Excipients

First, what are excipients?
First, what are excipients?

One definition is “inert substances used as vehicles and diluents for drugs. The problem with this definition is that in recent years excipients have proved to be anything but inert, not only possessing the ability to react with other ingredients in the formulation, but also to cause adverse and hypersensitivity reactions. These can range from mild to a potentially life-threatening reaction.” And although the new labelling requirements of animal supplements “require” a separate listing for excipients which can range from “fillers” to “binders” to “stabilizers” to “extenders” to whatever, the CFIA trusts manufacturers to supply all the information to them.

When I read some of the labels, I am pretty sure that many manufacturers are not listing all of the chemicals they use, especially in very processed “pelletized” forms that would not keep their shape unless certain chemical binders are used. AND my next question is about the “fillers” or “carriers” themselves. I would doubt that they are organically sourced..that would be very expensive. AND different countries, such as China, have a very loose definition of organic and many large companies import their “fillers” from China. So where are the “wheat midlings” and “soy meal” and “rice bran” etc. coming from? Many of those fillers, while a good source of protein, are NOT traceable. So what do you do? One thing you can do is what I do…use products with NO excipients!

Here at Sunglade Ranch, I use only traceable hay and grain for my horses …nothing that comes in a bag with fillers. For my 29 year old stallion, I add a good source of organic fat. To me, “complete feeds” and processed supplements are like MacDonald hamburgers, look good with lots of advertising but I would not raise my kids on them. No BioEquine products contain excipients!