OTHER INFORMATION

What is Pro-Dosa BOOST?

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, that I developed to fill the gap between good daily nutrition and the increased requirements horses have when they are under stress, as a result of hard work, transport, racing, competition, or illness.

Unlike people, who often turn to food when under stress (think chocolate), horses tend to go off feed. Just as they require more nutrients, they are often inclined to eat and drink less. Pro-Dosa BOOST provides a practical way to deliver essential nutrients to horses that may not be eating enough, on their own, to meet their needs for optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health.

It contains all of the water-soluble vitamins, trace elements, electrolytes, and amino acids, in doses that reflect requirements established in scientific literature. I have included them in readily usable forms, in good balance with each other, and in balance with the cofactors required for their absorption and function.

Why was it developed?

By explaining why I developed Pro-Dosa BOOST, I am hoping to give you a better idea of how it might be used in your stable.

I started off in equine veterinary practice in Canada in 1994. The typical pre-race treatment that all racetrack veterinarians used to administer, me included, was a loaded amino acid jug. It was an amino acid and electrolyte solution (an Amino Plus or Duphalyte), into which we would add multiple vitamin and mineral injections, usually Caco Copper, Hemo 15, Hippiron, B vitamins, and vitamin C. We would run that mixture in IV and then give folic acid in the muscle.

I developed Pro-Dosa BOOST as a practical oral source of the nutrients I had previously supplied in those treatments. When I moved to New Zealand, I found that pharmaceuticals were very expensive compared to North America, and horses were stabled all around the countryside, unlike Canadian racehorses that, especially in winter, are nearly all at the racetrack. In Canada, I had been able to charge $35 for that treatment, but in New Zealand, with travel included, I was having to charge $125 for the same thing. I didn’t think it was worth what I had to charge or worth my time. It wasn’t really complete and balanced, and it was invasive. So instead, I told my clients that I would look for a paste, I could recommend, that they could give themselves.

Unfortunately, when I looked at the products that were already available on the market, I found that they weren’t very complete or balanced and that the doses of nutrients included often didn’t meet the requirements of a horse under stress or in intense work. Sometimes there would be a nutrient or two provided in an appropriate dose, but the cofactors required for absorption and function weren’t present. I couldn’t really recommend anything, so I ended up making Pro-Dosa BOOST.

Vitamin C in Pro-Dosa BOOST

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, providing water soluble vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, and unassembled amino acids, required in greater doses when horses are under stress to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health.

Water soluble vitamins are not stored, so they must be fed every day. The quantities provided in a good ration may be enough to meet requirements most days, but when horses are under the additional stress of hard training, transport, illness, or travel, requirements increase, and supplementation will likely be needed to maintain normal metabolism and health.

I included most of the water-soluble vitamins (C and B group) in significant doses, based on scientific literature that defined the requirements and maximum amounts of water soluble vitamins that can be absorbed and utilized by horses under stress, as well as the ideal ratios between water soluble vitamins and cofactors necessary for their absorption and function.

Vitamin C can be deficient in the diet, especially for horses under the added stress of hard work, travel, or competition. The main dietary source is fresh, growing, grass, and in many parts of the world, horses have very limited access to pasture. While more prepared feeds are made with vitamin C than when I started making Pro-Dosa BOOST, it isn’t always very stable. When feed is fresh, levels might be good, but as little as a few months later, there might be little vitamin C activity left.

I included 2 grams of vitamin C in Pro-Dosa BOOST, and I did that for a number of reasons.

First of all, it’s vital for the absorption of iron from the gut. If you give iron without Vitamin C, then horses (and people) can’t absorb it or use it efficiently.

Secondly, Vitamin C plays a role in stabilizing cell membranes, including those in the respiratory tract. When I first started making Pro-Dosa BOOST, there were a number of herbal or nutritional “bleeder” preparations available internationally, and most of them had as their active ingredient, 2 grams of vitamin C, for this reason.

Vitamin C supports the immune system and is also a very good antioxidant. Oxidative muscle cell damage is just one type of muscle cell damage that occurs during transport as well as during exercise. Studies have shown that if you put your horse in a truck and take it down the road, even as little as half an hour or an hour, they’ll suffer some degree of muscle cell fatigue and muscle cell damage, similar to what they might experience in a race. If you’re traveling long distances with your horses, therefore, they will undoubtedly suffer some degree of muscle cell damage and fatigue, resulting in performance below their best.

There were also studies done in 2008, in eventers, that demonstrated a significant reduction in oxidative muscle cell damage when they were given vitamin C in a similar dose. Vitamin C is an antioxidant and scavenges the free radicals produced in muscles while horses are exercising or balancing in a transport, before they can create oxidative damage to muscle cells, helping your horses to get to where they’re going in better condition so they can perform closer to your expectations.

B group Vitamins in Pro-Dosa BOOST

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, providing water soluble vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, and unassembled amino acids, required in greater doses when horses are under stress to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health.

Water soluble vitamins are not stored, so they must be fed every day. The quantities provided in a good ration may be enough to meet requirements most days, but when horses are under the additional stress of hard training, transport, illness, or travel, requirements increase, and supplementation will likely be needed to maintain normal metabolism and health.

I included all of the water-soluble vitamins (C and B group) in significant doses, based on scientific literature that defined the requirements and maximum amounts of water soluble vitamins that can be absorbed and utilized by horses under stress, as well as the ideal ratios between water soluble vitamins and cofactors necessary for their absorption and function.

Pro-Dosa BOOST contains all of the B group vitamins in reasonable doses. When horses are under stress, their requirements for B vitamins increase tremendously, and Pro-Dosa BOOST contains between 20 and 200 times the amount of each of the B vitamins that you would find in a daily ration. Keep in mind that Pro-Dosa BOOST is intended to fill the gap between good daily nutrition and the increased requirements of horses at times of stress.

It’s also important to know that B vitamins have limited effect when given individually, but when given as a complete, balanced group, they are important for many metabolic functions.

First of all, they are important for coat and skin condition. If you’re preparing yearlings for a yearling sale, for instance, you might choose to give half a syringe of Pro-Dosa BOOST, every other day for 2 weeks to help ensure healthy skin and a haircoat that gleams.

B vitamins are important for normal nervous system function, and an adequate dietary supply helps horses to maintain mental focus. Conversely, B vitamins are also important for the maintenance of energy metabolism so, a lethargic horse, deficient in B vitamins, might benefit from supplementation. Pro-Dosa BOOST provides a good balance between the B vitamins that are necessary to sustain normal energy levels and those that are important for relaxation and mental focus.

B vitamins play important roles in red blood cell production. Ask your veterinarian for advice, but if injectable iron, B vitamins, and folic acid are prescribed, the nutrients provided in Pro-Dosa BOOST are in similar quantities and can be given as a less expensive and less invasive alternative source of those nutrients.

Most importantly, to my way of thinking, B vitamins are necessary to support normal appetite. If a horse has a hard run or they travel, they often don’t eat that well. If they don’t eat, when they get where they’re going, then they aren’t going to perform very well. Similarly, if they’ve raced and don’t clean up their feed when they get home, then they aren’t going to recover very well or race well the following week. If your horse isn’t eating well when travelling or after work, racing, or competition, you can give them a syringe of Pro-Dosa BOOST as a convenient source of B group vitamins.

Electrolytes in Pro-Dosa BOOST

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, providing water soluble vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, and unassembled amino acids, required in greater doses when horses are under stress, to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health.

Pro-Dosa BOOST contains the electrolytes calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, and chloride. Generally, sodium, potassium and chloride are the main electrolytes lost in sweat, but as I have included 21.5 grams of electrolytes, and had I included all of them as sodium, potassium and chloride, a dose may have produced a significant osmotic draw. What that means is this. If you put salt into the gut, it draws fluid first from the blood stream into the gut and dehydrates the system in the short term. If you’re going to tube a horse with electrolytes prior to racing or travel, you do it a couple of days out because it takes that long to re-balance fluid and electrolyte levels. In order to provide 21.5 grams of electrolytes then, I felt it would be safer to include part of them as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. They are also electrolytes, but they don’t produce the same degree of osmotic draw and should be safe to use in traveling horses that might be dehydrated, or for an endurance horse, in between loops when they are a bit precarious, metabolically speaking.

In addition, the calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus perform other vital functions. They’re important for muscle cell contractility and energy production. Studies have demonstrated improved performance in both speed and endurance athletes, supplemented with extra calcium. The doses I included in Pro-Dosa nutritional BOOST are comparable to those I used to administer by injection in the “calcium-magnesium jug” I provided as a pre-race treatment, especially for fillies that struggled with tying-up.

For endurance horses, who sustain higher sodium losses when racing in hot and humid conditions, add an additional 0-15g of table salt (sodium chloride) to water or molasses water, shake it up, and squirt it over the tongue after you have given a full syringe of Pro-Dosa BOOST, each loop. It is important that horses are drinking if you plan to give an extra dose of sodium.

Tying up and Pro-Dosa BOOST

I’d like to start by saying that Pro-Dosa BOOST is not going to be the answer for tying-up. Really, I would encourage you to have a look at your daily ration. The soluble carbohydrate in the daily ration is normally the culprit for the majority of horses that struggle with tying-up. If you can replace some of that soluble carbohydrate with fat, as the energy source, you can reduce the incidence or eliminate tying-up. If your daily ration is very high in soluble carbohydrate, you’re going to struggle to control tying-up in some of your horses, and no supplement, Pro-Dosa BOOST included, will fix that problem.

You can, however, feed Pro-Dosa BOOST to strategically provide some of the essential nutrients needed in greater doses for normal neuromuscular function. Probably, the best time to feed it in those individuals is to give one full syringe the night before they gallop, and then another half immediately post gallop, to support normal appetite and thirst prior to exercise and to replace nutrients lost during training. (This is more than you might give to normal horses that need only a full or half a syringe after galloping and nothing prior.)

As I said earlier, the nutrients that are most important for muscle cell contractility and energy production are the calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, along with sodium, potassium, chloride, and B-group vitamins. The quantities of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus are equivalent to the doses of those nutrients included in the calcium/magnesium jug I used to administer IV as a pre-race treatment, especially to fillies that struggled with tying-up.

B-group vitamins support normal appetite and electrolytes support normal thirst, both required for optimal recovery from work.

Vitamin C is an efficient antioxidant that scavenges free-radicals, produced in exercising muscle, before muscle cells sustain oxidative damage.

Amino acids all have the capacity to accept and donate protons, so they all act as buffers, stabilizing acid-base balance. In fact, amino acids are the body’s most efficient buffering system. Unassembled amino acids, provided in optimal ratios and given right after hard work when amino acids are taken up by muscle cells most efficiently, can support normal protein synthesis, muscle cell repair, and maintenance of acid-base balance.

I would recommend that you also look into supplementing chromium. It must be fed on a daily basis for several weeks before effect is seen, so it isn’t included in Pro-Dosa BOOST, which I designed to be fed only on days of increased stress. I think it is a valuable nutrient, and yeast-based chromium supplements are readily available in many markets. Ask your veterinarian or feed supplier for advice.

Amino Acids in Pro-Dosa BOOST

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, providing water soluble vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, and unassembled amino acids, required in greater doses when horses are under stress, to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health.

Another group of nutrients that are important for muscle cell function are the amino acids. Pro-Dosa BOOST contains 22 amino acids in free, unassembled form.

I included those for a number of reasons; not just for horses that struggle with tying-up.

First of all, amino acids serve as the body’s most efficient buffering system for lactic acid, and I think most horsemen are familiar with the branch chain amino acids, isoleucine, leucine, and valine, and their capacity to buffer. The reason I just didn’t include the familiar, branch chain amino acids in the Pro-Dosa BOOST formulation, is that, while all amino acids have the capacity to accept and donate protons, so they all have the ability to buffer, three branch-chain amino acids will not support muscle cell repair and recovery. You really require all the amino acids, in appropriate proportions and in unassembled form in order for the horse to synthesise proteins needed for muscle cell repair.

Muscle cells take up amino acids, more efficiently, for a short period, right after hard work. If you can get amino acids into them, during that little window of opportunity, normal protein synthesis, muscle cell repair, and maintenance of muscle mass can be better supported. If you fed your horses the moment they came off the track, it would take longer than an hour for them to eat their feed and digest the proteins down to amino acids, absorb them, and then synthesise the required non-essential amino acids from the essential ones. That small window of opportunity where muscle cell recovery can be influenced may be missed. For optimal protein synthesis, therefore, all the amino acids must be provided, and not just a few.

The last reason I included the amino acids in free unassembled form is that they play a role in supporting normal thirst.

Trace minerals in Pro-Dosa BOOST

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, providing water soluble vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, and unassembled amino acids, required in greater doses when horses are under stress, in order to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health.

The trace minerals in Pro-Dosa BOOST are all in very bioavailable forms. They’re largely in bioplexes, which means that trace minerals are bound to organic molecules that the body is really good at absorbing and using, and I’ve included them in doses that directly reflect NRC requirements. I’ve included zinc and manganese, important for bone and joint health, and I’ve included iron and copper because they work together to support normal red blood cell formation, along with B vitamins, vitamin C and the amino acids.

Although NRC states that the requirements for iron for horses in hard work are approximately 383mg, I’ve included 500mg of iron in Pro-Dosa BOOST. That’s because some researchers have reported improved performance, in racehorses in particular, fed iron in doses between 500 and 800mg. If you look at your feed bag and calculate what you are giving your horses, you would conclude that dietary levels should be sufficient. The daily ration, however, may contain certain substances that inhibit iron absorption or may provide insufficient vitamin C to support its absorption. The main source of vitamin C in the equine diet is fresh, growing grass, and not all horses have access to grass. As a result, the iron in the daily ration may not be entirely available for metabolism.

The copper provided in Pro-Dosa BOOST is in a Bioplex, in an amount directly related to the NRC requirements.

What has been left out of the Pro-Dosa BOOST formulation and why?

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a mostly complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, providing water soluble vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, and unassembled amino acids, required in greater doses when horses are under stress to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health.

There are a few nutrients I chose to leave out of Pro-Dosa BOOST. To begin with, I left out the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K. They are important for the health of the horse, but fat-soluble vitamins do not need to be administered at the time horses are under stress because they can be stored. They are generally present in the daily ration, in sufficient doses to meet requirements when horses are working hard.

There are also some toxicity issues with fat-soluble vitamins. As they’re stored, they can accumulate. If horses are fed too much, therefore, they can have toxicity issues. Pro-Dosa BOOST is used very frequently in some horses, such as endurance horses, who are typically fed a tube in-between each loop in their long races. They could be getting a lot on a single day, and I didn’t want to have any toxicity issues, so I thought it would be much safer to leave them out.

In addition to the fat-soluble vitamins, there are few other nutrients I left out.

I left out Selenium. It’s a very important nutrient; it’s an important antioxidant; and it’s important for muscle cell function. Selenium is one nutrient, though, that can pose serious toxicity issues. The amount that horses require for health and the amount that starts to produce toxicity symptoms aren’t all that different, so that means it has a very narrow therapeutic range. I didn’t want any horse, fed a lot of Pro-Dosa BOOST, to run any risk of toxicity issues.

I left out Iodine. It’s another trace mineral, but the requirements for iodine are well met by what’s in the daily ration, and those requirements don’t increase when horses are under stress. So, if a horse is grazing in the back paddock, not doing anything, its requirements for Iodine are exactly the same as your race horse that’s in intense work and growing.

I left out chromium. It’s a useful nutrient, especially if you have horses that struggle with tying-up. It’s really something that has to be fed, on a daily basis, for 3 or 4 weeks before you get good benefit from it, though, and Pro-Dosa BOOST isn’t a daily supplement. It’s designed for use only on days when horses are under the added stress of hard work, travel, or illness.

I left cobalt out of the formulation from 2016 onwards. While it was included in my original formulation at a rate of 1mg, reflective of NRC requirements for young horses in hard work, the results of a cobalt clearance study demonstrated that while that dose was very safe for drug testing, it was unnecessary to include it in my formulation. By providing all the other cofactors required for absorption and function, horses were able to more completely utilize the cobalt already provided in their daily rations. Read our cobalt clearance study for more information. It makes interesting reading.

And finally, I left out biotin. It’s also important for hoof health, and for racehorses that are on a high grain diet, there is often benefit from supplementing biotin. However, you would have to feed that on a daily basis for 3 or 4 months before you would see results, and again, Pro-Dosa BOOST was never designed to be a daily supplement, so I left it out.

Other than that. Pro-Dosa BOOST is really complete.

A brief summary of Pro-Dosa BOOST

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a comprehensive, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste. It is designed to fill the gap between good daily nutrition and the increased requirements researchers have established horses are subject to when they are under the additional stresses of hard work, travel, racing, competition, or illness.

Unlike people, who can often turn to food to help cope with stress (think chocolate), horses tend to go off feed. Just as they require more nutrients, they are inclined to eat less. Pro-Dosa BOOST provides a practical way to deliver essential nutrients to horses that may not be eating well enough on their own, to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health. It contains a broad spectrum of water-soluble vitamins, trace elements, electrolytes, and amino acids in doses that reflect requirements established in scientific literature. I have included them in readily usable forms, in good balance with each other, and in balance with the cofactors required for their absorption and function.

Pro-Dosa BOOST provides balanced electrolytes and unassembled amino acids which safely support normal thirst, neuromuscular function, and fluid balance.

Pro-Dosa BOOST includes the B-group of vitamins that play roles in supporting normal appetite, energy levels, nerve cell function and mental focus. Important cofactors, including magnesium, tryptophan, and tyrosine, are included in proper balance.

Pro-Dosa BOOST can be a useful oral source of vitamin C, all the B vitamins, folic acid, copper, iron and amino acids, all of which are important for red blood cell production. Traditionally, veterinarians supplied these nutrients by injection. In countries where Pro-Dosa BOOST is well established, many veterinarians now recommend feeding it for two weeks instead, as a practical, oral way to deliver those nutrients.

Pro-Dosa BOOST provides vitamin C, the B group vitamins, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and the unassembled amino acids, nutrients that, together, support normal muscle cell function, recovery, and development.

If you are training a young horse down, and it’s working a bit flat or not eating very well, consider this. It can take up to 96 hours for muscle cells to recover from hard work. Those horses, particularly standardbreds who will generally be training 3 times a week, don’t always have enough time to recover between fast-work days. If they have some muscle pain and stiffness, they often don’t eat very well. If they don’t eat very well, they will need longer to repair muscle tissue, and the pain and stiffness takes longer to resolve…so they don’t feel as much like eating… and so on. Improving muscle cell recovery can make a difference to their appetite and supporting normal appetite can make a difference to muscle cell recovery.

In horses that aren’t eating well or have rough haircoats, it can be worthwhile to supplement with B vitamins. They are known to play a role in maintaining normal skin and coat health, appetite, and body condition. Feed half a syringe of PRO-DOSA, every other day for 2 weeks, though you might want to give one full syringe to begin with.

I would like to remind everyone that it is vitally important that, before feeding Pro-Dosa BOOST as recommended, you refer to your local rules of racing or competition. In some places, you have to put it on the feed on race day so the horse can eat it voluntarily. In some places, you may have to give it the night before, and in others, you have to ask permission before you can take it to the track for horses stabled on site. In many sports and countries, you are allowed to squirt it straight in the mouth on the day of competition. So again, please check your rules of competition before you administer it!

Pro-Dosa BOOST is submitted for quantitative analysis, ensuring that what is on the label is exactly what is in each syringe. It is submitted for microbial culture to confirm that microbial counts are below detectable limits of the laboratory. Finally, it is submitted for analysis for naturally occurring prohibited substances.

Pro-Dosa BOOST is class determined to be a feed supplement and exempt from registration as a veterinary chemical. It is, however, manufactured in a GMP registered facility from highly purified nutrients of USP or EP standard to ensure quality, safety, and security. The balance and doses of nutrients provided, reflect requirements as established in scientific studies and published by NRC or other nutrition references.