Dan Chambers – Senior horse in poor condition -
Navicular – Cushings/IR – now bucking and playing!
John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week's Equinety podcast. We're going to swing up into Ohio and we've got Dan Chambers on the call this week. Dan, welcome to the Equinety podcast.
Dan Chambers:
Thanks John. Thanks for having us.
John Dowdy:
Well, we're excited to have you on and this week we're going to go into the rescue world. So you and your wife had gone to an auction with no intentions of coming home with a horse. Tell us about that.
Tricked Into Buying A Horse With Multiple Conditions
Dan Chambers:
Yeah, we went to the auction and my wife was looking for a horse for her granddaughter and we stayed there for the auction. They all ran through, we didn't buy anything. We're getting ready to leave. And somebody said "Well, there's a guy out here and he's got a horse for sale." So we talked to the guy for a while and he had a great big old guy. He was probably about 15 or so at that time. We've had him for about eight years now and we bought him at the sale because we were able to ride him and do things with him, and then we paid to the owner at that time for the horse and then he left him at the sale until we could find a ride for him later that evening. After that, the guy that sold him just disappeared. We never saw him again.
So we went to get the horse. He was in a stall and after the tack was removed and everything out there, he didn't look like the same horse at all. He just really was underweight, didn't want to move very well and we bought him and brought him home. Had somebody haul him in for us and he got into to our house. And when they got him off the trailer here, we assumed right away, we'd kind of been duped with some drugs or something. That's the assumption on our part, but that horse could barely move when he got home and for days and weeks afterwards you kept thinking, "Well, maybe you'll get a little better here. Something will happen." We knew he was underweight, so we put a lot of groceries on him. Probably got about 200 or 300 pounds on him and he just never did move well.
He would move with his shoulders. If he wanted to step to the side, he would have to take a step. Let's say he's going to the right. He would take a step with his right front, bring the left front to make the right steps or stutter stepping all the way around. He couldn't do a very fluid move or cross over with his front legs ,and it looked like it was really painful for him.
John Dowdy:
Right.
Severe Navicular That Wasn't Expected To Get Better
Dan Chambers:
So we had a vet come out, check him over. I thought maybe I had some shoulder or leg problems. The vet did some radiographs when we found, and he was diagnosed with navicular syndrome, with degeneration of the navicular bone that wasn't good, and that's probably never going to get any better. We can do things to ease him up by using corrective shoeing.
So we had the farriers come out and work in conjunction with the vet and do corrective shoeing with the rocker shoes and shortening the toe of the horse to get a more breakover and also to lift the heels off the ground more, so that he would not get as much pressure on that navicular bone from the deep digital flexor tendon putting pressure on him. And that seemed to help him somewhat. We rose him a little bit and we could ride him for a little, but he wasn't ridden very well. His movements were coarse, they were very difficult. He could walk and trot fairly well, but with the lunge.. a lope was just lunging in the front end to get off of his front feet and coming down and it wasn't fun to ride. So we kind of basically quit. Didn't have a whole lot of other options at that time.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And you were having to use some Bute and stuff periodically?
Dan Chambers:
We were using Bute on him, yes. But you know, we don't want to maintain that. It's a little hard on their kidneys and stuff. So we hope they didn't do that. But I found another product called Equi-Bone, I believe it was. And we used that for a while and went through a bag or two of that, and I didn't see any real results. So that went on for a period of time. And then I did some more research trying to find something to help this old guy, because he's a sweet horse but he just got a lot of problems.
John Dowdy:
Right.
Dan Chambers:
We got his weight up and everything and he was looking good there. And then we found a product called Osphos, I think that's correct pronunciation. Osphos. It's a shot they give them. It's Supposed to help horses with that and we saw limited results from it. You can only do it once every six months. I went through two series of that. A little bit of improvement but not much. And it was transitory. It didn't stay.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
How Equinety Made a Difference
Dan Chambers:
So within the last five months or so, we found the Equinety product and we've used that, and we've seen a miraculous difference in this horse. This horse, who before, was barely able to just walk out to the pastures following the other herd that he runs with when we turn them out, to galloping now. He's running with them, trotting. He's mock fighting with the horses to... likely, He feels like playing anymore. And I've seen him even stand on his front legs and kick his heels clear over the top of his head. So that was unheard of, for him to [crosstalk 00:15:33]
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Dan Chambers:
He's doing quite well. Much better on this product now.
How Equinety Works & What it is
John Dowdy:
Well that's great. Well, and I think for those who are tuning in for the first time, and maybe just hearing about this, Equinety product for the first time... It's a 100% pure amino acids. So there's no fillers, there's no sugars, no starches, and there's no loading dose. A serving size is 5.2 grams, which is not quite a tablespoon. Just put it right on as a top dressing. And what these amino acids are specifically formulated to do is stimulate the pituitary gland, which is the master gland in the body. That's what releases the hormones, which are then going to go throughout the body to help repair at a cellular level. So it's customizing to what the horse needs, exactly. And then in this situation you got a rescue horse that... diagnosed with navicular and through the care of... with what you know to do to help put on weight, you got to vet out to see what was going on, and you tried different things, little results. But you know, nothing long term by any means, until the Equinety. So now you've had the horse on the Equinety for around five, six months, you said?
Back to Dan & How Equinety Helped Cushings & IR
Dan Chambers:
Approximately that timeframe, yes.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So that's a really interesting thing with this product. And it's one of the reasons why we have the podcast to share these stories because you know, sometimes if you're at your wit's end or if you don't know what else to do or try and people can hear from others that might be dealing with a similar situation.
So I know up in Ohio right now, it's a winter time, so probably not doing much of any riding up there now, or are you kind of just trying to heal him up until you can ride him in the springtime? What's your goal there?
Dan Chambers:
Well, in the spring, hopefully we'll certainly reintroduce riding to him more frequently than what we have now. Right now it's been very limited because, got a lot of rain, a lot of mud and water, stuff like that. So we're not doing much. But you know, I move around a lot with a lot of other horses as a horse trainer and a certified equine massage therapist. So I run into a lot of other people and I've recommended this product to them as well for different areas in their horses too. And I've got two other people that I know are using the product now. I'm looking forward to seeing what their results going to be.
John Dowdy:
Sure. That's great. Yeah, we do have a lot of practitioners and trainers that... they use the product, recommend the product. We're blessed in that way for sure. And you know, anytime that you're going to add the Equinety product to these other things, whether it be the massage or chiropractic or anything that you're doing, it really just helps amplify what your ultimate goal is, and that's to help get the horse healthy and happy. So, and feeling good. So well, I tell you what if there's anybody listening in for the first time that might be a little skeptical, or on the fence, is there anything that you would have to say to them to maybe get them to give it a try?
Dan Chambers:
Well I would tell them for one thing... We all know that every horse owner out there always wants to do the best that best they possibly can for their horse. And as a result of... you're not going to lose anything if you try this product. I believe in the product. I think it's done a good job. It's certainly helped us with a horse, and I believe in giving the building blocks to the body of a horse in order to have the necessary resources there for the horses to kind of help heal themselves and to have the necessary things there to do that with. And I think those amino acids do that. One thing I hadn't told you about before is, I forgot if there's a...we had this guy tested it too, this old guy, and he's Cushing's and insulin resistant as well. [crosstalk 00:19:12]
John Dowdy:
Well yeah. I hate just leave that out.
Dan Chambers:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:19:18] We had that problem with him too, so he had his issues. But you know, his quality of life has improved immensely since we've gotten him.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. You know what, I'm, since you brought that up, we do have a lot of people that ask, "Is this product safe for Cushing's and IR horses?" And one of the, I would say, concerns or question marks, that come up... because when we're dealing with pituitary and with Cushing's horses, there's a tumor on the pituitary that's excreting too much of one of the hormones and that's what causes a lot of the negative things that go on with Cushing's horses. And with our product, the amino acids are specifically combined to stimulate the pituitary. So is there any negativity or any downside to doing this? Well what we're after, out of this pituitary gland, is the growth hormone, because the growth hormone is the master hormone and that's what triggers another hormone out of the liver called IGF-1 or insulin growth factor one.
So the combination of these hormones are what go through the body to help repair and regenerate. And I think just hearing the story about your old guy here... It's really helping to balance the horse from the inside out, and wherever that balance needs to happen. So with a Cushing's IR horse that's now been using this product for five to six months-time frame, you're seeing nothing but positive changes. Really, I mean that's what's going on. And you've tried a lot of other things. I mean you've been around for a while, so you did everything that you knew to, to try to help the horse. And I guess it'd be fair to say that when you tried the Equinety, that's when you really started seeing the positive impact on it.
Dan Chambers:
Yeah, we've certainly seen an impact in his disposition with his alertness, with his willingness to run and play with the other horses. With the Cushing's, of course, they get very hairy and they don't shed out well and stuff like that. And I'm really looking forward to, in the spring, seeing how that happens with him now that we've got him on this product, to see how easily he sheds out that excess hair this year. Because last year he was really hairy. I mean, he looked like a woolly mammoth. But this year his coat is there and it's long, but it's not as long as it was previously, I don't believe. So I'm kind of looking for progress there.
John Dowdy:
Yes. While I tell you what, I would love to do a followup podcast on this and we'll see how he's doing in the spring.
Dan Chambers:
Great. Great. Sounds good.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that'd be great. Well, Dan Chambers out of Ohio, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your Equinety story here on the Equinety podcast.
Dan Chambers:
My pleasure, sir.
John Dowdy:
All right.
Dan Chambers:
Do anything to help the horses, I'm all for it.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you and bye-bye.
Dan Chambers:
Bye.
John Dowdy:
All right.
