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Judy--
One thing that immediately comes to mind, and you've probably already done
this, is de-worm her. That will help you eliminate one potential source of
lost nutrients.
Now, as to the Moorman's rice bran (Truman just replied with some important
info on the Ca:P ratio, too):
On the corn oil question: Rice bran is naturally high in oil (about
13%), and the Moorman's product has 2 types of oil added in, as well as
heat processed soybeans--these are the whole beans ground, not meal, so they are
contributing oil as well.. Adding more corn oil may push you beyond a safe
level--I'd have to see how the fat percentage of the total diet worked out to
say for sure.
I do notice they point out natural source Vit. E and that it's better
utilized than synthetic. Unless I've missed something somewhere, that's a sneaky
tactic (I've seen it used by a former employer, and I didn't buy it there,
either)...it's a long-drawn out explanation, and it would be cruel of me to
subject the list to that much chemistry. In a nutshell--on a weight to
weight comparison, it takes about twice as much synthetic as natural source--but
it's also cheaper to make than natural source is to extract. What
you should be concerned with on vitamin E supplements is that they have adequate
IU activity/lb for the animal...a smart nutritionist will take the
differences in utilization between synthetic and natural vitamin E into
consideration, and make the ultimate decision on which to use based on the cost
to the consumer per unit of activity. In other words, bragging about
"natural source" is to me a marketing ploy, but I'm a little biased when it
comes to marketing tricks.
Truman brought up the Ca:P ratio and the fact that the recommendation for
the Moorman's brand mineral is to counteract the balance in the bran
supplement. I suspect a marketing ploy here, and I'll tell you why (sort
of long, but I can't resist a chance to educate the masses!) Rice bran and
soybeans both contain something called phytate--it is an organic compound that
can bind phosphorus and zinc. Nonruminants can't break that bond because
they don't secrete the enzyme phytase. It is a bacterial enzyme.
Horses, of course, do have hindgut fermentation (bugs in the cecum), so they can
deal with it to some extent, but I suspect that the amount of phytate-bound
mineral released and absorbed is less than that in ruminants because this takes
place after the feed leaves the small intestine. Gut physiology 101--the
small intestine is the major site of absorption for nutrients. Zinc is
more of a concern with rice bran and soybeans--to the extent that swine on
bran-based diets develop zinc deficiency if they recieve traditional levels of
zinc in the mineral supplement.
(Continued)
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