Groundhog day - Vitamin E deficiency

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BBP2

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This isn't really looking for advice, more of an informational post for others with weird and wonderful horses who drive them stir crazy as they search for a cause.

I've posted a few times about my weird now-not-so-little Connemara - moves weirdly behind, flinches when touched, completely intolerant of training, won't move forwards, gets incredibly worried or explodes a bit then gets angry when he is moving, always a bit feral, but a lovely sweet kind honest horse and moves beautifully when he does move. 5 years old and barely any education due to the above. We have been tackling liver issues linked to liver fluke and elevated iron, plus copper deficiency, and although GGT has dropped from 1000 to just over 100, his symptoms all still remain. I also posted a lot about my last horse, the stunning bonkers black pony (BBP) who had a world of weird issues and who I devastatingly lost in 2024. Turns out they both have more in common than being weird black ponies. Before he died, BBP had a few blood tests showing him to be vitamin E deficient, despite significant supplementation with natural vitamin E. I did a few posts about it back in the day. Now blood serum vitamin E results are back for my big lad, and he is extremely deficient. I deliberately stopped his bonus supplemented Vitamin E 2 weeks before the blood was taken, to see where we were at on Pro-Earth Hay Boost balancer and strip grazed grazing in the day (with a muzzle) and hay/straw at night and to see if extra supplementation was actually necessary. These are the reference ranges I found proposed online.
  • Normal is considered above 2 ug/mL (200 ug/dL).
  • Marginally deficient is 1.5 ug/mL (150 ug/dL).
  • Severely deficient is 1 ug/mL (100 ug/dL) or below.
  • Recommended range for the average performance horse is 3 ug/mL to 5 ug/mL (300 ug/dL to 500 ug/dL).

I'm a bit shocked at how low his Vit E levels are. He is well below 1 ug/mL. Into the range that can lead to equine motor neurone disease. We think he must have an issue absorbing it, same as BBP, so will be gaining nutritionist advice on how to increase absorption (suspected possible gut issues due to redworm and liver fluke running riot before he came to me). The Pro-Earth hay boost balancer only contains 1,500iu but until 2 weeks ago he was probably on 5000iu a day. I have also just ordered the whole gamut of 'PSSM' testing, to see if there is a link, although I'm not a huge Equiseq fan.

As my sister says, this is now the next layer in the onion to unpeel in the journey to helping him feel better. So I have officially (in my head) renamed him Onion, and my many layered arab mare Charlotte (shallot, geddit?!). I'll get her vitamin E done next time vets are out to check if its just him or an issue across the board, but she gets more grass than him.

Here's to making some progress with Onion and Charlotte in 2026!
 
SEL said:
I'm relieved you've peeled off another layer but I'm wondering if there's something environmental which is blocking the uptake of E rather than you randomly having 2 deficient horses.

Although it could be very many deficient horses out there but you are just more observant!
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly.

I hope you get to the bottom of it, and keep us updated please- very interesting .
 
SEL said:
I'm relieved you've peeled off another layer but I'm wondering if there's something environmental which is blocking the uptake of E rather than you randomly having 2 deficient horses.

Although it could be very many deficient horses out there but you are just more observant!
Click to expand...

It seems most likely to be either a fat absorption issue, or a lack of dietary fat inhibiting the absorption of vitamin e. Both horses were extremely good doers and because of various health issues weren’t in much work a lot of the time, meaning I never fed a lot of fat or fresh green grass to them, probably compounding any deficiency. They were largely on hay based diets, on track systems, and with a hay based diet. I always supplemented vitamin E because of this, but perhaps the lack of fat in the diet has been the problem?

In humans, liver disease can cause the malabsorption of fat. Both horses suffered from liver disease of varying levels (on two different properties). BBPs resolved when we moved to the current yard. The Connemaras was particularly bad this year, so he was pulled off grass completely for the summer as we thought the high iron content in the dry dusty soil was contributing to the liver issue. He was anlso found to be suffering from liver fluke, which we think he must have hosted adult fluke for several years, and picked them up as a foal in Ireland, as we don’t have conditions to spread fluke here. So his liver has probably been compromised for longer than I have had bloods for him (only started testing at 4). Again I made sure he had supplemental vitamin E but no extra fat. He’s now back on grass 12 hours a day but with a muzzle on.

So now I have to wait for the nutritionist and vet to advise (as we had all their diets analysed and overhauled this summer) to see if it’s safe and advisable to add fat to the diet of an overweight horse with a compromised (but improving liver) to potentially combat another life threatening condition.

I didn’t test selenium this time around, but have done so previously and with BBP and it has always been normal. I will test it next time vet is here.

I imagine there probably are plenty of deficient horses that cope. Plenty of horses with liver disease that have no vitamin e deficiency. And plenty that have both and maybe people don’t realise. I may have to invest in nano-E for a while as a boost and then go back to the natural acetate powder form.
 
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