FEEDLINE…………DEC 2007 - JAN 2008 No 50
May we wish you the very best seasonal greetings and
thank you for your support in the last 12 months.
It is only right that if you
go to all the trouble of seeking
us out, putting up with all the engaged telephone calls and nefarious problems
involved in speaking to us, you must in all cases be assured of receiving
quality in return. The opportunities of buying feeds and supplements for your
horse has never been greater, the choice is seemingly endless and when
professional marketeers have spent months on presentation to attract you, it is
sometimes difficult with only a few minutes to spare in the day to make the
best decision for your horse, especially when all you seem to hear these days
is a cascade of superlatives with even the worst being wonderful. As
consultants manufacturing bespoke formulations for the individual horse,
marketing is not our concern, only doing the job as right as we can concerns us
and to do so we long ago decided that quality is the most important thing and
although it may not always be asked for we consider it expected. Without being
rude, we gently steer horse owners who come to us asking us for a ‘quote’ to
the local co-operative, formulating with the best ingredients forfeits our
chances when it comes to those only concerned with cost. There is no cost hierarchy in what we
manufacture, one formulae costing less than another is incidental, what decides
the formula is the purpose. One example of this is our extended use of zinc,
copper and iron in chelated form with Glycine as opposed to non-organic or the
less costly ‘bioavailabe’ minerals used in proprietary feeds. Such high quality
trace elements are better able to augment the prevention of free radical
formation, especially the free radical activity that occurs in some high fat
diets that are now being fed to horses and possible rises of free radicals in
organic (humic) material such as Haylage, which is being made at higher pH
levels due to better wrapping and air exclusion (Free radical concentration
rises with pH). Free radicals can cause
irreparable damage and it could be put forward that the ability of the horse to
out perform others over the longest period of time is down to the degree of FR
degradation it undergoes. Whilst some horses withstand ‘rusting up’ of the
system quite well, others do not and the difference could well be down to the
way lethal mico-toxins are deal with by the individual.
A number clients are reporting benefits of feeding VN10
to horses with Cushings, even though they are being prescribed Pergolide or
other Parkinsonian type drugs. Our usual advice has been that once things have
progressed to the need for Veterinarian intervention then rely on the benefit
of the drug however the reports are that VN10 seems to do even more to even out
the undulating problems that are the result of false alarms by the Pituitary
that encourages adrenal surges which manifest themselves in bloatedness,
particularly in the week following a full moon, belligerence, lethargy and
indirectly in non specific lameness. VN10 which we make up for Mares and
Fillies to help balance oestrogen and thus contribute a sweeter, kinder disposition
is formulated with two main ingredients Negundi - Vitex Negundo and Vitex agnus
castus. The latter you may well know, the former, Nirgundi is an interesting
plant indeed. In any Materia medica that lists it, look up the quick reference
section which sets out to itemise a plant’s main use in one line or if possible
a few words and you will find that such
is the ubiquity of Nirgundi a whole
paragraph is needed. Almost every thing from bladder problems to
rheumatism is listed, from skin problems to sinuses, from colic to mental
stress. Now this is because Vitex
negundo is classed as an Endocrine herb that affects ductless glands that
secrete hormones direct into the blood stream to be borne to other parts of the
body chiefly the pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands. The gonads
are also endocrines, producing sex hormones. Similarly, the pancreas secretes
insulin which is discharged directly into the blood. Certain herbs such as
Negundi act specifically on theses glands as normalisers, other well know herbs
in this category are Echinacea, Liquorice, Centella asiatica and Ginseng.
Based
purely on the huge number of metabolic functions in the body with which Magnesium is involved we could
write something for the next 1500 newsletters before we wrote one article on
the trace element Selenium such is the importance of Mg. Think of Mg as money,
money as cash and money as bonds in the bank but with a twist. You or your
horse, we are the same, can only have £50 in your purse you are not allowed more
or less. You have a wage which is coming in all the time at an irregular rate
and you have expenditure that also widely varies from hour to hour. Due to the
£50 rule any excess of cash has got to be turned into bonds as quickly as you
can and deposited in the bank or has to be thrown away and any expenditure that
leaves you short of £50 cash for any length of time has to immediately
withdrawn from reserves. As your bank is only a savings bank, reserves are only
available in line with savings however there is another twist the more you draw
from the bank the more cash you need because the bank is part of you and in an
effort to stay open the bank takes in a different currency that it thinks will
help it stave of going broke without your savings, this is a wrong move and
leads to branch closures making it a longer process to reverse the procedure
and even if you are suddenly flush you have to throw away most much needed cash as you have no where to
put it. If you are not blessed with sufficient funds to meet your expenditure
and the banks carry on closing then things really get bleak and you then have
to start selling your house and your personal belonging. It is not possible to
live without such possessions as you are unprotected from the elements and vagabonds
so death ensues and all is left is a corpse with £50 in its purse. The analogy
is not perfect but near enough. The purse is the blood and the £50 cash is the
ionic magnesium level in the blood which is constant, hence the reason why a blood test for Mg levels does not tell you anything. The
daily wage is the Mg in the diet which is only available within about 6 hours
of consumption. Savings means turning the cash, ionic Mg, into bonds by
combining it with protein and storing it in the cells which is the savings
banks this is a painfully slow process so as you cannot have more than £50 in
your purse you are forced to discard cash, this means excess free Mg is voided
through the Kidneys indeed too much can put a strain on Kidney function. The
daily expenditure is to pay for fuel Mg as an integral part of the process of creating energy as soon as
heart beat rises so does the requirement for Mg , it also buffers the effects
of increased cortisol and adrenal production switched by the flight or fight
mechanism. The consequence of both athletic and non athletic activity and
stress requires quantities of blood Mg as Mg in the blood cannot fall it is
instantly drawn from the cell whenever there is negative balance. This like
most things requires practise, this is an important reason for training and a controlled build up of
fitness to perform, some horses can do it easily some not so. The banks accepting a different currency in
the vain effort to stay alive is the calcium that flows in when Mg is drawn out
this causes hypotension and contraction of pre-muscular arteries and
capillaries, obstructing oxygen supply and impeding the disposal of the exhaust
fumes of movement. The banks closing is the cells short lived policy of
entertaining another currency being unacceptable, and the Potassium the very
fabric of cells flows away in the urine. This is when the tiredness and then
the lethargy starts, the cramps, the stiffness, the shakes and other symptoms
are added to changes in moods and reactions. It is now that the house goes up
for sale and Mg stored in the bones and other vital tissues are called upon to
support blood Mg and immunity meltdown begins.
Plenty of good quality roughage will ensure
against much of what is described certainly extremes but just like the economic
analogy every horse has different daily income due to the analysis of its feed,
the amount it is fed and the way it assimilates it. Even more varied will be
its expenditure. The young inexperienced highly strung mare (Vata/Pitta type)
can quite well be running 30% or more over optimal resting heartbeat for hours
on end add a change in environment, feed
or management and or athletic endeavour and Mg loss will bear no comparison to
a much loved and contented retired gelding with all the experiences of life
well remembered. However all are ever vulnerable to change and change will
always mean going cap in hand to the bank. What makes Maglyte such a classic
formula for horses is that it is a mixture of ionic (blood) and bonded
(cellular) Magnesium forms. It helps keep Blood Mg topped up without causing
kidney strain and also presents the body with Mg prepared ready to go straight
into the bank.
Scour in horses has been much
more prevalent so far this winter and has much to do with the type of fermentation that has ensued in
Haylage and micro organisms in hay. Make sure sufficient salt is being consumed
and feed PreEvent Probiotic at a 25 g Spoon per feed up to 4 times per day and
if there is a lot of foul smelling extraneous brown fluid also feed 25 ml of T7
twice per day fo at least ten days.
Quite frankly no one expected
Hamlet to have much of a chance at 17 years old, he was frail and his master had passed away and to
cap it all a huge German Shepherd puppy had arrived.
Nevertheless he started having Bouley Bay Elixir in a little milk everyday.
What a difference! He’s looking so much better, stronger and so much more alert
and back doing his old walks right across the fields looking for rabbits just
as a little broken coated Jack Russell should. He is stronger and his quality
of life has improved immensely. If you have any old friends who are feeling
their age or recovering from a set back, do ask us to make up some
Food inflation is a current
danger with wheat and oats prices doubling because of the wretched harvest and
Quote from a Client who has started
taking L’Essence de Vie – By nightfall I’m no less tired than I was previously,
then I realise just how much more I’ve done in the day.
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