What should I know about VHPs, Supplements, and My Horse?
- Honos Nutrition Co.
- Jun 2
- 5 min read
Most horses receive at least one dietary supplement, but not all horse owners know how supplements are regulated. In Canada, we have the VHP program, overseen by Health Canada, and applies to Veterinary Health Products for companion and livestock animals, such as horses.
While regulation is important to protect both human and animal health, the VHP program's main focus is on safety, rather than efficacy. As such, a supplement could be an approved VHP, but may not have evidence to support the claims utilized in its marketing.
A common example of this: "X supplement may support mood balance in horses". This product does not have to have proof that it actually does 'support mood balance' in order to be approved as a VHP.
The VHP Regulations
Companies involved in any process of VHP handling need to follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) from the Natural Health Products Regulations.
All substances used in the VHP need to be from the Health Canada's List of Permitted Substances (List C: Veterinary Health Products).
VHPs must follow the labelling rules:
Include Veterinary Health Product on the label
Follow FDA labelling rules; include any mandatory label statement required based on the ingredients
These are described on List C.
Companies are required to notify their VHPs to Health Canada at least 30 days before selling or making a change, and before importing a VHP into Canada, and report any serious adverse reactions.
What you as a horse owner need to focus on is labelling, because ideally, this is what you will be looking at!
Let's dive into labelling!
Labelling Rules as per FDA & Health Canada state that the info on the label must not be false, misleading or deceptive, or likely to create an erroneous impression regarding its character, value, quality, composition, merit or safety - ie: no catfishing, no exaggerating, etc. All required info must be clearly and prominently displayed and readily available to the consumer under normal conditions of purchase and use.
Labelling Checklist:
Contain the statement "Veterinary Health Product", the brand name, the dosage form (ie pellet, powder, tablet, etc), and the notification number to identify it as a VHP in compliance.
Name and address of the manufacturer/importer/Canadian representative.
Lot number to allow for traceability (Lot number, Lot No., Lot, L).
Expiration or shelf life (Expiration, EXP, Exp).
Adequate directions for use must be shown.
Recommended use/purpose/health claims
Intended species
Recommended dose
Route of administration
Duration of treatment
Safety information, such as warnings/cautions as per the List of substances.
Quantity of each active ingredient per dosage unit:
Name, Source, Quantity, Extract ratio and quantity dried equivalent.
Depending on form, g or mg per dosage form if tablet, or dosage unit if scoop, g or mg per dosage unit or per ml, as well as homeopathic potency if required.
Storage recommendations.
Net amounts of the container/package.
List of excipient ingredients (ie non-medical ingredients), these are recommended to be separate from active ingredients and listed on the label by common names.
Contact info for questions or to report a side effect.
Supplement Claims - What's Legal (and what's not)?
Supplements cannot legally claim to treat, prevent or cure disease.
Instead, these products use verbage such as "may help in the improvement of" or "may help support", but once again, should adhere to the FDA labelling rules (not false, misleading or deceptive).
Other claims that may be present include:
Absence of ingredients in case of safety concerns.
Presence of ingredients but only if the ingredients are present in sufficient quantities so as to have the expected effect in the animal.
Absence of side effects is permitted if there is evidence supporting this statement.
If different products have apparent similarities, clarification to make sure there is no confusion in use and administration.
Limits on comparison terms such as "better" or "stronger" or "without the negative effects of..." or "natural alternative to...", as these can be misleading.
Limits on potentially misleading promotional terms such as "safe", "non-toxic", "non-poisonous" or "non-allergenic" are unacceptable.
"Natural source" can only be used for products of animal or vegetable origin, obtained with a minimal of processing in order to retain most of the original composition.
Products with homeopathic ingredients or from Traditional Chinese Medicine can carry the respective claims specific to rules on homeopathic and TCM products.
For instance, homeopathic products with one ingredient can use the claim "Homeopathic", while those with multiple ingredients can use general health claims.
Products used in a way that aligns historically within Traditional Chinese Medicine healing can use this claim, as long as there are no prevention or treatment claims.
Examples of claims that are NOT permitted:
"Prevents"...
"To relieve....."
"Helps combat problems"
"To reduce...."
"For the prevention of..."
Labelling regulations also mean that products which have undergone scientific evaluation are not able to label themselves distinctively against products that have NOT been tested in the horse. As a result, horse owners must turn to the product website, and since label regulations only require the product label to follow the rules, websites can be incredibly misleading.
Navigating the supplement industry is often compared to the wild west - for good reason.
Navigating the supplement industry is often compared with the wild west - for good reason. Things I've seen in the wild include:
Products citing research that is not open-access (average person would have to pay money to read it), and misinterpreting/cherry-picking findings from the research paper that may not be genuine to the actual reported findings.
Products using a research study done on their product (YAY!) that shows opposite results to their claims (sigh), in hopes that for some people, having a linked research paper on their website will be enough to sell the product.
Products claiming there is research done on their formulation but using different research in similar products and presenting it in a way that LOOKS like it is data from research on their own product.
Supplementation can be tricky, so here's some of my top tips for supplementing smarter:
1. Horse health check - to rule out underlying pain/dental discomfort, stress, etc.
2. Assess current feed program - are you feeding the recommended minimum of the fortified product (ration balancer, performance feed, senior feed, etc)? Feeding below the recommended amount will leave nutrient gaps, and using these products correctly is often a more effective and more cost-efficient way of covering your horse's needs!
3. Hay - do you have a hay test? Hay tests are typically under $75 in this area, or around ~$100 if you have a nutrition professional use professional sampling equipment and interpret the results for you, which is cheaper than most supplements are per month! Once you have the hay analysis, this will help you identify where supplementation might be needed to balance weak areas in your hay.
4. Other products in the feed program - are you following manufacturer feeding rates? Who is selling the product? What quality evidence is available supporting it's use? Are they making claims that are NOT ALLOWED by VHP regulations?
5. Environment & management check - is management optimized to minimize stress and maximize natural behaviour? No supplement can replace good management!
Need a hand with this? Book a nutrition consult — with both virtual & on-farm options available, streamlining your supplement regime has never been easier!
✅ MSc Equine Nutrition
✅ Independent of feed companies
✅ Supportive + empowering approach
コメント