Re: Fastrack shelf life

["SUSAN SWOPE-ATTARDI" <NAGZARUS@prodigy.net>]

Thanks for checking into that Susan!!!!  I, for one, really appreciate it
and can rest at ease that I haven't been wasting my time in feeding Fastrack
that I may have allowed to spoil.  I have to say, the two horses I have used
it on with regularity have blossomed.

Thanks also for the chuckle....from now on, no more Fastrack in the family
meals and I'll have to keep the blowtorch under control!!

Susan Swope
SE Region
Kentucky

Nagzarus Farm
http://pages.prodigy.net/nagzarus/nagzarus

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
To: SUSAN SWOPE-ATTARDI <NAGZARUS@prodigy.net>
Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Date: Friday, December 04, 1998 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: Fastrack shelf life


>SUSAN SWOPE-ATTARDI wrote:
>>
>> I had the same concerns about the Fast Track and it's shelf life.  I
asked
>> my vet and he said that it is not even activated until it reaches
moisture.
>> He had a word for that.... can't remember what it is.  I have to ask my
>> biologist husband, or perhaps someone else knows.  At any rate, he said
it
>> has an extremely long shelf life, as long as it is kept dry.  Doesn't
>> Reactivate until reaching the stomach of the horse.
>
>That was what I remembered as well, but couldn't remember for sure, so
>this afternoon I called Dr. Larry Roth, Ph.D, the head of Conklin
>Company's Research and Development, the manufacturers of Fastrack.  He
>said pretty much just what you did, that Fastrack is VERY stable and
>that it only activates when the temperature is raised to body
>temperature, as in when it hits the stomach and thereafter.
>
>I asked about the "three week shelf life" and he was amazed (and more
>than a little pissed) that anyone is quoting their department as
>supposedly having said such a thing.  He said (and I quote) that the
>only way you'll have a significant die-off at three weeks is if you
>store it at high temperatures, get it wet, let it freeze...use a
>blowtorch...cook it in pasta...dump perchloric acid on it...you get the
>picture.  If you keep it cool and dry, the shelf life is excellent.  He
>also told me that in anticipation of *some* unavoidable die-off during
>shipping specifically during the summer, the bags are overpacked to
>allow for that---I just weighed an unopened 5-lb bag and the tare weight
>was 5 pounds, 6 oz.
>
>He also pointed out that probiotics were originally developed not for
>horses, but for the food animal industry---whose owners are alot more
>savvy and technically knowledgable, and alot less forgiving than the
>average horse owner, so there is very little room for a less-than-par
>shelf life, especially since your average dairy buys probios by the
>ton.  It was very good point.
>
>Anyway, he said to maintain the shelf life, just keep it from freezing
>and less than 90 degrees for extended periods of time and don't let it
>get wet.  Exposure to air won't affect it.
>
>Susan G
>