Natural Vet Products

[TN Belle]

I know the feed program topic is usually a hotly debated one and after scanning a dozen searches and topics, I haven't seen anyone mention the products from "The Natural Vet" program.

The products like Red-Cal, Just Add Oats, and the Grape Balm seem to be their most popular items and the product demo's are really well done. We have seen him at Equine Affaire and a local Horse Fair and I am always blown away at how much things make sense to me when they are explained. As we weren't in the market at the time, I could pass on buying anything. BUT now that my horses are home & I am in charge of their feed and health care, I want to help them the best I can. I have one 16 mini gelding and one 6 year old mini gelding donkey. No shows, just pets....so do you think I can feed them this?

Is it all to good to be true?

http://www.thenaturalvet.net/cgi-bin/genes...-58108103153.8f

 

[TN Belle]

No replies, really, does that mean no body knows what I am talking about?

BUMP BUMP

 

[garyo]

I had never heard of these products before but the red cel mag reminds me a lot of quiessence or remission. Both are magnesium & chromium supplements with other additives. They are recommended for possible cushings or founder prone horses.

Ruth

 

[Charlotte]

My opinion is probably going to be unpopular here, but I am strongly against adding 'supplements' to a horse's diet unless you are pretty experienced with equine nutrition. If you are feeding a good quality commercial concentrate feed which has a vitamin mineral pack and a good quality hay you are ok in most instances.

Once you begin adding things to a balanced diet you run the risk of making the diet nutritionally unbalanced. I noticed the Red Cal sounds like a fairly simple electrolyte supplement till you get to the bottom of the ingredient list. It contains selinium. Selinium can be toxic when fed beyond a certain level. If you happened to be in a high selinium area of the country and your concentrate feed had selinium added then you ad some more..........You can see where I'm going with this.

We have to remember that all the supplement products are out there to make money for the manufacturer. We just need to look everything over real well when making decisions about our feeding plans and try to be sure anything added is really in the best interest of the horse.

Charlotte

p.s. Sorry, spelling error....SELENIUM is correct.

 

[barefoot]

I have a few clients that use this diet. One particular mare has been amazing. She has lost her cresty neck and her hoof sensitivity. She looks great. I just ordered the weight control oil and the just add oats for myself. I guess they are recommending the weight control oil over the H2Oil now for hoof. I haven't read their website lately. I ordered thru my client so we could get free shipping and the multiple items discount.

I faithfully used the Bug Check this year and it really really works. YOu have to feed it everyday though. And start early in the year. I never needed a fly mask. I do use a good property fly management system at my home though. But if there are any flys they are usually on the eyes. Not this year. Just occasionally they would try to land on the legs. I am going to try and feed the Bug Check this year and not do the fly predators. I hear you don't need both. So we are going to experiment.

Oh forgot I have the grape seed hoof stuff. That stuff stays in the hoof for over a week. It really sticks and is nice. It does reek though. I don't like oil based hoof conditioners so if someone wanted one this would be great. I used it for a little stinky hoof and it works great.

Emma

 

[funnybunny]

Never used those products with minis, but I know people who have used them on their big horses.

I know some people who do hunter-jumper and eventing and dressage who really like the Red Cal. They use it as a free choice mineral. Some use it because the horses need stronger hooves. Some use it because they say their nervous horses used to crib and lick the walls of the stalls or bars on the stalls. Some use it for horses who are poop-eaters. All of them say when they let the horses eat it free choice, the horses ate a lot of it the first week as if they were starved for some of the minerals etc. After about a week the horses stopped eating a lot of it and ate it ocassionally. They report it helped with hoof growth, to stop cribbing and licking and with poop eating.

As I said, I've never used Red Cal, but the people I know say it is a help to them. I really don't know about the other products.

As Charlotte said, there are people who do not like to "unbalance" a balanced diet by using additives. I guess that is true as long as the forage, grass or hay they are using doesn't unbalance it either. I guess you'd have to have all your grass and hay analyzed to find out for sure.

 

[Jetiki]

I know Dr. Dan Moore Personally, he's my grandmother's neighbor, I have to say his horses look awesome. His products from what I have seen do work, they just aren't in my budget right now.

Karen