copper deficiency?

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willowblack

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Does anyone have any experience with copper deficiency in horses, my 4 yr old boy has a loss of pigment around his eyes and muzzle but is also a lazy sod and is prone to tripping! Any help would be much appreciated :-)
 
Not in horses but I had my soil analysed years ago and it came up deficient in copper and cobalt.

Sheep are not tolerant of copper but do need some so I'd give copper boluses to the lambs and supply the cattle salt licks (which contain copper and are not recommended for sheep) for the ewes. Sometimes lambs manage to spit out a bolus and wouldn't learn to lick the blocks, but they were easily to spot because the wool would take on a reddish tinge. In extreme cases, they'd lose weight and become weak and eventually die.

I've continued using the cattle licks (Red Rockies) and breed a few foals every year. I have not had any problems so I assume I am doing the right thing! The ponies definitely lick the Rockies and look for them if they are not replaced as they are used up.

Is that any help?
 
Much UK forage is deficient in copper and zinc, and many areas are deficient in selenium too. A forage analysis (and comparing the results with NRC recommended levels) will give you an idea of what your own grass/hay/haylage is like in this respect.

It's definitely worth giving a good quality vit/min supplement or feed balancer, containing organic selenium (known as selenium yeast) which is more readily metabolised that inorganic selenium (sodium selenite). I mention this because if you think he's lazy, it's quite possible that his muscles are compromised, something which is known to happen with selenium deficiency.

A good balancer should address any deficiencies in the forage.

At the moment I'm giving Blue Chip Original because it has a high level of organic selenium.

Sarah
 
I feed copper and zinc and it has mde a big difference to my cob, started a thread about it as I was so amazed at the change!
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=616192
Mine is also a bit lazy but it hasn't made much difference there sadly, he has excellent feet though and his coat is short and silky this year, its usually longer and a bit coarse, so I suspect that might be related too.
 
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I Many years ago worked on a hunt yard, one of the mares had copper deficiency, she had the panda eyes, but was fantastic she was hunted twice a week all her life from a four year old till she developed ring bone when she was 16, she was given just an all round vit sup cant think what one but nothing special.
 
Yes - as a result of ongoing hoof problems I got our grass tested a month ago. It is low in copper and very low in zinc, but high in iron.

I had already been feeding a supplement to make up for this, and the huge difference I noticed was what led me to get the test done. I now know exactly what to add to feeds :) Interestingly, although it's common to find high iron, low copper, zinc, selenium and iodine, we are high iron, low copper and zinc, but fine on selenium and unusually quite high on iodine (despite not being near the sea!).

Just giving a standard balancer wouldn't work for us, as most contain iron and it's the high levels of iron that affect the horse's ability to use any copper that's available in their diet. This means we have to avoid anything that has iron added, and feed slightly more copper than most balancers contain in order to counteract it.

The other horses on the grazing who don't get supplemented do have noticeable bleaching of coats and manes and tails, as well as around eyes. And poor hoof horn quality.
 
Easy to find out for sure. I know a firm that does an analysis on a urine sample that tells you exactly what the horse is lacking re minerals/vitamins. PM id you want details
 
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