Question 1

I feed a high quality feed, why would I need EquiBind?"

Accepted Answer

Mycrotoxins are endemic even in high quaility feeds, they are just part of the plant that is ultimatly feed to all horses.  These hidden mycotoxins can be found within the plant cell and may not be detected by the feed manufactor.  Wheat and wheat by-productes, are commonly found in high concetrations in low strach feeds and these wheat products tend to have greater concentrations of mycrotoxins. 
 
Additionally mycrotoxins can be found in forages, not only hay but also in pasture grasses.  
 
EquiBind is designed to bind mycrotoxins and pass them through the horse's gut harmlessly

Question 2

My horse is a hard keeper regardless of what I feed, why would EquiBind help?"

Accepted Answer

Gut intergrity has been identified as a important factor in horses ablity to maintain good health.  In more severe cases leaky gut can result in "poor doing horses and hard keepers".
 
70% of a horses imunine function is found within the gut, by supporting both gut intergirity and imunine function EquiBind can help restore a natural balance for your horse.

Question 3

What makes EquiBind unique from other commonly avialable gut suppliments?

Accepted Answer

A common group are probiotics, which can have a positive effects.  Unfortunately many have quality issues as it is important and can be difficult to keep the positive bacteria alive through storage feeding and exposure to stomach acids. EquiBind “mode-of-action” is very different from probiotic.  EquBind can be successfully fed in conjunction with high quality probiotics.
A second group of products attempt to coat the GI tract, EquiBind contains ingredients that reduce inflammation and oxidation in the GI tract.  This helps to improve gut integrity which is more beneficial that simply coating the gut with oils.
Some “gut” products are primarily designed to help alleviate issues associated with stomach ulcers. EquiBind is designed to promote a healthy small intestine and hind gut and is really addressing different issues.

Question 4

How soon should I expect to see results?

Accepted Answer

We typically expect to see a response in 10 days to 2 weeks. This time period allows for the cells of the gut, and supporting organs a chance to repair previous damage and for the improved gut health to manifest is observable ways, such as body weight and coat quality.

Question 5

Does my horse need to be on EquiBind?

Accepted Answer

Maybe not, if your horse is under no or limited stress, is carrying good weight and has a slick and shinny coat even in the winter and when you are not able to groom them it may be doing just fine on your current program.  As horse owners our selves we choose to spend our money judiciously and hopefully not on vets.  We believe that EquiBind can benefit a wide variety of horses, but no product can solve a problem that does not exist in a horse or every condition.  If a product claims to solve everything that could ail a horse --- run away!
However if your horse is not holding the weight you would like, has a coat that you think should be slicker and if they seem to be slightly girthy, uncomfortable or are older, under the stress of training, performance, pregnancy/nursing then there EquiBind will make a positive impact on your horse.

Question 6

Is it palatable, will most horses eat it?"

Accepted Answer

Yes, we would expect your horse to like its herbal taste and smell. We have yet to have a refusal.  It is a power and can filter through a pelleted feed, however we have found that horses have licked the feed tub clean.  Some owners will add a bit of liquid to the grain but is not necessary.

Question 7

Does it interfere with other supplements

Accepted Answer

In a word no, some binding products can indiscriminately bind to vitamins and antibiotics, but EquiBind’s components have been specifically tested to only bind mycotoxins, LPS, alkaloids but not to bind vitamins, minerals and antibiotics.

Question 8

Is it safe for pregnant and lactating mares?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in fact we highly recommend EquiBind's use in mares exposed to fescue or rye grass during their pregnancy or while nursing their foals.  Some warm weather pastures can contain mycotoxins as part of the cell walls of some forage varieties beyond fescue that can interfere with a mare’s ability to produce enough milk.
One success story: a mare who had just foaled was milking so poorly that her newborn filly was at risk of being a bottle baby due to fescue exposure, despite being treated by the vet to encourage her milk to come in. After being on EquiBind for less than 10 days the mare’s udder went from sad to full and the filly grew to her potential.
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Question 9

Can I use EquiBind on racehorses?

Accepted Answer

We do not currently recommend it’s use with actively racing horses.  The extensive list of prohibited substances and the testing procedures that can detect such minute amounts of potential contaminates makes it impossible, at this time, to guarantee that a “clean” test would return. We have tested EquiBind and it does not contain any deleterious or performance enhancing compounds.  It did show trace amounts of a compound that has caused false positive tests for banned substances and for that reason we do not recommend use in actively racing horses. (This same compound can be found in other feeds used in equine nutrition)  We are currently working with ingredient supplers, such that we do expect to have product that can be used in racing stock in the future.

Question 10

Do the essential oils in EquiBind work systemically or only in the gut?

Accepted Answer

EquiBind was designed to support better gut health. However, we have multiple anactodal reports of older or injured horses that move better, more comfortably, after being on an EquiBind program. These anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds are absorbed by gut tissues and; yes, there does appear to be some systemic effcts as well.

Question 11

Why does heat stress affect the gut so much?

Accepted Answer

Long answer but we trust in our customers to be able to absorb complicated answers -

Because horses developed with the ability to sweat, they are often more heat tolerant than other species. However, when adding exercise (work) on top of environmental conditions, heat stress can be invoked. If a combination of temperature (degrees F) and humidity (%) adds up to more that 130 the horse will be exerting efforts in attempts to keep cool. If this number is above 150, they may not be able to sufficiently compensate. Exercise adds internally developed heat and exertional heat illness (EHI) can result.

With heat stress the horse diverts blood flow toward the skin in attempt to cool the body. This reduces blood flow to the digestive tract.  Additionally, it is well documented across all species that heat stress leads to “leaky gut”.  Leaky gut can result in endotoxemia.  Endotoxemia results when gram negative bacteria or pieces of their cell wall are absorbed.  This leads to increased inflammation (systemic) and also leads to reduced feed intake, (This may be a contributor to  the mechanism behind racehorse trainers evaluating how the horse came out the race based on their feed intake the following day.)

The leaky gut can also exacerbate the problem with other toxins found in the diet, such as mycotoxins and alkaloids from fescue or rye grass, and the reverse is true as well.

EquiBind cannot prevent heat stress.  However, the ingredients incorporated in EquiBind have been demonstrated to bind to endotoxins, mycotoxins and alkaloids.  Additionally, it contains ingredients with proven anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities that can help restore normal gut activities as well as ingredients shown to reduce the effects of heat stress.

Bornlow, M.A., A.J. Dart, and L.B. Jeffcott. 2016. Exertional heat illness: A review of the syndrome affecting racing Thoroughbreds in hot and humid climates.(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27349884) Australian Veterinary Journal. 94:240-247.
Gabler,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Gabler%20NK%5BAuthor%5D) N.K, Dawn Koltes,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Koltes%20D%5BAuthor%5D) Simone Schaumberger,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Schaumberger%20S%5BAuthor%5D) G Raj Murugesan,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Murugesan%20GR%5BAuthor%5D)3 and Nicole Reisinger(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Reisinger%20N%5BAuthor%5D). 2018.  Diurnal heat stress reduces pig intestinal integrity and increases endotoxin translocation.  Transl. Anim. Sci. 1:1-10.
Kumar,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Kumar+S&cauthor_id=28177370) S., B E Bass,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Bass+BE&cauthor_id=28177370) M Bandrick,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Bandrick+M&cauthor_id=28177370) C L Loving,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Loving+CL&cauthor_id=28177370) S L Brockmeier,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Brockmeier+SL&cauthor_id=28177370) T Looft,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Looft+T&cauthor_id=28177370) J Trachsel,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Trachsel+J&cauthor_id=28177370) D M Madson,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Madson+DM&cauthor_id=28177370) M Thomas,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Thomas+M&cauthor_id=28177370) T A Casey,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Casey+TA&cauthor_id=28177370) J W Frank,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Frank+JW&cauthor_id=28177370) T B Stanton,(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Stanton+TB&cauthor_id=28177370) H K Allen.(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Allen+HK&cauthor_id=28177370)  2017. Fermentation products as feed additives mitigate some ill-effects of heat stress in pigs.  J Anim Sci;95(1):279-290
Lambert G. P., Gisolfi C. V., Berg D. J., Moseley P. L., Oberley L. W., and Kregel K. C. 2002. Selected contribution: hyperthermia-induced intestinal permeability and the role of oxidative and nitrosative stress. J. Appl. Physiol. 92:1750–1761; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00787.2001
Moore, A. 2020.  Managing heat stress in horses. https://horsenetwork.com/2020/08/managing-heat-stress-in-horses/

Question 12

Why does CaniBind seem to help dogs with grass eating behaviors?

Accepted Answer

Grass eating in dogs has long been associated with an "upset tummy" but in reality it may be less of a classic upset and more of an attempt to sooth the inflammation in the stomach and gut that the dog is feeling.  CaniBind has successfully demonstrated that many dogs that were chronic grazers will reduce dramatically the need to eat grass when supplemented with CaniBind.

Dogs the product was field tested on showed marked reduction in both grass eating and foot chewing/licking.  One dog, a Doberman, was discribed as a horse in a dog skin because of the amount of grass he ate - reduced his grass eating behavior so much that the owners did not notice him eating grass but rarely.

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