DAN: "What is your most successful hoof supplement?"
Woo-hoo.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, so is Sue here tonight?
Sue's in the back.
OK.
I wasn't sure what "successful" meant.
It could mean best selling, which I have answers for that.
And I'm not sure which is first, second, third so I'll just give
you the top three in any order.
And it's Farrier's Formula Double Strength.
It's our SmartHoof Ultra and our SmartHoof.
So those are our three best selling.
I said, maybe by "successful" she meant reviews.
And those all have really good reviews,
like 4.8 out of 5 stars and 4.6 and like 98%
would refer it to a friend--
recommend it to a friend.
So that was, to me, that's success.
But then, me being the veterinarian and scientist I
said, maybe she meant research.
Did you mean research?
You meant research, right?
So I found the research for you.
And a lot of it is in Lippizans.
And its really fun statements like - where's a good one here?
This was 19 months of biotin treatment.
Takes a long time for the horse to show improvement.
The horn quality showed a small but significant improvement.
And in research, the word "significant"
is what you're looking for.
When the trend is significant, then you've
really done something.
Let's see, here's the biotin with a daily dose
of 20 milligrams improves and maintains
hoof horn quality in horses with a less than optimum
quality hoof.
So I've got 1, 2, 3, 4--
I've got five research articles here
that all say about the same thing.
That biotin improves the hoof hardness, integrity,
the quality of the hoof.
Now it's not just biotin.
Some of these studies also used formulas
that had say, methionine and lysine and threonine.
So the top three essential amino acids, or limiting amino acids.
They also used at the micro minerals copper and zinc.
Some had omega 3s and collagen is another ingredient you
might see in a hoof supplement.
So between the best selling and the reviews and the research,
I think I have quantified success for you.
So did I leave out anything?
DAN: I think you nailed it.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, oh, all right.
OK.
DAN: So based on that seems like looking
for a supplement with some nice biotin quality
to it along with some of those other ingredients--
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, the study said--
here's one 10 to 30 milligrams of biotin a day,
depending on body weight.
Not less than six to nine months shows a progress
in hardness, integrity, and conformation
of hoof horn in all cases.
So 10 to 20 milligrams per day.
And those three supplements that I mentioned fit that.
And I think actually the SmartHoof Ultra was
35 milligrams of biotin a day.
DAN: So you did touch base on a little bit
here as far as the number of months for the hoof supplement.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right.
DAN: Can you talk about why it was like 19 months?
DR LYDIA GRAY: I can, yes, because hooves
grow very slowly from the coronary band
where the hair is down.
About a quarter of an inch a month.
So if you think about the average horses hoof being
three inches long, it takes a year
for a hoof to grow fully out.
So most of these studies were at least one year in length.
And in fact, one of them said several months
after they stopped giving the biotin,
the new growth was poor quality again.
So that's a really good study because it
said it was poor quality and then we gave the hoof
supplement and it got better.
And then we stopped giving it and it got worse again.
DAN: Which is going to get a lot of people
to start looking at the toes to see if there's cracking.
You have to start--
DR LYDIA GRAY: You gotta look--
DAN: --at the top.
DR LYDIA GRAY: --where the hair comes out.
It's just like your fingernails.
The stuff out here is dead but near the skin, the cuticle,
is where it's live, yeah.