ridecamp@endurance.net: A little more on biotin

A little more on biotin

Susan Evans Garlinghouse (suendavid@worldnet.att.net)
Mon, 25 Aug 1997 22:11:29 -0700

Hey Trish,

I was the one who posted the discussion about the biotin study at the
Spanish Riding School, so though I'd jump back in here after reading
your comments and those of others on the list.

Regarding where and how to buy it, there are ALOT of feed supplements
out there now that are claiming "Now With Biotin" but the concentration
is so low, you have to feed a pound of it to get the 15-20 mg a day you
want into the horse. When I want a supplement with biotin, I want
BIOTIN, not a bunch of other herbs and fillers and Stuff. Someone else
posted, and I agree, that the best price per mg of biotin is Biotin Plus
from Paragon. I pay around $28 for 5 lb, and half a scoop delivers 25
mg per day, which is more than sufficient. It does contain methionine
as well. I checked back into the Riding School study, and they did not
mention methionine. This doesn't mean they didn't feed it, it just
wasn't mentioned.

For those that don't already know, methionine is one of the essential
amino acids---essential means the body can't synthesize it on it's own,
so the supply has to come from the feed. I did find a study that
mentioned biotin plus a sufficient level of calcium and protein were
required to improve some types of poor hoof quality, so it may be that
methionine has some role in that. I don't know. Someone else mentioned
that they fed a milk replacer along with the biotin, and saw some
improvement. Milk replacer is really high in protein, presumably with
plenty of methionine, so maybe the milk replacer was a really expensive
source of methionine, or maybe there is some other reason why their
horse had better horn growth with the combination of milk replacer and
biotin. (By the way, I don't mean to imply in any way these people are
doing something dumb by trying this and that, just musing and pointing
out some possible explanations for what people saw in there own horses.
Equine nutrition is NOT an exact science.)

One thing to keep in mind is that in the Riding School study there was
NO observed increase in the RATE of hoof growth, it just grew better.
Also, it's important to remember that it takes months and months for new
growth originating at the coronary band to grow its way down to the
bottom of the foot, where nail holes, etc are all happening. Feeding
biotin for a month and expecting to see vast improvement in shoe-holding
ability just isn't gonna happen. The biotin you're feeding today is
going to make a difference more next season than it will this season.

Something else to keep in mind is that even though some improvement in
horn quality was observed within a few months, in many of the categories
that they looked at, there was a continued improvement curve for many
months afterwards. This can be interpreted to mean that the benefits
from biotin aren't just an on-or-off sort of thing. The longer you feed
it, the better the hoof quality should be, at least until you reach
whatever optimum level there is for that horse.

Doubling biotin dose isn't going to speed up improvement or increase
improvement. The body doesn't store biotin and doesn't utilize more
than about 15-20 mg per day. You can feed more, but all you're doing is
giving the kidneys something new and unusual to filter out and dump into
the daily pee puddle.

Anyway, just some more aimless ramblings.

Susan Evans Garlinghouse

Home Events Groups Rider Directory Market RideCamp Stuff