When 4-year-old Finley kept colicking, we knew something wasn’t right. The young Irish Sport Horse mare was healthy otherwise, and progressing nicely in her young horse training program.
A few late-night vet visits and even an overnight hospital stay didn’t help us get to the root of what was causing Finley’s gastric upset. But with time and managing her diet, we were able to keep her stable.
Months later, I was intrigued to see a new program offered by Purina Animal Nutrition aimed at teaching horse owners more about their individual horse’s gut microbiomes. Until now, the equine microbiome has felt a bit mysterious. The nutrition we provide that goes into the horse fuels the microbiome, which in turn, keeps our horses healthy.
But understanding how to find and support the optimal balance of the microbiome really starts with understanding what a healthy microbiome should look like. Purina has done just that – they’ve developed an easy way for horse owners to take a sample from their personal horse and have it analyzed through next-generation sequencing and data analytics.
This felt like an interesting way to learn more about Finley and what we could do to help her be the healthiest she can be.
The Purina® MQ™ Equine Microbiome Testing Kit is easy to use. Everything you need arrives in the kit, with handy instructions. After taking a rectal swab, we secured the sample in the mail packaging that came in the kit and sent it off to the Purina lab. In a few weeks, Purina was able to sequence the sample and provide us with more information about what’s going in inside Finley’s hindgut.
The results came to us online, in an easy-to-navigate form full of interesting infographics.
We learned that Finley’s microbiome is in a good, stable condition, confirming that what we were doing after her periods of upset was working. In addition, we got to know more about the various strains of bacteria living in Finley’s gut, and how each one plays a role in her overall health. The report also compared Finley to other horses in her age group and similar breed, which was helpful context to have.
This report also armed us with more information to share with Finley’s team of health professionals, should we run into any upsets again in the future.
As part of the recommendations from the Purina team, we also started Finley on the Purina® Systemiq™ probiotic supplement for additional support. Because Systemiq™ is esigned to help horses better manage through stress and exercise, it felt like a great option for her.
Systemiq contains a unique strain of Bacillus coagulans probiotic bacteria that has been shown, through research in horses, to support optimal digestive and immune function when fed daily. This specific bacteria strain remains live and active after the pelleting process and through the horse’s digestive tract. Finley eats one little scoop of Purina Systemiq every day in her morning feed and licks the bowl clean!
The goal of course is to keep Finley happy and healthy in her job as a performance horse. These new tools and products from Purina help us do just that.