Your Opinions On Older Horse Supplements?

I think glucosamine and MSM are essential - I'm getting older myself and I take them , they help with joint stiffness. I find the cheap brands not very good, any of the better quality ones or you can crunch up humans tablets they are sometimes cheaper if you buy in bulk. The amount the horse needs is tiny, about a teaspoon a day, so any supplement that says feed more is full of fillers which you pay for. Check how many days supply, not the weight of the package.

One of my friends feeds a probiotic to her old horse, helps it to digest better and keeps off mud fever.

Also I give my old horse a course of Remount, a liver tonic, every spring, as their liver tends to fail as they get older

The thing to remember about older horses is that they don't metabolize and detoxify what they eat as effectively as when they were young. so it is important to limit or eliminate anything that makes it harder for them to process. Senior Feeds (Purina is best regulated) are the preferred diet for most, unless they have specific diseases that require adjusted diets. No supplements should be arbitrarily given to an older horse without it having been prescribed to treat a deficiency that has been diagnosed through blood work or other diagnostic studies. You shouldn't take advice from us on this....your vet should be advising you. Diet mismanagement and erroneous supplementation is a common cause of illnesses affecting horses, and especially older horses. They can develop kidney disease and liver disease, not to mention colic or laminitis if the diet is not balanced correctly. Many people are guilty of over supplementing with the misquided idea that they are fixing something, when in fact they are causing the horse problems. Supplements are only of value when they are needed...otherwise they are excesses that the body has to deal with, and that is work for the liver and kidneys that stresses them.

Even better, and probably cheaper than a supplement is to feed your older horse a senior feed. It will be better because it will be perfectly balanced and formulated with LOTS of research behind it. Just adding a supplement on top of some other kind of grain is a crap shoot - you're just adding stuff - to what? What are the vitamin/mineral levels of the feed you're adding it to? You're just guessing at that point. Also, the senior feeds are made to be very easy to chew for older horses and will be based on beet pulp, soybean hulls, rice bran, and things like that to provide a complete feed without excess energy.

I started feeding my older pony a senior feed about a year ago and it has made a HUGE difference to how he keeps weight on and looks in general. A 50 lb bag is about $1.50 more than the grain I give the others, but I don't have to add anything to it. I would highly recommend it.

My horse is only 8 - but I swear by the following as daily supplements:

Garlic granules - very good for blood as well as circulation and keeping flies away as the smell of garlic comes out through their pores

Devils Claw - this is a liquid supplement that keeps joints and bones in great condition

Olive/sunflower oil - merely to keep his insides clean as it aids in the digestive system and also puts a lovely shine on his coat

xx

he's slightly youthful for joint supplementations, yet giving him cod liver oil won't be able to do any harm - no longer basically does it help their joints, it additionally promises mandatory supplements that can basically be a plus for a youthful horse, and that's going to additionally help his coat stay in solid condition. in any different case, if his weight loss plan promises all his nutrients standards + vits & minutes, then he shouldn't want the different supplementation. maximum feeds supply sufficient vits etc. if fed on the cautioned quantity (verify content fabric), and if he has get entry to to solid grass then it rather is probably no longer a concern.

I have a thirty year old arabian in great shape He has always been fed pelleted feed, and fast track probiotics. He is now on glucosamine and thats it . He is ridden a couple times a week and is doing fine

our 38 year olf mare has been on equivite for years and we have just put my 21 yr old tb on it too - its not so much an veteran dish as it is just for healthy joints but, although expensive, it is well worth it for the older ones.