Protein Supplment

[Kiwayu]

While my vet was out the other day for my possible Lyme disease diagnosis (see my other thread) she thinks he needs more protein in his diet. She said he looks like he's loosing some of his topline. Personally, I'm NOT a grain fan. My horse gets a handful of Senior just to mix his supplements with and that's it. He's on free choice AWESOME quality grass hay (with clover, timothy and a little alfalfa). I also feed alfalfa cubes in the morning.

Is there any protein supplement to give him without adding grain or any other feed? He looks great otherwise.

[JB]

Tri-Amino with his alf.

[rcloisonne]

Without a hay analysis, you have no idea what the protein content of your hay is. How can anyone know if he needs more protein without know what and how much he's already ingesting?

If you find the protein content of you hay adequate, adding more protein won't help with the topline. However, there's a good chance nutrients other than protein (vitamins, key minerals, EFAs) are missing or not available in adequate amounts from an unknown, all hay diet.

[Ruby G. Weber]

Calf Manna is the best protein supplement. It also contains valuable vitamins and minerals.

I'd add some alfalfa hay as well.

The closer one can stay to Nature in feeding a horse, the better.

[Kiwayu]

He's already getting alfalfa cubes daily. Testing our hay just isn't practical. We get a new shipment every 2 months. Yes, it's AWESOME quality everytime, but to have it tested would be a royal pain to be switching supplements/feed that often.

[jaimebaker]

It may not be the protein % itself, it may be the quality. You can have high percentage, poor quality protein from what I understand. For what it's worth, I have a horse with a tremendous grass belly and a sinking topline. I started doing research and learned that little tidbit about the quality being more important than the percentage. So, with further research I decided to add Tri-Amino into his diet. I had to start slowly because he hated the taste. It's now been one month and he JUST got on the full dose as of last week. I started seeing a difference in him after 2 weeks of 1/3-1/2 dose. He's on pasture 24/7 but I had a suspicion he just wasn't utilizing what protein he had access to. Added the Tri-Amino and so far, color me IMPRESSED. Its not expensive and doesn't involved adding a bunch more food. Something to consider as I see it was mentioned earlier.

[Kiwayu]

It may not be the protein % itself, it may be the quality. You can have high percentage, poor quality protein from what I understand. For what it's worth, I have a horse with a tremendous grass belly and a sinking topline. I started doing research and learned that little tidbit about the quality being more important than the percentage. So, with further research I decided to add Tri-Amino into his diet. I had to start slowly because he hated the taste. It's now been one month and he JUST got on the full dose as of last week. I started seeing a difference in him after 2 weeks of 1/3-1/2 dose. He's on pasture 24/7 but I had a suspicion he just wasn't utilizing what protein he had access to. Added the Tri-Amino and so far, color me IMPRESSED. Its not expensive and doesn't involved adding a bunch more food. Something to consider as I see it was mentioned earlier.

Where do you get this Tri-Amino from? I've never heard of it before.

[jaimebaker]

Where do you get this Tri-Amino from? I've never heard of it before.

www.uckele.com is the company. I believe you'll find it under General supplements. Shipping is outrageous but look at it as $25 for almost 2 months supply (instead of looking at price + shipping). Makes it easier to stomach than knowing what your paying for shipping. There's another company that sells it that's like $2 cheaper on shipping. If you do a search on here for 'Progressive Topline' there's a poster that listed another company that carries it. My local tack store has started carrying their products and it saves me a ton to buy through them since I don't have a bunch of shipping to deal with (and they charge me .20 over the list price).

Oh, and I meant to say WHAT I've seen it do for my gelding. His topline is building up and his belly is lifting. And he hasn't been worked at all since I started him on it (due to various dilemmas with other horses). Folks on here have said you can notice a slight difference just by putting them on it, but if you put the horse to work you can really see a difference.

[Kiwayu]

I see the main ingredient is Lysine. Kiwi is already on Lysine. Is it still worth getting? I'm really tempted to try it.

[jaimebaker]

I see the main ingredient is Lysine. Kiwi is already on Lysine. Is it still worth getting? I'm really tempted to try it.

Well, FWIW this gelding was on Pure Lysine too with no changes. Folks say the Tri-Amino works better because it's balanced and of course, is more than straight lysine. Certainly every horse will be different but I know with mine, I have seen changes on the Tri-Amino where I didn't with the pure lysine. I'm so impressed with it, I'm about to put all 6 of them on it (the others have been on straight Lysine). But I've had products work for some of my horses and not for others, so again, your mileage may vary.

[Stacie]

I have a yearling on stall rest and for reasons I won't go into, we added a high protein feed to her diet. It's progressive nutrition's ProAdd Ultimate. 55% protein. I like the ingredients in it. Anyway, this filly was born muscle-y, and lately had been looking light in muscle, but hey, she's a yearling, right? So we add this protein supplement 2 weeks ago and the muscles are back. Not Fat. Muscles. Shes on STALL REST. She also gets fantastic hay BTW, but she must have been missing something.

Anyway, I'm impressed.

ProAdd ultimate also has minerals and vitamins and can be used as a ration balancer. Not sure how it compares to PNs Topline products which are supplements.

[Kiwayu]

www.uckele.com is the company. I believe you'll find it under General supplements. Shipping is outrageous but look at it as $25 for almost 2 months supply (instead of looking at price + shipping). Makes it easier to stomach than knowing what your paying for shipping. There's another company that sells it that's like $2 cheaper on shipping. If you do a search on here for 'Progressive Topline' there's a poster that listed another company that carries it. My local tack store has started carrying their products and it saves me a ton to buy through them since I don't have a bunch of shipping to deal with (and they charge me .20 over the list price).

Oh, and I meant to say WHAT I've seen it do for my gelding. His topline is building up and his belly is lifting. And he hasn't been worked at all since I started him on it (due to various dilemmas with other horses). Folks on here have said you can notice a slight difference just by putting them on it, but if you put the horse to work you can really see a difference.

Ok, so I ordered the Tri-Amino for both my horses. We shall see. If it doesn't work, I'm going to try the stuff that Stacie recommended.

[deltawave]

Saying a horse needs more protein in his diet just by looking at him is like saying a car needs oil or gas or a tuneup just by watching it sit in the driveway. :)

First figure out what he IS getting, and then decide if he's really deficient. The FeedXL software is great for a quick analysis of your stuff, but of course you need to know what's in your hay.

Not all problems can be fixed by adding more things to the diet. :)

[JB]

ProAdd ultimate also has minerals and vitamins and can be used as a ration balancer. Not sure how it compares to PNs Topline products which are supplements.
The Ultimate IS a ration balancer ;) It's just an even more concentrated one than the Grass Balancer, fed at roughly half the weight (which is why it comes in a 25lb bag, not 50). :)

[JB]

Saying a horse needs more protein in his diet just by looking at him is like saying a car needs oil or gas or a tuneup just by watching it sit in the driveway. :)

First figure out what he IS getting, and then decide if he's really deficient. The FeedXL software is great for a quick analysis of your stuff, but of course you need to know what's in your hay.
But she already mentioned that analyzing her hay isn't reasonable - too frequent changes.

Not all problems can be fixed by adding more things to the diet. :)
Nope, agreed! But lysine and Tri-Amino are relatively cheap, results would be seen relatively quickly, so it's a convenient, reasonably economical thing to try :)

[deltawave]

I wouldn't suggest changing supplements every time the hay changes, far from it. In fact, I am generally against fiddling and fussing with every micromolecule that our horses ingest. :) But a general, baseline sense of what's in the hay has been so helpful to me in figuring out what I *don't* have to feed--I check my 2 cuttings when I get them in and so am lucky in that regard, but even if I had to check it a few times a year, I would. It's not that hard, it's cheaper than most of the supplements out there, and it's saved me a ton in stuff I *haven't* had to buy . . .