How Diet Affects the Hoof
dac DDA
Horses are foraging animals and their digestive tract is designed to digest forage. Due to the demands we make upon them, we increase the energy in their food by adding grain to their diet. A horse's stomach and small intestine is much smaller than it's large intestine. Food passes quickly, and largely undigested, through the stomach and small intestine. From there it enters into the fermentation vat of the hindgut, where bacteria breaks down and digest it. Food passes much more slowly through the hindgut.
In 1884 Christopher Gram was studying bacteria. He used an iodine stain to identify and study it more closely. The bacteria that accepted the stain were labeled gram-positive bacteria, while the bacteria that would not accept the stain was labeled gram-negative. The gram positive bacteria digests starch and sugars, whereas the gram-negative bacteria digests fiber. In a healthy hind gut gram-positive bacteria are slightly higher in population than gram negative bacteria.
Carbohydrates break down and convert to starch and sugars in the hindgut. With an excessive carbohydrate diet, gram positive bacteria feed on the sugars and multiply quickly, releasing lactic acid and increase the acidity of the environment. A low pH environment can kill gram-negative bacteria, and erode the mucus lining on the gut wall. Endotoxins can pass through the gut wall and trigger laminitis.
Lactobacillus acidophilus work in the foregut to start digesting sugars to decrease the amount of sugars entering into the hindgut. MOS (Mannon oligosaccharides) bind to starch and sugar-digesting bacteria (gram-positive) and remove them from the gut in the feces. By removing the acid making bacteria, MOS leave the beneficial fiber-digesting bacteria (gram-negative) free to multiply. MOS is also reported to have a buffering affect.
dac Digestive Feed Additive uses this approach plus many more other yeasts and mircoorganism to promote geed digestive-tract health. There are 1,500,250,000,000 live cell microorganism per ounce in the product. It has been used successfully to combat chronic colic, ulcers, chronic diarrhea, and has changed bad stall habits.
The above was a personal study by Vernon Schlabach. Vernon has spoke at many dac meetings and is one of the personal farriers for Randy Jacobs, plus other high ranking equine trainers. When Vernon started doing his study of the dda (dac Digestive feed additive) he was looking for help in Laminitis, but what he also found is that the dac dda also help CUSHINGS disease in horses. Basically it is the same theory as above but the dda will also help to bind all the sugars and starches that Cushing horses can't have and pass them trough the equine body. Of course we all know that with a Cushing horse you have to change your horses diet (feed) so you most likely go to the feed store and get a high fat low carb diet. If you think of what the above says, then all you need to do is add one scoop daily of the dda along with the Cushing specific feed and you have a double approach to helping the Cushings horse. Not to mention your horse will get double benefits in retaining all the nutrients in that specific feed. You can also change the feed to STRAIGHT oats, whole, crushed, steamed whichever, and you will get the same results for laminitis and Cushings. Vernon has proved that with many laminitis horses he has worked on and the laminitis horses that then turned into cushing horses with the thick crusty neck and polls and fat deposits over the hind quarters.
Other uses that many customers are doing with the dac dda is cutting their feed costs in half by using the dda for digestion and feed breakdown in the equine gut, and adding 1/4 to 1 ounce of the dac Bloom daily for the energy. Most of the customers that have done this are using straight oats and good quality hay and within a two week to one month period, have decreased their feed use and have saved money on feed costs by doing this.