Blood tonic?

[chaps89]

Pony has low red and white blood counts at the moment, vet suggested a blood tonic.
Why is something in my head saying this is quite outdated nowadays? Or am I totally mis-remembering?

 

[dreamcometrue]

Sounds like a Victorian remedy!

Maybe a good balancer?

 

[ChipsChaps]

We feed Pro-Pell Plus to anything that needs a little more energy - it's a B vitamin and iron supplement and is classified as a blood tonic. We see a good difference in our school horses and liveries that are on it, but it is fairly expensive (but what isn't in Ireland?).

 

[Caski]

I used RedCell, (yucca or something like that?), but it was accepted well, not sure on price but recall it wasn't too painful!

 

[ShettieMob]

TBH I'd want to know why the blood counts were low, rather than just covering up the syptoms with a blood tonic. Excess iron out of balance with other minerals can be a bad thing in some cases. What's causing the problem - liver/kidneys/hindgut etc etc - and work on 'fixing' that

Vets have suggested the same to me when my boy showed up as anaemic. Anaemia is rare in horses, and must have a cause - I opted not to give him the blood tonic and really focussed on his hindgut and liver, and his bloods are fine now (it's not a quick process though!)

 

[Birker2020]

Is the horse weak or tired? He might be aenemic or have a virus? Could you get him retested in a couple of weeks and see what the blood shows then.

 

[Goldenstar]

Iron supplements which is what’s meant by a blood tonic for horses have to given with caution to horses if a horse gets more iron than it needs it simply stores it and that is not a good thing they can only excrete it by using it or bleeding .

I would want to be thinking about why his bloods are not normal .

 

[chaps89]

The inflammatory markers were also up, so she’s on antibiotics, anti inflammatories, omeprazole and sulcrafate too. Liver and kidney functionality normal. There is the option of further diagnostics but they’re fairly invasive and involve a pretty expensive trip to horspital, so this is a good starting point.
She’s very bright and well in herself, her only symptom was increased drinking and peeing
Will look at the couple of options listed, thanks

 

[Goldenstar]

Has she had a Cushings test ?

 

[SEL]

Pony has low red and white blood counts at the moment, vet suggested a blood tonic.
Why is something in my head saying this is quite outdated nowadays? Or am I totally mis-remembering?

I think it's been shown horses are rarely low in iron as a primary cause - it's usually something else causing the low red blood count.

I'd wait for the rest of the treatment to be over and re-test. Sorry if I've missed another post but what symptoms led to the blood test?