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All Guard 4 in 1 Bolus

8K views 66 replies 14 participants last post by  SalteyLove 
#1 ·
Has anyone tried these boluses? They contain 750mg iodine, 100mg selenium, 350mg cobalt, and 400mg zinc. They are slow release and supposedly last 6 months.

http://snlivestock.com/All-Guard-4-in-1-Ewe-Bolus.php

I've heard some people use it with their goats or sheep and get great results. However, I am looking for more opinions.

They have a 5 in 1 for goats, but it's cheaper to give their copper boluses separately.
 
#2 ·
Well the ewe bolus won't have copper - I couldn't find the goat one on their site.

But let me just say, I am cautious about bolusing selenium and other minerals, I personally don't have much knowledge on how those boluses work, and I would be concerned about overdose. With routine supplementation, like a gel monthly/weekly or an annual/bi-annual supplementation, you can evaluate and supplement as you go. With a bolus, I would be cautious. That is all.
 
#29 ·
That being said, I am interested to hear the opinions of others on the forum!
I'd be willing to use this for some of the herd in a wait-n-see manner
They contain 750mg iodine, 100mg selenium, 350mg cobalt, and 400mg zinc. They are slow release and supposedly last 6 months.
I'd be interested in seeing the actual nutritional label, where it gives the mineral forms, etc. But none of what you've shown is terrifically scary to me if it would help a specific portion of your herd. Slow release sounds good.
There are no cobalt blocks at any stores within an hour of us. We can get them ordered at our store but would need to order a pallet which is 40 blocks. Will keep looking!
Before I could buy cobalt salt blocks, I ordered, and used, cobalt boluses from a company that I wasn't happy supporting (but they did offer the boluses I felt I needed) But I live someplace that was NOT plentiful in cobalt. So it was OK.
 
#6 ·
Have never heard of it either. I give copper bolus, selenium gel, and loose minerals. I feel like they wouldn’t need that much supplementation of zinc, iodine, or cobalt unless you know they’re for sure deficient in those.
 
#7 ·
Wow! I wish they had just selenium and copper. I would be all over that!
But I went ahead and googled toxicity in the iodine, cobalt and zinc, it's really nothing all that terrible. It was a fast search so if you end up wanting to really try these I would do a better search but it's things like watery eyes, hair loss, poor growth rate and with the zinc copper deficiency anemia, which is where they lost my interest since I battle copper deficiency so much. But I would defiantly make sure your goats needed selenium before looking into it more. That we do know toxicity is pretty much certain death.
But it might be something to consider. Yes there is replamin gel but for those that have larger herds it's not all that easy to keeping going out and shoving gel down them. Also for those that are using it for these minerals, it might be interesting to see if maybe in that 6 month time if they are actually giving the same, more, or less then what the bolus contains. I'm not sure what the recommended dose is with the gel but here is the tag if someone wants to figure it out. But I did notice that iodine is not listed. https://www.drugs.com/vet/maac-replamin-gel-plus.html
Anyways I'll watch this to see what others have to say but I think because of the zinc part I am passing for now.
 
#8 ·
Great discussion! I am almost certain we are zinc deficient. We tried a top dressing that we loved, but it was just so expensive. I also hear great things about cobalt, but the boluses from UltraCruz are obnoxiously huge. That’s why it really sparked my interest.

The selenium is what has me worried. We really don’t have a huge issue where we are. The amount in that bolus is so high (even though it is slow release).

The gel might be something to consider. However, if it needs to be administered weekly then that’ll be impossible here. We have 80 head currently.
 
#9 ·
Great discussion! I am almost certain we are zinc deficient. We tried a top dressing that we loved, but it was just so expensive. I also hear great things about cobalt, but the boluses from UltraCruz are obnoxiously huge. That's why it really sparked my interest.

The selenium is what has me worried. We really don't have a huge issue where we are. The amount in that bolus is so high (even though it is slow release).

The gel might be something to consider. However, if it needs to be administered weekly then that'll be impossible here. We have 80 head currently.
I would stick to non-bolus supplementation... except for copper. Supplement cobalt with a cobalt block. There are a lot of ways to supplement zinc, TruCare is good, it is a top dressing you could put on your feed.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I give selenium gel with vitamin e monthly. Some of my goats don’t need it as often though and they get it as needed or when they get their hooves done. I have head of 18 though so I definitely see the issue for 80. For copper I give bolus every 6 months. Mine don’t need cobalt supplementation but I have seen cobalt blocks before. They also all have access to Sweetlix meat maker minerals
 
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#11 ·
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#13 · (Edited)
https://www.hubbardfeeds.com/species/lifestyle/goat/easylixr-meat-makerr-mineral-pressed-blockWhen looking up zinc stuff is found this.
Easylix[emoji768] Meat Maker[emoji768] Mineral Pressed Block
It says it has recommended levels of trace minerals that also include Bioplex[emoji768] copper, zinc, manganese and cobalt for goats. Now I'm curious.
Thank you! I will definitely look into this and see if we have any near us. I bet shipping would be insane.

Update: Just looked for ones near us and our feed store apparently is a dealer! I will be contacting our nutritionist to get their opinion.
 
#19 ·
Oh man CountryLineAcres I guess I never told you I can be a bit obsessive compulsive about things lol I got to thinking and it wouldn’t be the end of the world If I had to give a extra copper bolus because of the zinc. So I did some serious googling and math since I posted.
So your right I see a lot of good things, especially cattle and sheep wise. Not much goats in the US but I did find some great reviews in other countries (which I know we are not other countries).
Anyways that all made me go to the math part of my OCD. For a little pill yes 100mg is a lot BUT it’s really not THAT much. So I just used the bag of grain I feed to my kids as a example of what ones goat might be getting in selenium just off of that, since I know I’m probably the only oddball that doesn’t feed grain. Anyways so it has 0.40ppm. That comes out to .40mg per kg of feed. A kg is 2.2 pounds. And then this bag says so feed 2-3% of body weight. Let’s make it easy and say they eat 2.2 pounds of grain. That would be .40x30 (days a month) and it comes out to 12mg. Now X 6(months) is 72mg. Yes that is still 28mg less but that is still THIS grain and only going off THIS grain. Not the BOSE or anything else. So I am going to keep thinking on it but I’m leaning towards trying it.
CountryLineAcres, what minerals are you feeding? The only time I have ever had a issue with zinc deficiency was last year when I fed sweetlix meat maker minerals. Goathiker tried to explain to me why that was in mariaroses mineral thread but it went right over my head.
And if you find a way to give bucks minerals that they can not totally destroy let me know. Mine drive me absolutely bonkers! Right now they just get a little pan and only a small handful a day. At least then it’s not a total waste when they take their anger out on it
 
#20 ·
Oh man CountryLineAcres I guess I never told you I can be a bit obsessive compulsive about things lol I got to thinking and it wouldn't be the end of the world If I had to give a extra copper bolus because of the zinc. So I did some serious googling and math since I posted.
So your right I see a lot of good things, especially cattle and sheep wise. Not much goats in the US but I did find some great reviews in other countries (which I know we are not other countries).
Anyways that all made me go to the math part of my OCD. For a little pill yes 100mg is a lot BUT it's really not THAT much. So I just used the bag of grain I feed to my kids as a example of what ones goat might be getting in selenium just off of that, since I know I'm probably the only oddball that doesn't feed grain. Anyways so it has 0.40ppm. That comes out to .40mg per kg of feed. A kg is 2.2 pounds. And then this bag says so feed 2-3% of body weight. Let's make it easy and say they eat 2.2 pounds of grain. That would be .40x30 (days a month) and it comes out to 12mg. Now X 6(months) is 72mg. Yes that is still 28mg less but that is still THIS grain and only going off THIS grain. Not the BOSE or anything else. So I am going to keep thinking on it but I'm leaning towards trying it.
CountryLineAcres, what minerals are you feeding? The only time I have ever had a issue with zinc deficiency was last year when I fed sweetlix meat maker minerals. Goathiker tried to explain to me why that was in mariaroses mineral thread but it went right over my head.
And if you find a way to give bucks minerals that they can not totally destroy let me know. Mine drive me absolutely bonkers! Right now they just get a little pan and only a small handful a day. At least then it's not a total waste when they take their anger out on it
Wow! You are awesome!!
That math does make me feel better about the selenium. Maybe this really would be something to consider... I might trial it on a goat that's heading for market anyways.

We actually just changed minerals. They have been on DuraFerm Concept Aid since the beginning of this year, I believe. The goats absolutely love it, and I have seen a huge difference. However, we also had 6 does blow their coats completely after kidding or weaning. We've always had a doe or two do it every year, but this time it makes me think deficiency. Maybe it's hormonal and not zinc related? Idk honestly.

Lol that's where we are at! I tried to put a few tablespoons of mineral in a hanging dish but one of the bucks decided he was going to dump it all out with his horns by flipping it. I swear everything is a scratching post to them.
 
#21 ·
Ok. My boys are BRATS! They love to destroy All kinds of things. Fences, gates, trees, feeders, hay holders, and water buckets. They can really frustrate me. And dont get me started on their.horns....geez
Eye Plant Fawn Terrestrial animal Terrestrial plant
Plant Goat Mammal Grass Wallaby
Plant Sky Cloud Tree Working animal

I found for.my boys..if it is sunken. They.dont tear it.up. So I.looked and.found.a.metal pipe with a 1/2 inch lip. I put a cap on the other end. Its about the size of a cup
I stick this into the hole of their.spools. yes I usually add to it on a 2 day schedule. But they like licking their own spool. And I dont feel they waste much. Not like they did with.pvc pipe on the wall
Yea..I filled it.up 1 time. Lost alot a good mineral!..
 
#25 ·
I wasn’t going to say it out loud but yeah I was thinking about the two brats I plan to take to the sale because I am so done with their crap. Anyways I’ll Hang onto them a bit longer and see how it goes.
Moers kiko you and your thinking is awesome! I have a bunch of pieces of pipe left over from our corral I’m going to see if I can rig something up. Maybe I can sink one in the ground and then have the husband weld some kind of cap into that and then another piece onto that. That way it’s up a bit and they can beat the crap out of it all they want but it shouldn’t go anywhere. What I don’t get about these dumb boys is when they are with the ladies they use their mineral feeders just fine and all that is is a round of wood with one of those salt block tub things screwed onto it. So defiantly destroy-able if they wanted to!
 
#32 ·
A few years ago Santa Cruz had selenium and copper boluses, slow release, that I tried. They worked great, but we are very deficient in Selenium and copper up here, so it worked great. Then they stopped making them. I found a couple this spring that were left over and gave them to 2 of my does who are just poor doers and the responded wonderfully. I'll have to check these out, so see if some of my herd might benefit from them.

I went and checked them out, not sure they would be something for this area, as New England is high in Iodine. I didn't see a price of the smaller container of the boluses, just the jar of 100. A little too pricey for my wallet.
 
#33 ·
Glad you shared that info! They do have a 10 pack for $22 on the website. The 5 in 1 is extremely expensive (it contains copper as well), so it's cheaper for us to just give the copper bolus separately. I'm worried the 5 in 1 will be extremely large like the cobalt boluses.
 
#35 ·
I ordered them June 6. I have not received any order confirmation or shipping information. I did get a receipt because I paid via PayPal. I emailed the company today and asked when they would ship. I'll let you guys know if it's a reliable place.
 
#37 ·
I didn't get a reply to my email so I contacted them via their Facebook page. The owner indicated that the pandemic has greatly delayed deliveries going through customs so they are having a hard time getting them in. No estimate provided. I'll hold out for another month or two before submitting a refund request through PayPal.
 
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