Manny's Story: How Nutritional Support Can Complement Veterinary Treatment

You may have seen the video on our social channels this week — our collaboration with Valley Equine Hospital telling the story of Manny, a three-year-old Shire horse who underwent standing surgery to remove a sequestrum from his cannon bone. If you missed it, you can watch it here.

It's a great example of excellent equine orthopaedic care in action — and it's also a useful case study in where targeted nutritional support fits alongside veterinary treatment.

What is a sequestrum, and why standing surgery?

A sequestrum is a fragment of dead bone that has separated from healthy bone, usually following trauma, wounds over the lower limb, or infection that compromises the local blood supply. Because the fragment has lost its blood supply, the body can't remodel or reabsorb it, and it becomes a persistent focus of infection and drainage until it's surgically removed. The cannon bone is a common site, simply because it has relatively little soft tissue covering it and is exposed to knocks, kicks, and wire injuries.

Standing surgery - performed under sedation, local anaesthesia and analgesia, rather than general anaesthesia - has become an increasingly common approach for surgical procedures in suitable cases. It avoids the risks associated with general anaesthesia and recovery (particularly relevant in a big young horse like a Shire. It doesn't, however, make the procedure minor: the horse is still going through surgery, a period of wound management, and a recovery phase where the body needs the right raw materials to heal well.

This is where nutrition earns its place in the conversation.

Why Better Bones was recommended

Manny is three years old and still very much a growing horse, and Shires, as a draft breed, carry a lot of frame to build. Better Bones is formulated to support correct bone growth and development in young, growing horses, supplying Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, and trace minerals such as Zinc, Copper, and Manganese alongside Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K — nutrients involved in normal bone mineralisation — plus MSM, Collagen, and key amino acids Lysine and Methionine.

Two things made it a sensible recommendation for Manny specifically. First, he's at an age where skeletal development is still ongoing, so baseline mineral and vitamin support matters regardless of the surgery. Second, horses recovering from limb surgery often spend time on box rest while the surgical site heals, and reduced load-bearing activity is a recognised driver of bone demineralisation — so keeping the nutritional building blocks available during that period is a targeted use of this supplement.

Why Opti-Biome was recommended

Surgery, hospitalisation, travel, and antibiotics can all disrupt a horse's microbiome. The equine hindgut relies on a stable, diverse bacterial population to ferment fibre properly and maintain a normal healthy, gut pH.

Opti-Biome combines a live probiotic yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), a prebiotic (fructo-oligosaccharides), and a postbiotic (yeast fermentation product), designed to support fibre digestion, a stable hindgut environment, as well as supporting the immune system and stress management. Making it ideal to support Manny’s microbiome and ongoing recovery.

Where Supplements Fit In

Manny's case is a nice, visible example of something that happens quietly in a lot of cases: amazing surgery and aftercare from the excellent vet team, with nutrition doing a specific, supporting job alongside it - not standing in for veterinary treatment, but making sure a young horse's body has what it needs while it does the work of healing and growing. The supplements were recommended in addition to an already suitably balanced diet for his age and lifestyle, to provide targeted nutrition for his recovery. His diet will be reviewed and adapted as his rehabilitation continues, to ensure it meets his ongoing requirements.

If your own horse is heading into surgery, box rest, or a period of veterinary treatment, it's always worth talking to your vet about whether targeted nutritional support has a role to play in their recovery — every case is different, and Manny's combination of Better Bones and Opti-Biome was chosen to provide targeted nutrition suited to his age, breed, and specific procedure.

Our thanks to Dr Jessica Kidd and the whole team at Valley Equine Hospital, and his owner for allowing us to share Manny's story, and we're glad to hear he's doing well.

Supplements are intended to provide nutritional support, not replace, veterinary diagnosis and treatment. Always follow your vet's advice for any horse recovering from surgery or illness.

Our team of experience Vets and Nutritionists are available to provide nutritional advice to support your horse: vet@equine-america.co.uk