Concern over selenium amounts in Pure Feeds Fibre Balaner

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gothedistance

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Anyone on this feed?

I have arab endurance horses and notice my gelding's tail is thin and he is wood chewing more than he usually does at this time of year. Even though I feed the correct amount for weight,I am concerned he is not getting all that he needs. Selenium in particular is a small percentage and we live in an area known to be low on selenium. Any advice please? They are all good doers,hence my choosing this feed for them.

Advice appreciated - thank you!
 
I used this feed to a couple of months but after having my grass analysed I changed to Pro Balance from Progressive Earth as this had all the minerals I needed. I mix it with Fast Fibre, Linseed, Tumeric, Mag ox and ground pepper. Mine are all good doers, one of my horses competed upto 65km with bags of energy.

I think having your grass analysed is a great way to know exactly what your horses needs are. :)
 
Blood testing for selenium levels is really the only way to be certain - too much is almost worse than not enough. Mie was tested and is very low, so he is now on a selenium + vit E supplement. I don't think it is as much about the selenium levels in your grass/forage as how bioavailable it is to your particular horse - they all differ.
 
Too much selenium is not only worse than too little - its fatal. Overdosing on selenium was blamed for the deaths of over 40 top flight polo ponies in Argentina last year. If you're concerned about selenium levels a blood test is the best way to go. I know they need it - but I would not want to be supplementing selenium without empirical evidence of how much.
 
Weren't the polo ponies injected with a massive overdose, by mistake? So it wasn't a feeding issue.

Agree that blood test would be better, but most of the west of england is selenium deficient.
 
gothedistance said:
Anyone on this feed?

I have arab endurance horses and notice my gelding's tail is thin and he is wood chewing more than he usually does at this time of year. Even though I feed the correct amount for weight,I am concerned he is not getting all that he needs. Selenium in particular is a small percentage and we live in an area known to be low on selenium. Any advice please? They are all good doers,hence my choosing this feed for them.

Advice appreciated - thank you!
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Have you endowed them and asked?

They are very helpful.

Would a blood test show up levels if you are concerned and would be a good starting point.
 
just to give an update....had my horse blood tested. To my surprise,copper was found to be the deficiency. I am about to do a forage test and have been speaking to Forage Plus,whose balancers have a higher copper content/lower iron than others. I won't make any final decisions as to what to feed until we have the forage analysis results. Thanks for advice and help on here!
 
gothedistance said:
just to give an update....had my horse blood tested. To my surprise,copper was found to be the deficiency. I am about to do a forage test and have been speaking to Forage Plus,whose balancers have a higher copper content/lower iron than others. I won't make any final decisions as to what to feed until we have the forage analysis results. Thanks for advice and help on here!
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This is pretty common. Most of the grazing in the UK seems to be high in iron and/or manganese, and both block the uptake of copper. You are wise to talk to FP, because copper needs to be balanced with zinc and they know what they are doing. So do Progressive Earth, found on eBay.

I'm blowed if I understand why all the other suppliers on the market are still adding iron to their balancers!
 
cptrayes said:
I'm blowed if I understand why all the other suppliers on the market are still adding iron to their balancers!
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I had a conversation with representatives of a big feed company a while back, I was at a rider camp and wanted to take advantage of their weigh bridge. I knew they would try a hard sell.

When I explained that I was balancing to a forage analysis (high calcium, iron and manganese, low copper zinc and magnesium) they told me I had incredibly unusual results and I was just very unlucky, that this was not typical in the UK.

They also told l me they had to add certain minerals to their blended feeds 'by law'.
 
cptrayes said:
This is pretty common. Most of the grazing in the UK seems to be high in iron and/or manganese, and both block the uptake of copper. You are wise to talk to FP, because copper needs to be balanced with zinc and they know what they are doing. So do Progressive Earth, found on eBay.

I'm blowed if I understand why all the other suppliers on the market are still adding iron to their balancers!
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All the horses on our yard are low in copper after blood tests. Our grazing showed very very high iron and very low copper and equimins advance complete works well for us as it contains no iron but every event I go to a certain top brand balancer company keep trying to get me on their balancers. Makes me so cross as I explain to them that my grazing is high iron and low copper so their balancers do not fit with my needs but they keep on saying the little iron in them won't hurt. Why oh why when my iron is so bloody high would I add more??? They don't seem to get it and just tell me their products are balanced.... NOT WITH MY GRAZING NO. Sorry feel better :)
 
So threesuppliers now with a no iron balancer, good.

Forage Plus
Progressive Earth
Equimins


We're getting there slowly :)
 
Also the equivita one, similar mineral profile to forsgeplus but because they use copper and zinc sulphate instead of bioplex forms is s little cheaper and lower in volume so good for fussy horses.
 
criso said:
Also the equivita one, similar mineral profile to forsgeplus but because they use copper and zinc sulphate instead of bioplex forms is s little cheaper and lower in volume so good for fussy horses.
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Five :) getting better and better. I feed the sulphates, too.
 
The first thing I look for in a vit/min supplement or balancer is the iron and copper amounts, only because that's where my problem lies but I'm shocked how hard it is to find a decent product. The equimins do my native ponies to well but David at equimins said they can have less then the stated amount so iv cut them back but ideally I could do with a general vit/min supplement for them that is more maintenance rather then conditioning
 
criso said:
I balance and feed the bioplex but I'm very aware that there's no real evidence that they are better and they are a lot more expensive and not very palatable.
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Have to admit it was the expense that got me. Sulphates are about a third of the cost. I mix my own 'balancer' with copper, zinc, selenium and magnesium, then I add brewers yeast. The selenium is new, I realised one of mine was very sensitive to selenium levels and added it, and all his muscle stiffness has disappeared.
 
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