Nutritional supplement for the hoof and coat

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As indicated above, the present invention is drawn to novel nutritional supplement compositions.
These compositions are useful in a method of the present invention for preventing and/or treating certain hoof and hair coat ailments in domestic farm animals.
The nutritional supplement compositions comprise by weight percent substantially 96.
0%-0.
0% palatable carrier, 50.
0%-2.
0% DL-methionine, 0.
25%- 0.
1% biotin, 20.
%-2.
0% yeast culture and yeast fermentation solubles, 5.
0%-1.
25% zinc in chelated forms such as zinc methionine, 0.
4%-0.
0% preservative, 1.
5%-0.
0% antioxidant agent and 20.
0%-0.
0% flavoring agent.
The compositions may be presented in a number of forms including a paste form which is added to the regular horse feed and a meal which may be sprinkled over the regular feed.
Preferably, however, the compositions are designed and adapted for forming into pellets which may be top dressed over an animal's feed or even fed alone.
The pellets may be formed in a standard "steam tempering" process, a cold process or an extrusion process.
Advantageously, by forming the supplement into uniquely shaped pellets it may be easily determined if the animal to which administration is desired is consuming the supplement.
Accordingly, the carrier utilized in the formulation may be any known carrier palatably to the animal being treated.
When treating horses, oatmeal feed (such as available from LaCrosse Milling Company of Cochran, Wis.
) is particularly effective for this purpose.
Additionally, flavoring agents (20.
0%-0.
0%) may be provided to further enhance the aroma and taste of the supplement composition so as to encourage consumption by the animal.
Natural flavoring agents such as cane molasses may be utilized.
Alternatively, synthetic flavoring agents included Honey Essence 232, Caramel 204 and Apple 160 as available from Alltech, Inc.
of Nicholasville, Ky.
As should be appreciated, the composition includes 50.
0%-2.
0% DL-methionine.
As discussed above, methionine is an essential amino acid that must be consumed in the diet of the animal as it cannot be produced within the animal's body