DefinitelyDressage.com

I’ll try to make this short

Last summer mare was insanely itchy, to help keep her from developing this again this year I added the following to her diet in Sept

DAK oil, stopped using it when I found out it does not have balanced omegas, as it has more inflammatory oils in.

In February, I started her on Uckele Coco Omega Oil and Granules. The ingredients are: flax seed, coconut oil, chia seeds, fish oil (anchovy), fenugreek seed powder, active dry yeast, tocopherols from sunflower seeds. I am giving less than what is recommended on the packages.

I have her Vit E levels checked every spring, as when,I bought her she was low. She does get 2,500 iu of Smartpak natural Vit E pellets and also Equithrive Complete pellets.

She has been on the Vit E and Equithrive for about 5 years and her Vit e level stays in the mid 400 range.

I just had her checked and her Vit e has jumped 605 ug/dl
Her Selenium came back as 29.09 ! The vet thought I was supplementing her, which I am not. Prior years she as been at 16 or 19 ug/dL, though last year we forgot to check it. Vet said No more Selenium as her number is too high.

Nothing else in her diet or turnout schedule has changed, even the hay is the same as it is grown on the farm. Since we are just coming out of winter the Selenium can’t be from the grass. She only gets 1/4 lb of calm and ezee twice a day

I googled around and almost all the ingredients in the oil and the granules have Selenium, Chia seeds being he highest!

Naturally, I tried to figure out how many ppm she was getting from these supplements but it’s all in mcg and I can’t figure it out.

I have emailed Uckele askin how many ppm’s, it haven’t heard back.

To me, I think the rise was caused by the supplement.

Is this possible?

Others at the barn do not supplement Vit E nor have their horses checked.

Thanks

I'm not going to give you an answer, but when I was sorting out diet changes and looking at levels, I did find Feed XL very useful (you could ask if they have data on everything you feed, including supplements). I no longer subscribe, but it is very reasonable.

https://www.horsefeedblog.com/2014/06/s ... 0per%20day.

Thanks Piedmont and Koolkat, I will check them both out.

Naturally, I have not received a response back from Uckele which really irritates me! I will be calling them tomorrow. I realize they don’t add Selenium to their Omega products, but it’s naturally occurring in the ingredients so they should know the PPM level. I think the FDA also requires it to be listed.

These products are “approved” by their vet for metabolic horses, my mare is not metabolic but I try to feed her as she is. She is a very easy keeper.

She gets so little grain so it can’t be the grain, but it could definitely be the supplements.

Thanks

From ^^^ article:
"In the case of selenium, the label guarantee, which is “added” selenium, is listed in ppm = parts per million = milligrams per kilogram. The actual content will be slightly higher as there is naturally occurring selenium in the ingredients. The labeling requirement is based on added selenium per FDA guidelines.

Premium horse feeds are commonly tagged at 0.6 ppm selenium, or 0.6 mg/kg of feed.
This equals 0.273 mg per pound of feed. (0.6 mg/kg divided by 2.2 kg/lb. = 0.273 mg per pound of feed)
Thus, if you feed 5 lbs per day of a 0.6 ppm selenium feed, you are providing 1.365 mg of selenium per day.
FDA requirement limits added selenium in feed to a maximum of 0.3 ppm concentration in total diet. This is why the maximum on complete feeds – feeds that include enough fiber to replace the hay/pasture portion of the diet – is 0.3 ppm.

On feeds which can be fed at a maximum of 50% of the diet (not that horse owners generally feed it that high), the limit is 0.6 ppm added selenium. Chronic selenium toxicity occurs at about 10X the FDA limit, so there is a pretty good safety margin."

Thanks again Koolkat for an explanation !

I appreciate your responding.

I will add that I also found feedxl to be a super tool. You have the option of just paying for one month, which is what I did and spent that time tinkering with different options to get the right balance for my guys.