Basile was going downhill……

Basile had had multiple bouts of laminitis before he came to our attention.

His owners were advised to remove him from all grass and put him on 24/7 hay. Of course this was the right thing to do at the time for a horse with laminitis but as time went on his owners had advice about what to feed him from many different sources.

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This resulted in them feeding Basile a LOT of different items but unfortunately none of these were meeting his basic nutritional requirements.

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Hence, despite being loved to bits, Basile’s health was deteriorating as you can see in the first picture.

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Unsurprisingly, his hooves were also nothing short of a mess (see the before and after pictures).

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Eventually we were called in to see him as they were at their wits end.

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Cathy took him on and he lived on her ‘dry lot’ with plenty of hay, twice daily plain feeds (oaten chaff, copra and linseed meal) containing Premium MVA, ShapeUp (pure amino acids with a pre-biotic), XtraCal and salt.

See the ‘after 9 weeks’ picture on the right.

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So it took around 2 months to replenish Basile and have him on a rising plane of nutrition.

The improvement in the hooves alone is great for the nine weeks between photos, however improvements will continue for the good 12 months it takes to grow a whole new hoof capsule. 

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Now that his overall health, including his muscle volume has improved, ShapeUp is no longer necessary. Premium MVA supplies a maintenance dose of all the Amino acids (quality protein) along with the all the vitamins and minerals including selenium that he needs. We will keep him on the XtraCal for now as he is still building bones and various tissues as a growing young lad at 6 years old.

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Now that the grass is at a suitable stage of growth you can see him out enjoying himself with the others in the big paddock.

There is nothing more rewarding than being able to transform horses like Basil, not only in terms of their health but also in the quality of their life.