to do, but have not had the time (or funding) to take care of it.