Heavy metal testing

[Monkers]

Hi there
Does anyone have any experience of testing for the above? Either the soil, forage or the horse itself?

 

[tikino]

my horses have got something funny going on with there liver and wee are in the process of sending soil samples away to test as one of the things that are being querried is metals in the soil. my very kind farmer is dealing with it for me but will try find out were he is sending the soil to

 

[flintfootfilly]

Generally it's best to test whatever the horse is eating rather than the soil (because what the plant takes up from the soil may be different to the concentrations actually in the soil), so personally I'd stick with analysing hay/grass.

The company I used for testing was Sciantec, at Selby. There is the option to test for individual minerals/metals or for a combination of various ones, but you have to specify what you want to test for in advance (I'd rather hoped that I could just ask for a general toxicity screen, but that's not possible).

Sciantec are here: http://www.sciantec.uk.com/services.php?service=forage

As it says, some of the more common tests are shown, but others are available too. I found them very helpful, and not out of the way pricewise.

Sarah

 

[Monkers]

Thanks tikino, that would be very helpful if you can. FFF thanks yet again! I will follow that up tomorrow.
It's not as simple as blood testing the horse then?