Platinum Performance Users

[raisethebar]

I am a long time SmartPaker turned to Platinum Performance. I got Osteon for my horse a month ago and due to the nature of the supplement being super powdery, I added in Platinum Performance Equine and got rid of all the myriad of supplements I had my horse on. I figured its the best bang for my buck.

My problem is that my horse is pretty “puffy” – thank you PP for nicely describing my overweight horse. Let me preface that he has been on a strict 30 min walk 5x a week max work program and limited to a stone dust paddock for all 75 days.

What he eats now - AM & PM:
1 cup Purina Enrich
1 cup Triple Crown Senior (so he has something to mix Osteon into)
1/2 pound Triple Crown Alfa-Lox
AM supplements
Hay

I was feeding 2 pounds of forage a day and a couple weeks ago cut back to 1 pound divided into two feedings.
I know not being in work has definitely not helped but his weight is NOT helping his back issues that we are trying to fix.

I feel terrible taking away hay for my horse and don’t want him standing around not eating anything so I purchased him a hay net to hopefully slow him down and make a little hay last a lot longer.

Question:
PP told me that I can get rid of the ration balancer. Since he is such an easy keeper, I am trying to go to a more natural diet as it is, obviously without stripping him of his vitamins and minerals. The PP is supposed to be fed with forage only.

What do you feed your “puffy” horses along with the PP Equine supplement?

[EmilyM]

mine get a handful of ultimum with their platinum performance and some haycubes as their “grain.” This enables me to administer any supplements such as the PP, gastro-related supps,etc.

i got rid of the balancer years ago when it made mine wild. The vet actually suggested it. lots of people tell me it isn’t possible for balancer to have that effect. Lots of people also tell me Ultium makes their horses wild. so i guess to each his own.

[IPEsq]

By the forage weight, you mean the Alfa-Lox right?

While you can feed PP with forage only, they would recommend 2 scoops a day on normal ration if your horse was in full work and showing.

For healing, you need some protein, and PP by itself doesn’t have a lot of protein. This is where the RB and the Alfa-Lox is a benefit. Subbing Nutramino or TriAmino means fewer calories but adding more powders, although the scoop is not huge.

How many lbs is one cup of Enrich? You can go down to 1lb/day. I have a feeling you are already under that based on weight of other RBs.

What I’d probably try is this… also keep in mind that PP and Osteon are meant to be fed 2x a day typically (a 1xday dose of Osteon would be huge).

AM & PM -
PP, Osteon, Nutramino (or at least Lysine) in as much TC Sr. as it takes to get him to eat it, wetted down. So, maybe as little as a quart (although that is 3x what he is getting now, it’s only about 1lb per full to slightly heaping quart). Keep the hay. Drop the Enrich and the Alfa-Lox, which is also fortified. I think the TC Senior would be better to mix the powders than the RB. I have found double dosing the Nutramino to be helpful in these situations, especially if your hay is low protein. You could maybe get away with 1x day on that though.

[luvmyhackney]

I’d feed a cup of enrich and hay plus the PP supplement. You can dampen the ration balancer and mix whatever in it. How much hay and is it in a slow feed net?

You could ask your vet about giving thyro-l to get the weight off until you can start exercising horse again, but its usually a last resort and when the weight starts impacting the horse negatively.

[raisethebar]

Thank you all for your responses!
He gets the full amount of PP and Osteon divided into 2 feedings. He hasn’t had any issues eating it either.
This is really helpful I am going to talk with my barn manager on following through with this!