Pro-Dosa Boost Paste

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a comprehensive, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste formulated to replace essential nutrients lost by the equine athlete during training, competition, transport, or stress.  It is used internationally in a wide variety of sports including dressage, show jumping, eventing, polo, mounted games, flat, national hunt, harness, and endurance racing after hard training, for competition, and for travel.  Horsemen and veterinarians have found it to be useful in supporting the normal appetite, thirst, electrolyte balance, and red blood cell production, needed to support performance, recovery and health. Pro-Dosa BOOST is a cost effective, simple to use, less invasive alternative to traditional pre-race and recovery treatments which can be expensive and stressful for the horse.  (Replaces the administration of electrolytes by stomach tube along with various amino acid, vitamin, trace mineral, and iron solutions normally given by injection). The body needs a full complement of nutrients in careful balance to achieve optimum health, performance and recovery. In fact, administration of individual nutrients may result in imbalances that actually impair their absorption and usefulness.  With this in mind, Pro-Dosa BOOST provides complete, balanced, bioavailable nutritional support. It contains all the water-soluble vitamins, trace elements, electrolytes, and amino acids, in doses that reflect requirements established in scientific literature.  They have been included in readily usable forms, in good balance with each other, and in balance with the cofactors required for their absorption and function.

Size 80ml syringe

The Vital Nutrients in Pro-Dosa BOOST.

Water soluble vitamins, including Vitamin C: Pro-Dosa includes all of the water-soluble vitamins (C and B group) in significant doses, based on scientific literature that defines the requirements and maximum amounts of water soluble vitamins that can be absorbed and utilized by horses under stress, as well as the ideal ratios between water soluble vitamins and cofactors necessary for their absorption and function. Vitamin C can be deficient in the equine diet. The main source is fresh, growing, grass, and in many parts of the world, horses have very limited access to pasture.  While more prepared feeds are made with vitamin C, it isn’t always very stable. When feed is fresh, levels might be good, but as little as a few months later, there might be little vitamin C activity left. 2 gms of vitamin C are included or a number of reasons. Firstly, vitamin C is vital for iron absorption from the gut. If you give Vitamin C without iron, then horses can’t absorb it or use it. Secondly, vitamin C is thought to be useful for bleeders as it plays a role in stabilizing cell membranes, including those in the respiratory tract. There are a number of herbal or nutritional “bleeder” preparations available internationally, and most have 2 grams of vitamin C as the active ingredient.

Want to know more about the B Vitamins?

Pro-Dosa BOOST contains all the B group vitamins in reasonable doses. It’s important to keep in mind that water soluble vitamins are not stored, so requirements must be met daily.  When horses are under stress, their requirements for B vitamins increase tremendously and Pro-Dosa BOOST contains between 20 and 200 times the level of B vitamins that you would find in your daily ration.  Pro-Dosa BOOST is intended to fill the gap between good daily nutrition and the increased requirements of horses at times of stress. The doses included directly reflect what researchers have established as the maximum absorbable levels of B vitamins, as well as the appropriate ratios between the B vitamins and with their cofactors necessary for absorption and function. It’s important to know that B vitamins have limited affect when given individually, but when given as a group, they are important for many things.

• Firstly, they are important for coat and skin condition. If you’re preparing yearlings for a yearling sale, for instance, you might choose to give half a syringe of Pro-Dosa BOOST every other day for 2 weeks to help ensure healthy skin and a haircoat that gleams. 

• B vitamins are important for nerve cell function, so nervous horses fed appropriate levels, will relax more normally and focus better on their work. Conversely, B vitamins are also important for energy production so, a lethargic horse, deficient in B vitamins, might get a lift. Pro-Dosa BOOST provides a good balance between the B vitamins that are necessary to sustain normal energy levels and those that are important for relaxation and mental focus. 

• B vitamins play important roles in red blood cell production.  Ask your veterinarian for advice, but if injectable iron, B vitamins, and folic acid are prescribed, the nutrients provided in Pro-Dosa BOOST are in similar quantities and can be given as a less expensive and less invasive alternative source.

• B vitamins are necessary to support normal appetite. If a horse has a hard run or they travel, they often don’t eat that well.   If they don’t eat, when they get where they’re going, then they aren’t going to perform very well. Similarly, if they’ve raced and don’t clean up their feed when they get home, then they aren’t going to recover very well or race well the following week. If your horse isn’t eating well when travelling or after work, racing, or competition, you can give them a syringe of Pro-Dosa BOOST.   Typically, sufficient doses of B vitamins will have them back at their feed bucket within about half an hour.

Want to know more about the electrolytes in Pro-Dosa BOOST?

Pro-Dosa BOOST contains the electrolytes calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, and chloride. Generally, sodium, potassium and chloride are the main electrolytes lost in sweat, but as the paste includes 21.5 grams of electrolytes, if it had included only sodium, potassium and chloride, then a dose may have produced a significant osmotic draw. That means is that if you put salt into the gut, it draws fluid first from the blood stream into the gut and dehydrates the system in the short term.  If you’re going to tube a horse with electrolytes prior to racing or travel, you do it a couple of days out because it takes that long to re-balance fluid and electrolyte levels. In order to provide 21.5 grams of electrolytes, it would be safer to include calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. They are also electrolytes, but they don’t produce the same degree of osmotic draw, and should be safe to use in traveling horses that might be dehydrated, or for an endurance horse in between loops. In addition, the calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus perform other vital functions. They’re important for muscle cell contractility and energy production. Studies have demonstrated improved performance in both speed and endurance athletes, supplemented with extra calcium.  The doses included in Pro-Dosa nutritional BOOST are comparable to those used to administer a pre-race treatment by injection, especially for fillies that struggle with tying-up. For endurance horses, who sustain higher sodium losses when racing in hot and humid conditions, add an additional 15g of table salt (sodium chloride) to water or molasses water, shake it up, and squirt it over the tongue after you have given a full syringe of Pro-Dosa BOOST each loop.

What are all the amino acids for?

The last group of nutrients that are important for muscle cell function are the amino acids. Pro-Dosa BOOST contains 22 amino acids in free, unassembled form. These are included for a number of reasons, not just for horses that struggle with tying-up. First of all, amino acids serve as the body’s most efficient buffering system for lactic acid, and most horsemen are familiar with the branch chain amino acids, isoleucine, leucine, and valine, and their capacity to buffer. The reason that not only the familiar BCAA's are provided is that, while all amino acids have the capacity to accept and donate protons, (so they all have the ability to buffer), just the 3 alone will not support muscle cell repair and recovery. You really require all of the amino acids, in appropriate proportions and in unassembled form, in order for the horse to make proteins and repair muscle cells. Muscle cells take up amino acids, really efficiently, for only about an hour, right after hard work. If you can get amino acids into them, during that little window of opportunity, you can prevent a lot of the delayed muscle pain and stiffness that occurs from hard work, and you can help horses build and maintain muscle mass more efficiently. If you fed your horses the moment they came of the track, it would take longer than an hour for them to eat their feed and digest the proteins down to amino acids.  You would miss that little window of opportunity where you can influence muscle cell recovery.  For optimal protein synthesis, all the amino acids must be provided, and not just a few, in ratios ideal for protein synthesis and muscle cell repair in horses. The amino acids in free unassembled form may support thirst more effectively than electrolytes in dehydrated horses.

Want to know more about trace minerals?

The trace minerals in Pro-Dosa BOOST are all in very bioavailable forms. They’re largely bound to organic molecules that the body is really good at absorbing and using, and are included in doses that directly reflect NRC requirements. Zinc and manganese are important for bone and joint health. Iron and copper work together to support normal red blood cell formation, along with B vitamins, vitamin C and the amino acids. Although NRC states that the requirements for iron for horses in hard work are approximately 383mg, Pro-Dosa BOOST contains 500mg of iron, as some researchers have reported improved performance, in racehorses, in particular, fed iron in doses between 500 and 800mg. If you look at your feed bag and calculate what you are giving your horses, you would conclude that dietary levels should be sufficient. However, your daily ration includes vitamin E, as it should, and vitamin E binds with iron, reducing its availability. Secondly, your daily ration may not contain sufficient levels of vitamin C, which is necessary for the absorption of iron from the gut.  The main source of vitamin C in the equine diet is fresh, growing grass, and not all horses have access to grass.  As a result, the iron in the daily ration may not be entirely available for metabolism. The copper provided in Pro-Dosa BOOST is in a Bioplex, in an amount directly related to the NRC requirements.

What has been left out of the Pro-Dosa BOOST formulation and why?

Pro-Dosa BOOST is a mostly complete, balanced, bioavailable multi-nutrient paste, providing water soluble vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, and unassembled amino acids, required in greater doses when horses are under stress to support optimal metabolism, performance, recovery, and health. There are a few nutrients left out of Pro-Dosa BOOST. 

• the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K. They are important for the health of the horse, but fat-soluble vitamins do not need to be administered at the time horses are under stress because they can be stored. They are generally present in the daily ration, in sufficient doses to meet requirements when horses are working hard. Also, some of the fat-soluble vitamins bind with trace minerals and prevent their absorption. There is a particularly negative interaction between iron and vitamin E, which if given together, result in greatly reduced iron availability. The choice was made between the fat-soluble vitamins and trace minerals so as to ensure iron availability.  As a result, the fat-soluble vitamins are excluded. There are some toxicity issues with fat-soluble vitamins.  As they are stored, they can accumulate, so if horses are fed too much, they can develop toxicity issues. Pro-Dosa BOOST is used very frequently in some horses, such as endurance horses, who are typically fed a tube in-between each loop in their long races. They could be receiving too much on a single day, so it is considered much safer to exclude them.

• Selenium is excluded. It’s a very important nutrient, an important antioxidant, and it’s important for muscle cell function.  Selenium is one nutrient that can pose serious toxicity issues. The amount that horses require for health, and the amount that starts to produce toxicity symptoms aren’t all that different, so that means it has a very narrow therapeutic range. Also, selenium is administered with vitamin E, which as mentioned above, binds with iron and reduces availability. 

• Iodine is excluded. It’s another trace mineral, but the requirements for iodine are well met by the daily ration, and those requirements don’t increase when horses are under stress. So, if a horse is grazing in the back paddock, not doing anything, its requirements for Iodine are exactly the same as your racehorse that’s in intense work and growing. 

• Chromium is excluded.. It’s a useful nutrient, especially if you have horses that struggle with tying-up.  It’s really something that must be fed, on a daily basis, for 3 or 4 weeks before you get good benefit from it. Pro-Dosa BOOST is not a daily supplement, it’s designed for use only on days when horses are under the added stress of hard work, travel, or illness. 

• Cobalt has been excluded from 2016 onwards.  Whilst it was included in the original formulation at a rate of 1mg (reflective of NRC requirements for young horses in hard work), the results of a cobalt clearance study demonstrated that while the dose was very safe for drug testing, it was unnecessary to include in the formulation. By providing all the other cofactors required for absorption and function, horses were able to more completely utilize the cobalt already provided in their daily rations.

• Biotin is excluded. It’s important for hoof health, and for racehorses that are on a high grain diet, there is often a benefit from supplementing biotin. However, it would need to be fed on a daily basis for 3 or 4 months to see results. Pro-Dosa BOOST was never designed to be a daily supplement.

• Other than the above. Pro-Dosa BOOST is a really complete performance supplement.