calcium supplements??

[3rottenponies]

What are the best calcium supplements you have used? They aren’t something I I dealt with at all in the past so I feel a bit like a fish out of water here. 2 I have read about so far are Calphormin and Kalsytech.

Horse is a 12 yo half arab gelding. Noticed odd ‘lumps’ in fetlock region in both front legs in late July. Pulled rads and there is some calcification, & sesamoids are misshapen. Not sure if this is diet related but it was recommended to try a calcium supplement, amongst the other things we are looking into doing-main one being tildren vs osphos. He has also recently been switched from Enrich plus, flax, msm, and quiescence, to platinum performance wellness and their metabolic supplement. He lives on equithrive and is also on pentosan for an injectable.

Like I said, big time fish out of water here. any thoughts, suggestions, whatever, are appreciated. what to look for in a sup, the good, the bad, anything else I could/should/shouldn’t be doing, etc etc. TIA!

[Texarkana]

Alfalfa. Seriously, a pound of alfalfa pellets a day will deliver about 6 grams of calcium and a whole bunch of other beneficial nutrients.

If your horse can’t handle the added calories, powdered calcium carbonate is dirt cheap. Many feed stores sell it in huge bags for livestock, or you can order it online.

[3rottenponies]

Thank you! Could I also potentially do timothy alfalfa for less calories & same/similar effect? I forgot to add that he is also IR and a suuuuuper easy keeper, so on levoxine and a diet. He gets fat smelling the alfalfa in the hay shed that is 50 feet away from his stall :winkgrin:

What would a ballpark dosage of the powdered CC in bulk be for a 1000 lb horse if I went that route?

[Texarkana]

The ratio of timothy to alfalfa is going to affect how much calcium is in the T&A pellets, but overall they will not deliver nearly as much calcium as straight alfalfa. Beet pulp is also high in calcium and is less calorie dense, so that may be a better alternative.

I’m not sure how much Ca you’re looking to add to the diet, but a generic 1 oz. supplement scoop of calcium carbonate delivers about 10g of calcium.

What kind and how much forage is he getting? I ask because it sounds like he is on a ton of supplements. He should already be getting the calcium he needs if he is getting adequate forage. That makes me wonder if he has a true calcium deficiency or if one of the supplements is delivering a lot of phosphorus and inverting his Ca:P ratio. If it is an inverted ratio, personally I’d prefer to address that by adjusting the diet as opposed to adding yet another supplement.

[JB]

I might also look at a magnesium deficiency, which is more likely than a calcium deficiency.

[Flash44]

Quiessence has a lot of Mg in it. Hope I got that abbreviation right. Maybe an imbalance? Is the vet the one that recommended a calcium supp? I’d go with the vet’s recommendation. Very rusty on my biology, but IIRC, calcium relies on other minerals for transportation, so it can collect in spurs and joints if there is an ongoing imbalance or deficiency. Also, calcification can be the result of trauma. But I’d go with the vet on this one.

[2miniB]

I have few metabolic horses myself. I’m in the process of getting a custom HorseTech vitamin/mineral supplement made to balance out the low NSC hay. This year’s hay has too little calcium, so the supplement will be formulated to correct that.

Some IR horses can have issues with alfalfa. The only way to know is to try it, unfortunately.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=2miniB;8328418]
I have few metabolic horses myself. I’m in the process of getting a custom HorseTech vitamin/mineral supplement made to balance out the low NSC hay. This year’s hay has too little calcium, so the supplement will be formulated to correct that.

Some IR horses can have issues with alfalfa. The only way to know is to try it, unfortunately.[/QUOTE]

I completely agree… but even “poor” quality grass hay usually has about 0.3% calcium and even less phosphorous. I think the NRC recommends a minimum of 20-22g of Ca daily and at least a 1:1 Ca:P ratio for mature horse maintenance. Even 15lb a day of most grass hays will provide 20g of calcium, and it’s rare for grass to have an inverted Ca:P ratio. Those levels aren’t enough nutrition for a working/growing animal, but enough for maintenance.

Then the OP also mentioned her horse gets Enrich, which if fed at the recommended 1lb/day rate, should provide 19g of Ca and a balanced Ca:P ratio in addition to whatever he’s getting in his forage. If he’s getting any forage at all, I would find it hard to believe he’s truly deficient in calcium! More likely, something in his diet is preventing him from utilizing the calcium he is already getting-- like high phosphorus/oxalates or another mineral imbalance.

I’m not trying to go against the vet’s recommendation. When a horse has a calcium deficiency or imbalance, it can lead to serious consequences. But I do think before adding yet another supplement, it might be worthwhile to double check exactly what he is/isn’t getting from his diet and supplements first.

[3rottenponies]

I need to weigh my hay to figure out exactly what he is getting, but he basically gets 6 generous sized flakes spread out throughout the day in a slow feed hay net. He currently gets turned out for an hour a day…looking into a grazing muzzle that he can not remove and then he will be upped to two hours a day.

I switched him from the Enrich to the Platinum about 3 weeks ago, with the thought that maybe the Enrich was causing an imbalance. Supplement wise, he gets Platinum metabolic, Thyro-L, and equithrive. The P Metabolic has magnesium and chromium in it. Just started him on that the other day, he has been on Quiessence since May. He started looking pretty cresty this year. When in work in the past, he has been on a magnesium supplement as he has shown signs of being mg deficient.

Vet recommended both platinum and at least looking into a calcium supplement.

Up until recently he has lived outside 24/7 for the last 5 years on very good pasture, coastal am & pm in the winter with 1/2 flake T&A a day. He has been on the Enrich for the last 5 years also.

This is something I am very unfamiliar with so I greatly appreciate everyone’s input.