Do you feed supplements to your broodmares...thinking about why rejuvinaide works...

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Background: I feed 1.5 lbs Purina Enrich 32, 5 hours pasture (because she is a bit fat) and grass hay. Purina is the best feed line available locally.

She is moving next month (will be around 60-70 days pregnant). She will loose access to pasture, so we can be somewhere with an indoor for a bit, and will receive grass hay. Normally I would leave her on ration balancer at home, and just increase it after month five, but I’m planning to switch to Ultium with the loss of grass.

So here is my question–Beyond Ultium/hay (in this case), or ration balancer/grass & hay like I normally feed (and mineral/salt available) I’m wondering if you guys supplement anything with your brood mares beyond your feed (and what is your feed if you do)? I was looking at what is in rejuvinaide and it got me thinking… What is the missing link that rejuvinaide is able to fix (assuming that is the case). FYI, we have plenty of selenium here, which seems to be added to everything.

If you do add anything when do you start? Normally, all I do is some extra vitamin E in the winter…

[JB]

Because she appears to be an easier keeper, I would plan on continuing a ration balancer until she proves she needs more calories. If she does, then I’d choose the Ultium Growth over the competition formula.

If she’s getting the recommended amount of the RB, or the UG, then you shouldn’t need to supplement anything. Copper and zinc would be about the only potentials and that would be only if the forage is high in iron and low in cu/zn.

Rejuvenaide does its job by providing a good amount of balanced minerals typically associated with growth issues, without providing the calories.

The only reason I could think of to add Rejuvenaide the pregnant mare’s diet is if she’s a starvation case and needs extra help.

Beyond that, it is about what the foal needs - give to the mare if the foal is super just born young, or directly to the foal once he’s a certain age (6 weeks? I cannot remember but there’s a minimum age, and it’s not very old).

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

And I should have clarified, I wasn’t thinking of adding Rejuvinaide to the mare’s feed, but it gets me thinking about what is it that it does for these babies out of mares that are getting good care? Is there something we are missing in our minerals?

[JB]

It’s often just that a particular foal is an increased need, as an individual.

[clint]

Until someone does a double blind study on Rejuvenade, one will never know if it works or not. Whenever it is used, it is used in combination with other modalities of treatment, and I don’t see how anyone can conclude it “works”. It isn’t available everywhere, yet foals not treated with it get over development issues at the same rate as foals given Rejuvenade.

[Beentheredonethat]

My vet, who is a repro. specialist, says it’s BS. It’s for people to feel better about giving something to the foal.

Like Clint said.

[JB]

It’s not magic.

Does its use sometimes coincide with improvements that were going to be made anyway? No doubt.

But it’s not any different from a ration balancer - it’s concentrated nutrients, just without the calories.

And what if the foal cannot have appropriate amounts of a RB, or a milk-based feed, because he’s already fat? Just leave him and his issues alone?

Or, use Rejuvenaide, or something like it, on the thought that is may well be helping.

[camohn]

Just Source… And not because she’s preggo. She has iffy feet and I noticed a big improvement in her feet on it.