Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a naturally occurring polysaccharide (carbohydrate) that holds moisture between cells. Synovial fluid declines with age, excessive exercise and under some disease conditions such as osteoarthritis. It can be successfully supplemented by injection (Vet) or through the feed and is efficacious and approved for use by both methods by Health Canada. It is derived from chicken combs or may be grown like beer in stainless-steel vats using micro-organism synthesis. HA improves both the viscosity (cushioning) and the lubricating action of the joints. Hence its growing popularity in the Hunter-Jumper World.

HA is also of significant importance for tissue repair such as tendons, ligaments, bones, and cartilage; hence its importance to equine locomotion.  It is also found surrounding cells where it acts as a transport system for nutrients and wastes. In the immune system HA aids in the initial promotion, regulation and ultimate resolution of inflammation.

The supplement world is replete with scams and fraud so take care to choose products from reputable companies that invest in and publish peer reviewed research at your tax-supported Universities. GMP, HACCP & ISO manufactured products would be a good place to start!

For a more technical review of the biology and use of Hyaluronic Acid contact Herbs for Horses:

info@horseherbs.com

The all new Noble Outfitters® Animal Care

Meet the new leader in biosecurity for your beloved animals. From cats and dogs to horses and cows, Noble Outfitters have discovered a product line that is as versatile as your lifestyle. This product line serves as the first step for Noble Outfitters® to service more than just equestrian enthusiasts. This product is the essence of their mission statement: “we create products that exceed the needs of our customers with quality and functions, while delivering exceptional value. We continuously strive to expand our horizons; whether it is by introducing new, innovative items to the industry or by improving the status quo of products already on the market.”

 If you have an animal with an open wound or infection, grab the Noble Outfitters® Wound Care. If you are moving into new show ground with your horse or just need to clean the barn, grab a bottle of the Stall Wash. These are only the beginnings of what these products can do!

Let’s start by introducing the Noble Outfitters® Wound Care. Wound Care is offered for both Small and Large animals. This will assist in the recovery process of the injured animal. Veterinarian recommended proprietary formulation improves wound cleanliness and enhances recovery time on all animals. Noble Outfitters® Wound Care is made from non-toxic, food-grade safe ingredients. It is safe to use in animal’s eyes, ears, nose and mouth—even on the most sensitive animals! This proudly made in the USA product is compatible with other wound treatments, antibiotics and healing ointments.

Noble Outfitters® Wound Care is fragrance and dye free and is safe if ingested. The food grade surfactants that were selected are used for human consumption. The final product is nontoxic, non-corrosive, pH balanced, and biodegradable. It does not sting when applied and it is permitted for use on competitive animals. With the Noble Outfitters® Wound Care, there is no need to worry about freezing temperature. The product will not degrade if frozen and there are no shelf life restrictions. Apply topically to clean skin abrasions, post-surgical sites, parvo, hot spots, rain rot, rashes, ring worm, scratches, and mange among other wounds. Mange, hot spots, and warts don’t stand a chance against our product either.

One of the Noble Outfitters very own Sales Rep sent this picture in to their office. After only three weeks of using the Noble Outfitters® Wound Care, she was able to see a significant difference.

The new Noble Outfitters® Wound Care is available in five different sizes, 4 oz spray, and 5 oz foam applicator.

The next new product is the Noble Outfitters® All-Purpose Stall Wash. This product will change the way you think about cleaning your livestock and their surroundings! The deep penetrating formula cleans areas prone to pathogens, viruses, bacteria and fungus and stays active for 7 days. It works to neutralize odor and reduce fly exposure and is laboratory tested as well as Veterinarian, FEI, and USEF approved. Unlike traditional toxic sanitizing steps such as bleach or chlorine, Noble Outfitters® All-Purpose Stall Wash is made from non-toxic, food-grade safe ingredients.

 Proudly made in the USA also, this Stall Wash cleans on contact and is fragrance and dye free. You can breathe easy using this product. It is safe if ingested and has zero reentry time, no more long waits before your horse can return to his stall. It is also biodegradable and is non-corrosive. The Noble Outfitters® All-Purpose Cleaner is compatible with chlorine and proven to be compatible with most other common cleaning or sanitizing chemicals. It is also unique in its ability to enhance the effectiveness of other products; mix it with your fly spray to extend its repellent life or add more vibrancy to your shampoo.

Noble Outfitters® All-Purpose Stall Wash comes in a concentrate which can be taken to horse shows to easily mix in a sprayer so you can clean your stalls before placing your horses in them. Stall Wash Concentrate can be diluted with water at a 1:50 ratio, or 2.5 oz per gallon of water. This means one bottle will yield 12 gallons! That is a lot of clean stalls! This product is convenient in the fact that it can be applied while the horse’s food, water and bedding are still in the stall. If you would like a ready to use application of Stall Wash, it is also offered in a spray bottle. This works well for spot cleaning or hard to reach places. Protect your horse from EHV-1, H1N1, and Staph MRSA, among many other pathogens.

The Noble Outfitters® All-Purpose Stall Wash is available in 3 oz. and 32 oz. concentrate as well as 32 oz. ready to use spray.

Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome: Republished from MadBarn

Let’s save the boring stats that every article discussing equine gastric ulcers quotes.  If you keep your horse in a stall and/or do any level of training and you are still reading this article, there is an extremely high probability your horse has ulcers.

Why?  Murray (1994) demonstrated that alternating periods of feeding and withholding hay resulted in progressive erosion and ulceration of the gastric squamous epithelial mucosa (upper portion of the stomach).  Further to this, concentrate (grain feeding) has been implicated in the development and progression of ulcers (Nadeau et al., 2000).  Confinement in stalls is implicated as well, but confounded by the above-mentioned factors of grain feeding and anything less than constant feeding/grazing of forages (Murray and Eichorn, 1996). 

There is a good chance if your horse in in training, it is going through some level of feed deprivation, grain feeding and/or being housed in a stall and is likely to develop or has already developed ulcers.  Not to oversimplify this complicated issue, but the literature constantly points to two root causes of ulcers: 1) stress and 2) feed deprivation.  You cannot overlook stress; as the smallest change in environment and routine will cause a horse stress.

Determining if your horse definitively has ulcers is no easy task.  Clinical signs of ulcers are non-specific and include lack of appetite, weight loss/poor body condition, mild or recurrent colic and loose feces (Bell et al., 2007).  There are no hematological or biochemical markers currently available to diagnose ulcers (Vatistas et al 1999).  Endoscopic evaluation is the only way to be certain, but even then, degree of ulceration does not always correlate to symptoms.

Management and diet is the first place to start for treatment of ulcers, but sometimes other interventions are necessary based on the horse’s profession/activities.  Proton pump inhibitors, like Omeprazole, are one of the most common treatments.  Less common are the H2 receptor antagonists, such as Cimetidine.  They both attempt to do the same thing, limit acid production in the stomach and increase pH of the stomach.  This is great for treating ulcers, but not so great for digestion, as that is the main purpose of the stomach, to acidify food and activate local enzymes.  These drugs have been used quite successfully to help alleviate symptoms and treat ulcers, but as with all classes of drugs, continued use is not without concern and cost to most horse owners. 

This leaves owners searching for alternatives.  The market is overrun with supplements claiming to aid the treatment of ulcers, but few if any have more than anecdotal evidence of efficacy.  This leaves most horse owners at cross roads, stick with chronic drug treatment or try to navigate through the sea of claims in the supplement marketplace and hope the dollars spent will provide their competitive companion with more than a placebo for the owner.

Alternatively, horse owners can look to a clinically tested alternative to drugs that utilizes the latest in nutraceutical ingredients to both alleviate the pain of ulcers and promote healing.  Visceral+ was developed and tested in conjunction with veterinarians to help reduce the reliance on Omeprazole treatments and has successfully concluded clinical trials, with very positive results.

An oft asked question, but one difficult to answer is: “how long will it take before the ulcers heal?”  Murray et al (1994) found that superficial lesions may take as little as 7 days to heal, but with deeper wounds, it may take up to 3 months to heal.  That is a wide range.  Not only was degree of ulceration important, but location impacted healing time.  Furr and Murray (1999) indicated that lesions along the Margo Plicatus took the longest time to heal.  Furthermore, the cause of the ulcer must be removed for complete healing to occur.  Without removing the root cause, one can expect to deal with complications from ulcers or to at least have to maintain their horse on treatments for ulcers until such time as the root causal agent can be removed.

Gastric ulcers are a frustrating reality of competitive horses that costs not only in performance, but welfare as well.  Providing an optimal diet and environment is obviously the best solution, but when this can’t always be the case, at least suitable treatments are available to maintain the health, welfare and performance of your equine companion.

RJW Bell , TD Mogg & JK Kingston. Equine gastric ulcer syndrome in adult horses: A review, New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 55:1, 1-12, 2007

Furr MO, Murray MJ. Treatment of gastric ulcers in horses with histamine type-2 receptor antagonists. Equine Veterinary Journal (Supplement 7), 77–9, 1989

Murray MJ. Equine model of inducing ulceration in alimentary squamous epithelial mucosa. Digestive Diseases and Sciences 39, 2530–5, 1994.

Murray MJ, Eichorn ES. Effects of intermittent feed deprivation, intermittent feed deprivation with ranitidine administration, and stall confinement with ad libitum access to hay on gastric ulceration in horses. American Journal of Veterinary Research 57, 1599–603, 1996

Nadeau JA, Andrews FM, Mathew AG, Argenzio RA, Blackford JT, Sohtell M, Saxton AM. Evaluation of diet as a cause of gastric ulcers in horses. American Journal of Veterinary Research 61, 784–90, 2000

Vatistas NJ, Snyder JR, Carlson G, Johnson B, Arthur RM, Thurmond M, Zhou H, Lloyd KL. Cross-sectional study of gastric ulcers of the squamous mucosa in Thoroughbred racehorses. Equine Veterinary Journal (Supplement 29), 34–9, 1999

See the complete line of MadBarn Products that System Tack carries

 With another cold Canadian winter coming our way, you want to guarantee your horses stay as warm and comfortable as possible. Bringing them in from the paddock after a day spent in the wet, snowy weather can lead to very damp blankets. Getting these blankets to dry for the next day can become a challenge. Therefore, you may require a few of the same type of blanket in order to keep your horses warm daily. Inconveniences such as these led Centaur; Equestrian Solutions to develop the line of heated horse blanket dryers.

These...

We all know that our horses can be the most graceful of creatures but we also know that many of them seem to be the clumsiest and most accident prone beings we will ever have the pleasure to deal with. For some, they never seem to be without some sort of scrape or cut. Some of them also can have especially sensitive skin, our pintos, chestnuts and heavily chromed horses that, despite our very best efforts, seem to pick up every fungus and skin condition out there. The skin or epidermis is the horse’s (and our own) largest organ, and it receives the brunt of life’s daily wear and tear. While horses are typically hardy animals with thick layered skin, constant skin irritation and disturbance can lead to an overall degradation in the health of your horse. Luckily, there are many methods and useful products to help us combat these problems. Here we will touch on one line of those products that is new to System Tack.

Ionic silver has been historically recognized for its antibacterial properties and ability to kill viruses, moulds, and fungi. It is a smart material that will only...