A change in supplements

Here we go! Another attempt to have two horses happily on the same supplements.

Dude has been off supplements for a bit to see if the funky smell he developed this summer would go away. It did. No one could successfully determine why he had a funky smell, and he seemed perfectly happy and unconcerned about being a stinky guy. But it just didn't seem right to me to keep him on something that might have been causing him to smell. Wouldn't that mean his system is not processing an ingredient correctly? 

So, moving on, I looked at a bunch of options, knowing I wanted to stay with a multipurpose supplement - joints, coat, and general peace, love and happiness. And even though I did read up on several possibilities, I really kinda wanted to stay with HorseTech because overall I've been happy with their products and their customer service is really great. And the bottom line was that in the end, HorseTech did seem to have the best match for what I needed.

Bestie recently finished up her old supplements, so about two weeks ago they both started on HorseTech's TriSport, with glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM as the key ingredients. The previous supplement Dude was on also had hyaluronic acid, but I'm just not convinced that's a deliverable in powdered form. Bestie was only on glucosamine and chondroitin previously, so she's getting a bit extra oomph with the new supplement. They've been on a half dose for two weeks.

The only bummer is that the TriSport doesn't have a pre/probiotic, so I bought a container of HorseTech's DFM ProLactic. I started adding a half scoop of that in their containers this week. Over the next couple weeks I'll increase to the full dosage for both the probiotic and the joint supplement. 

I also recently doubled the rice bran Dude's been getting to two scoops, and he's still getting rice bran oil also. The good news is that I'm seeing an incremental change along his top line and sides. I didn't go to the barn for a couple days and when I took off his blanket, I noticed he's not so ribby. Funny how it's easier to see when I'm not looking at him every day. I'm also giving him an extra flake of hay at night when I'm there, which is most nights. I'm like the hay police, making sure that even if I've given him an evening flake, he still gets the two flake allotment that all of the horses get for their late feeding. He definitely needs the extra hay.

Probably all of these factors - extra hay, rice bran, rice bran oil AND keeping him in an extra sheet under his midweight have contributed to the little weight I'm seeing. The winter has been so cold he easily could've kept dropping weight. It's a relief to see him gaining; it's been a long haul over several months.