I am looking to see if anyone has any experience with the supplements Nu-Foot, Crackdown, or both. I am currently working with my vet and farrier on this issue but was hoping to find some real-life testimonials as to whether anyone has used either of these supplements specifically for increasing sole depth and increasing overall speed of hoof growth and their efficacy. Thanks!
What’s the rest of his diet look like? For the majority of horses, a balanced diet that includes enough copper/zinc, biotin, and amino acids (especially lysine, methionine, and threonine) is enough to encourage healthy hoof growth.
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Agreeing with post above about copper/zinc and biotin.
I am not familiar with the supplements. However, from looking at the websites, the crackdown one is mostly just protein and amino acids. There’s not really enough biotin, zinc, copper, etc to make much of a difference there. I guess it’s possible your horse could have an amino acid deficiency but from what I know that’s pretty rare if you are feeding a normal diet, and it would be cheaper to go pick up a bag of purina supersport and try that.
The Nu-foot is interesting because the ingredients seem to be nonsensical. Iodine, some sugar, a B vitamin? Maybe someone else can explain that one.
Ditto CowgirlCoffee
Biotin all on its own has shown to be able to increase the rate of hoof growth for horses who need it. But the only way to know is to add it and see if things change. This is a hard time of year to try that, as hoof growth will natural start increasing with warmer weather. If you do try it, I would aim for 20-25mg/day, and you can use human biotin, you can often find that in 5000mcg (5mg) caps, so add 4-5. You can get bulk biotin powder as a human supplement too.
Do you mean Nu-Hoof (Maximizer)? I can’t find a Nu-Foot. Nu-Hoof looks decent in what it has enough of to make a difference, which is 30mg biotin (but is an an expensive source of biotin!). The amino acids might as well not be there. 250mg zinc isn’t bad, 25mg copper is meh. The probiotics are in such tiny amounts as to be useless.
Crackdown is from EquineElixirs, and as a whole, they are lots of bark with no bite. There’s no appreciable amount of any nutrient in the product. 2gm methionine isn’t terrible, but nothing to write home about, and that’s the “best” there is in it. Definitely not a product I would use.
where did you find that?
Oh, I did briefly see that in my search but ignored it when I saw “anti-fungal” as I assumed it was a topical LOL
I can’t find a legible GA on it, the image on that site and another are way too fuzzy to even see what the nutrients are. I can find a fairly legible label for the Vet Formula, but even with that, what I can see if not much of anything and it sure is $$ for not much of anything
So I would choose neither of these, especially since can add hoof-friendly nutrients for way cheaper on your own - copper, zinc, biotin - assuming the diet is already well-fortified
When I went looking, I found that my basic VMS (Mad Barn Omneity premix) was supplying more of the key copper, zinc and biotin than any of the specific hoof formulas from other companies, like Farriers Formula. So look at your over all diet numbers.
Every forage balancer - Omneity, Amino Trace+, California Trace, Vermont Blend, Arizona Copper Complete, High Point Grass/Alfalfa - all provide more of the key hoof-health minerals, and some provide more of the top 3 amino acids, than FF/DS.
Ration balancers do too. But if you’re feeding a ration balancer, or enough of a regular feed, you wouldn’t want to add a forage balancer on top of that, you’d want to supplement with the things most likely needed - copper, zinc, and maybe biotin.
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So what was the brand of copper/ zinc that horse’s find more palatable? I fed Ukele ( sp) and one horse refused to touch it. The other horse with much better feet finally decided she would eat it. Both of mine are air ferns so they are only getting small amounts of RB and ground flax to mix it in. Nether are fans of beet pulp and I don’t like to feed BP here in the summer since it gets rancid so quickly in the heat and humidity.
Uckele adds kelp to their cu/zn, which many horses find very unpleasant. California Trace (their minerals, not the forage balancer) and HorseTech’s cu/zn are pretty idental in cost, and don’t have additives. Even then, for some horses, you have to start really small. CT also has pelleted versions, I think.
Hay Harmony is another product that is cu/zn/biotin combined, and I think it’s a meal-like consistency
If you’re under-feeding the ration balancer, I’d either add a 1/2 serving of a forage balancer, or replace the ration balancer with some hay pellets and add a full serving of a forage balancer
I buy it from California Trace. They sell zinc and copper in bulk bags. I’ve never had a horse refuse (and I have 8 
)
I put my VMS in a big mash of beet pulp and alfalfa cubes. You could just use alfalfa cubes. Start with a trace and build up to full dose. The mash adds very few excess calories. Beet pulp expands like crazy so they think they got a huge meal.
Thank you for the responses. FWIW - here is the link to Nu-Foot: https://www.farrierscience.com/pellets.htm It was recommeneded to me by a farrier in the area to be a supplement that grows foot better than Double Strength Farrier’s Formula. I don’t really enjoy throwing money away, so I am trying to do my research to get to the root of my horse’s issues while finding the best way to help him recover.
First flag I see on that chart is that the serving size for Farrier’s Formula is not 1 oz, it’s more like 1 cup or almost 6 oz for a 1,000 lb horse.
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Both of mine eat the Max Barn Cu/Zn without issue
Look for the essential ingredients of Vitamin A, D3, E, and Niacin
Vit A isn’t requirement for a hoof supplement
Vit D isn’t a requirement, period
Vit E isn’t a requirement for a hoof supplement
Niacin is made by healthy horses so not a dietary requirement.
Farrier’s Formula original is fed at 3oz (maintenance) or 6oz (loading)
FF Double Strength is half that.
Neither of those are 1oz that’s lon the chart, but the maintenance dose of FFDS (which isn’t what the chart says) is close at 1.5oz.
But, the 1.5oz FFDS and 3oz FF have 250mg choline, not the 85 on this chart. 46mg copper, not the 15mg on the chart. 125mg zinc, not the 41.7mg on the chart
Where did that company get that info??
If they’re beaming about 15mcg biotin, that’s hilarious because that’s 0.015mg and you want at least 15mg, preferably 20-25mg for an average horse. Hopefully it’s a typo and it’s really 15mg.
10-15mg iodine in their forumuls? 
Again, I hope they just missed a decimal point and it’s really 1.0-1.5mg. And who cares that FF doesn’t have any, a horse eating a fortified feed is getting some, and more isn’t always better.
they’re kind of a skeevy company IMHO.
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