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Expert
Posts: 1207
 
| Would like to know what everybody is using to boost your horses immune system. |
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Member 
Posts: 21
| We have a product that is called Re-Vitalize. Go to www.ResponseProducts.com and look at it! It is a great product to support your horses immune system, whether rehabbing, on the road, hauling, a stressful horse, etc. Contains RESVERATROL, Spirulina, and Himalayan Rock Salt. It is very concentrated as well as very palatable, so it is great for picky eaters.
In May we have a product called Cetyl M Complete for Horses coming out that has our Cetyl M formula in addition to our Re-Vitalize formula in it. It also contains added ingredients for bones AND soft tissue. It is a GREAT performance horse supplement!
Please contact me if you have any questions! |
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 Member
Posts: 14
| I don't knock anyones suppliments especially if they are made from natural resources.
But I will advice and remind you that your horse is a natural vegetarian.
I would take 1 lbs of blueberries and 1/2 lbs of apples. Mix it into what ever grain feed you give him/her. Do this only once a week. If you are not use to giving your horse fruits, then I suggest you make it a practrce, but don't over do it.
The main reason to get them use to eating fruits is because horses don't really like to drink water. I am sure you heard of the saying, "You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it".. well there you have it.. Now the above is only for uplifting the immune system...
On the normal day of the week.. feed him apples and carrots.. but try doing this only once a week..no more than that.....
BootStrap  |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
 
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | My horses are on a gut supplement (pre-biotics, pro-biotics, and digestive enzymes) and Vit E. |
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I Am a Snake Killer
Posts: 1927
Location: Golden Gulf Coast of Texas | Three 4 Luck - 2014-04-10 11:24 PM
My horses are on a gut supplement (pre-biotics, pro-biotics, and digestive enzymes) and Vit E.Â
What form do u give vitamin e? |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
| Just beware that if your horse has allergies boosting the immune system is the last thing you want to do. I have a horse with dust allergies and put him on immune builders. Vet told me I was throwing fire on an already reactive immune system. As soon as I stopped he is a LOT better. |
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| Oh, that's good to know cause I was basically asking for that reason. I have one horse (older) and the flies just love him and he must be highly allergic to fly bites. I feel so bad for him and I try everything to keep them away. He doesn't do good with a fly sheet on, he gets too hot in the summer time. I have fly despensers in the barn, fly through like Simplfy. Does anyone use garlic? I just don't know if that is safe for horses. Have heard pros and cons to that. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | I have an 11 year old mare who's immune system has seemed to have always had something going on with her. She was very wormy when we got her at a long yearling and has seemed to always be the first to come down with something or not look quite as good as the others until last summer I started all of mine on Forco. Most of her issues including her sarcoids have cleared up. She had gotten in an accident in the trailer 2 years ago and split her hock open when she promptly got an infection in the joint from. Took forever for that to heal and then she kept breaking with abscesses in her back feet. We have been abscess free since starting the Forco. I had also been having to bute her some days to ride her as the hock even though it x-rayed clean was still giving her some issues from time to time. Haven't had to bute her since about a month after starting the Forco.
My other 2 didn't have the issues that she did so their changes weren't as extreme. Its not an immune booster but I know it helped my mares system anyway. Someone explained it that the Forco probably helped some inflammation in her gut so now her body is able to take care of any inflammation that still remained in the hock and her feet. Made sense to me. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 999
Location: Sunny So Cal | The amount of garlic you would need to feed the horse in order for it to work would be toxic to the horse. I use THE ImmnoPLUS for my horse. She is pretty special. Somehow she got a yeast infection on her leg that spread and took over. Scrubbed it with malaseb everyday, dried throughly and fed THE ImmunoPLUS to. Cleared it up. |
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25351
Location: Bastrop, Texas | I think there is definitely a role for supplements but I think much of it is over emphasized. There's a natural tendency for people to look for a "magic bullet" when it comes to supplements, just like there is a trend for many people to look for a miracle diet pill that will "burn" or "melt" fat. Because the immune system is so often not well understood by the average person, people capitalize on this and turn it into a profit. For the vast majority of horses, good feed, plenty of fresh water, and access to salt and minerals (possibly certain vitamins) is as good as it gets. They use a number of tricks to promote these products. One predictable tool is to list ingredients that come from far away places, with exotic sounding names. Another tool is to say that some ancient civilization used it "successfully" for centuries, but somehow this magic herb or potient was lost. Ancient folk wisdom, whether it's rediscovered or repackaged, is unlikely to match the output of modern scientific laboratories. Another, of course, is endorsements by professionals.....forget the fact that most of these endorsees are paid by the maker of these products. Another trick is to state that a certain ingredient has been "scientifically proven", but if you press them for the evidence, you eventually get verbally accosted or the reaction is defensive. One thing we have learned in modern science over the past century is to strongly distrust anecdotal evidence. Anecdotes work because they have a powerful emotional appeal. In reality, all they usually accomplish is to keep superstitious beliefs alive, in an age that is supposed to be more scientific. Most people probably believe that the most important development in modern medicine is either vaccines or antibiotics, but that isn't true. The most powerful discovery in modern medicine is the "randomized, double-blind test", which is the basic tool we use to determine whether some medicine or remedy either works, or it doesn't. Contrary to the saying, "data" is NOT the pleural of "anecdote".
What I am trying to say is unless money is no objective, be smart. Buyer beware. |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. |      scott.lol |
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Member
Posts: 14
| FLITASTIC - 2014-04-11 6:17 AM Just beware that if your horse has allergies boosting the immune system is the last thing you want to do. I have a horse with dust allergies and put him on immune builders. Vet told me I was throwing fire on an already reactive immune system. As soon as I stopped he is a LOT better.
This is the main reason I recomend natural foods for your animal. Your horse will metabolize foods as he/she is suppose to and it won't create any side effects like supplements will.
Horses are vegiterians and just like when you get sick you give yourself chicken soup, well fruits and veggies are the chicken soup for your horse..
This way the horse's natural way of fighting off bacterias and infections will take place and they will cause ZERO HARM to your baby..
BootStrap |
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 BHW's Lance Armstrong
Posts: 11134
Location: Somewhere between S@%&# stirrer and Saint | I usually worry about the 2 Y O babies getting sick coming into a futurity trial of a final so this is what I do and it is very successful. My vet in Ruidoso taught me this 20 some years ago and my 2 YO never get sick. I give a 2 YO a Rhino shot and follow that up with a booster the next week, then skip a week and then give the 2nd booster. This has been very successful for me. Then a booster about evry 1 1/2 months throughout the summer.
I went into the main vet in SLC and got 3 Rhinos and the vet assistant was wondering why I want so many Rhinos for one horse. She never heard of the boosters like that before.
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I've heard the exact opposite on the immune system with allergies -- that you need to support the immune system because a poor immune system is what contributes to allergies.
I've seen DMG from Springtime herbs work first hand on a mare with allergy related heaves. She was bad enough that they were going to put her down because nothing was helping her breathing. The put her on DMG and that mare lasted another 10+ years and died at 32 of something totally unrelated to her breathing. After they put her on the DMG she didn't have any problems with allergies or her breathing, at all. The most she had was a little eye drainage in the spring.
From everything that's out there that I've read, the DMG supports the immune system by helping the body utilize oxygen, which is also why it helps with allergies.
I'm trying it out on a horse that has pretty severe skin allergies during the summer. I already feed flax and it hasn't made a difference. I'm anxious to see how he does this year on the DMG. I will say, I've seen a DEFINITE improvement on legging him up. I tried it really short term last year to leg him up and saw the same results on just the 1,000 dosage. This year I'm trying the 3,000 and he's even better.
I agree -- a good feed program, colic preventives like wetting their feed down, low stress, consistent care can go a long ways to keep them healthy.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 600
Location: Oklahoma & Texas | Best thing I've found has been omegahorseshine or tractor supply's version is Dumor horse shine... flax, vit e, lots of other good stuff read the label....but feed it to all of mine...i have a TB gelding with skin issues it cleared them all up from his allergies to his sarcoids all gone and hes shiny and healthy looking...I feed it to my broodies for extra vitamins as well as my weanlings and yearlings....also feed it to rest of my herd without issues or additional needs because I love what it does for them from their feet to their skin and hair and manes and tails...it will make maes n tails grow much faster...hoof quality improves also....anyway I swear by the stuff and not only does it work but its cheap in comparison to other supplements...only have to feed 1/2to 1 full measuring cup a day depending on the horse and a bag will last 3 months or so for one horse...runs about 30 bucks a bag but factor it out its only about 10 bucks a month...anyway check itout...read the label...its loaded with vitamins, minerals, flax, rice bran, high vit e, also has probiotics in it, also has biotin and folic acid ... |
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| I think I am feeding and supplementing him with what I think works. The one that seems to have allergies to the flies is older, he will be 25 this year, he gets senior ADM Patriot feed. I have fed the ADM and like it and is not so cost effective. I also wet it a little for all 3 and also I put in some beet pulp. Plus they all get the Equipride loose supplement. I really don't know what else I can do for him, outside of just making my barn as fly free as I can. Yes, I think you can go to extremes and over supplement or give them too much of this or that and I try to keep it as natural as possible. Also they are turned out 24/7 and have about 15 or so acres of pasture. I don't have the best pasture, but I am working on it. |
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 Forever Young
Posts: 6768
Location: relocated to Texas | In my experience, the best way to build up a horse's immune system is the same as what we should do for ourselves. Give the body what it needs to regenerate healthy cells. For the horses, a good diet of grass hay, a unprocessed grain mix of barley, oats and corn (2 1/2 lbs per feeding), Dynamite minerals (they are chelated) and Redmond natural salt (has no binders or fillers added). I also give Dynamite's dyna pro (which is a probiotic) a few times a week and always after deworming.
This is a simple program of unprocessed feed and minerals. My horses are very healthy with excellent feet (a horse's overall health will often be reflected in the condition of their feet). My trimmer informed me the last time that he was here that the Houston Police Dept. switched their program to this feed program. They said their horses have never been heathier, performed or looked better. Those horses are exposed to a lot more than the average horse, so to me, that is saying something. |
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Member
Posts: 21
| Have you heard of Re-Vitalize for horses? Re-Vitalize comes from the makers of Cetyl M and is great for the horses immune system along with retaining mental focus. Let me know if you have any questions!
http://www.responseproducts.com/re-vitalize-for-horses/ |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| HotbearLVR - 2014-04-11 4:28 PM
I think there is definitely a role for supplements but I think much of it is over emphasized.  There's a natural tendency for people to look for a "magic bullet" when it comes to supplements, just like there is a trend for many people to look for a miracle diet pill that will "burn" or "melt" fat.   Because the immune system is so often not well understood by the average person, people capitalize on this and turn it into a profit.  For the vast majority of horses, good feed, plenty of fresh water, and access to salt and minerals (possibly certain vitamins) is as good as it gets.  They use a number of tricks to promote these products.  One predictable tool is to list ingredients that come from far away places, with exotic sounding names.  Another tool is to say that some ancient civilization used it "successfully" for centuries, but somehow this magic herb or potient was lost. Ancient folk wisdom, whether it's rediscovered or repackaged, is unlikely to match the output of modern scientific laboratories.  Another, of course, is endorsements by professionals.....forget the fact that most of these endorsees are paid by the maker of these products.  Another trick is to state that a certain ingredient has been "scientifically proven", but if you press them for the evidence, you eventually get verbally accosted or the reaction is defensive.  One thing we have learned in modern science over the past century is to strongly distrust anecdotal evidence. Anecdotes work because they have a powerful emotional appeal. In reality, all they usually accomplish is to keep superstitious beliefs alive, in an age that is supposed to be more scientific.  Most people probably believe that the most important development in modern medicine is either vaccines or antibiotics, but that isn't true.  The most powerful discovery in modern medicine is the "randomized, double-blind test", which is the basic tool we use to determine whether some medicine or remedy either works, or it doesn't.  Contrary to the saying, "data" is NOT the pleural of "anecdote".
What I am trying to say is unless money is no objective, be smart. Â Buyer beware. Â
AMEN.  |
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Expert
Posts: 1694
Location: Willows, CA | We often talk about " normalizing" the horses digestive system. Doing this for the immune system starts with a fully functional hind gut. An enhanced immune response is an allergy. What you want is normal. That being said, most horses do not have normal function because of how they are fed. I will say it again. "We feed horses into trouble, then try to supplement them out of it. Best not to feed them into trouble in the first place." |
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