Daily:
• Good quality water
• High quality forage
As needed:
• High quality, balanced electrolytes – OVVET Metabolic Balance
• High quality feed supplement for hooves – OVVET HoofPro
Most horse people have heard of the expression ‘no hoof, no horse’. Hoof issues result in lameness and, all too often, too little is done too late and the horse must be put down. Most hoof issues are caused from poor nutrition and poor hoof maintenance, which includes trimming and shoeing. The key, therefore, is to maintain healthy hooves through optimum nutrition and regular, high quality trimming.
Healthy hooves, capable of compression and sustaining concussive forces on variable terrain must be strong and resilient in all horses. Compared to other tissues in the body, hooves grow very slowly, taking about one full year to fully replace itself. Hooves, therefore, do not heal in the way that other tissues do. Damaged areas must grow out, and preferably be replaced with better material. This better material is obtained only through great nutrition. Application of products to the outside of the hoof is cosmetic at best, and some products actually break down hoof wall material. Some short-term strengthening or repair may be achieved, and indeed sometimes needs to be achieved, but it is short term.
August 2018
The massive lesion in this horse’s right front hoof was caused by a combination of inadequate nutrition, improper shoeing, and improper treatment of an initial abscess. Many people would have put this horse down. The depth of the abscess is such that it will require at least 9 months to grow out. It is important that optimum nutrition for hooves be maintained throughout the life of the horse, not just periodically.
Laminitis is an extreme manifestation of hoof disease – there is a whole range of sub-clinical to clinical inflammation in the hoof between normal-healthy and overt laminitis. Our understanding is the laminitis is a direct manifestation of poor nutrition AND impaired immune function. This is why address hoof health through nutrition, year round, is so important.
OVVET HoofPro is blend of natural, high quality ingredients carefully selected and backed by evidence based research to support strong, healthy hooves that can better tolerate concussive impact, environmental challenges and regular trimming and shoeing. The ingredients in OVVET HoofPro are balanced so as to provide nutritional support (including minerals) for protein synthesis, laminal blood supply and tissue anti-oxidant activity and immune system support.
Claims:
• Supports healthy hooves, inside and out
• Supports a strong hoof structure resistant to cracking
• Supports healthy hoof growth
• Supports tissue anti-oxidant activity
• Supports a healthy systemic immune system
Health Science for your Horse™
Essential parts of any good health maintenance program are water and forage. Both high quality water and forage should be available 24 / 7. This helps to relieve all types of stresses. Water is essential for maintaining hydration, and most horses turn over between 30 and 50 litres of water each and every day.
The other key to maintaining hydration are electrolytes balanced to match the losses occurring at the skin through sweating. Balanced electrolyte products provide calcium and magnesium that are needed for healthy hooves, bones and joints. Balanced is important because it is the electrolytes, in the right proportions, that contributes to maintaining hydration of fluid compartments both outside of cells and inside of cells through your horse’s body including within the joints. OVVET Metabolic Balance provides these electrolytes in the proportions required and beneficial for your horse – this product is also backed by evidence-based research (see Lindinger and Ecker, 2013).
OVVET HoofPro was scientifically developed to assist with hoof health in two ways:
1) By providing nutrients that can be taken up and used by the cells that generate new hoof material.
2) Systemically in the body through immune system support. This second mechanism is very important because the body fights infection, inflammation and oxidative stress through the immune system.
OVVET HoofPro. The carefully selected, high quality natural ingredients in OVVET HoofPro have antioxidative potential and anti-inflammatory potential. Nutrients in OVVET HoofPro support a healthy tissue immune response, facilitating high intensity training and competition. It is also recommended for ageing horses needing nutrient support to maintain an active lifestyle. The ingredients in OVVET HoofPro are also highly beneficial for nutrient support for the skin to support a healthy coat, as hair and hooves share similar molecular building blocks.
Health Science for your Horse™
Ingredients:
• Golden Flaxseed- ALA (beneficial fatty acid)
• Laltide® – Proprietary yeast source of nucleotides, peptides and amino acids
• Gluten Free Oat Flour
• Levucell® – Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Alkosel® – Proprietary chelated selenium
• Ganoderma lucidum
• Vitamin D2
Golden Flaxseed
Golden flaxseed is a rich, natural source of beneficial unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is an omega-3 fatty acid and present in milled flaxseed at 22%, and the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid is at 7%. ALA is easily converted by the body to the other beneficial PUFAs EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid).
• Supports maintenance of healthy, robust cells
• Supports cell and tissue anti-inflammatory activity
• Support immune health
• Supports generation of PUFAs from ALA
Laltide®
Laltide® is Lallemand’s proprietary yeast (S. cerevisiae) product that provides natural sources of nucleosides and nucleotides, free amino acids & peptides, glutamic acid and other important nutrients. Many of these are directly beneficial for gut health including barrier function (glutamine, threonine, arginine) and immune health, and all are used in the body to maintain healthy cells and tissues.
• Supports tissue protein synthesis
• Support cell and tissue repair
Gluten Free Oat Flour
Whole, ground oat flour is a rich source of beta-glucans that are present within the hulls. Betaglucans are associated with numerous health benefits including anti-inflammation, immunestimulating, and gut microbiota-modulating activities, ability to beneficially modify short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production, protective effects against an intestinal parasite, protection against bacterial infection, and a synergistic effect in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity.
Beta-glucans are a non-starch polysaccharide and contribute to the class of carbohydrate nutrients termed dietary fiber. Beta-glucans present in oat bran and oat flour are not degraded in the stomach and the small intestine, and are therefore delivered to the large intestine where they provide a source of non-starch polysaccharides to microbiota of the large intestine.
• Contains beta-glucan prebiotics to support beneficial gut microbiome
• Supports gut health
• Support immune health
Levucell®
The probiotic Levucell® is Lallemand’s proprietary strain of live Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii (CNCM I-1079) and is termed a digestibility enhancer for monogastric animals. It is especially associated with oxygen scavenging in the gut, promoting the proliferation of beneficial or commensal bacterial populations. The products produced by these beneficial gut bacteria promote gut health in many ways including maintaining barrier function, communication with other but microbiota, and with cells of the intestinal epithelium and the innate immune system.
• Supports healthy gut microbiota
• Supports healthy gut structure and function
• Supports gut barrier functions
• Supports immune health
Alkosel®
Alkosel® is Lallemand’s proprietary inactivated, whole cell, selenium-enriched yeast (S. cerevisiae), providing a natural source of highly bioavailable L(+) selenomethionine. Selenium directly interacts with vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) in the body, and has powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant activities that support tissue and wound healing, and help maintain healthy tissues. In many regions of the world, including the United States and Europe (especially central Europe) horses are deficient in selenium. Selenium is an essential mineral that, together with vitamin E, is important in cell membrane protection.
• Supports tissue anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activities
• Supports tissue and wound healing
Reishi mushroom powder
Reishi mushroom (also known as Ganoderma lucidum) has been used in traditional oriental medicines for thousands of years. Evidence-based research shows specific effects including antiinflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and promotes cardiovascular health, healing of gastro-intestinal ulcers, immune health, and liver health. Some, but not all of these beneficial effects are associated with the beta-glucans.
• Contains beta-glucan prebiotics to support beneficial gut microbiome
• Supports maintenance of healthy tissues
• Supports immune health
Vitamin D2
Lalmin® VitaD 2M Yeast is Lallemand’s proprietary inactivated, whole cell, selenium-enriched yeast (S. cerevisiae), providing a natural source of highly bioavailable vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol, 500 μg Vit D2/g yeast); the product also provide vitamin A (910 IU / g yeast). Vitamin D2 is converted to the active calcitriol, which works by increasing absorption of calcium and phosphorus in the body. Calcitriol also prevents loss of calcium and phosphorus from kidneys.
Calcium and phosphorous are important minerals for maintaining hoof health.