Horse hair analysis

Queenbee

Queenbee

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Hi there, whilst we are starting to get some info on what's going on inside ebonys body at the moment, I'm obviously looking ahead at possible what nexts and what ifs, I am considering a horse hair analysis but have no idea who's reputable or not or what the cost is like, but I'm hoping that it could give me a good idea as to what was going on inside her body before and at the onset of the illness etc... Has anyone had this done? Any info would be appreciated, thank you :D
 
Well from what I understand it can give a good overview with regards to any deficiencies vitamins and minerals, heavy metals, and being hair it will be able to give a timeline, a bigger picture. I've seen that some company is doing something to do with hair tests and 'bio energy' whatever that is, that is not what I need. I'm looking for something that can give a picture of diet, possible deficiencies or problems that were on her system at the time.
 
If you are after diet and imbalance type info then I would go for forage testing instead. True it doesn't offer a time line but broadly in terms of minerals you grass is what it is, and the same if you test your if it comes from the same geographical area.

The prob with hair and blood tests to work out imbalances is that it only shows you what is there, not how it got to be like that, and some won't show at all so you would have to guess. Eg, low magnesium might be just that or could be high calcium or (less commonly) high phosphorus. Low copper could be just that or could be high iron.

If you can work out what from your forage is going into your horse (it generally makes up the bulk of diet) then you can basically fix it by balancing your minerals. The changes can be enormous so worth considering if you are struggling with a stack of 'not rightnesses' and see what it shows?
 
As Pony says, hair analysis will have limited practical applications, while you research this, I think you should be feeding a good mineral supplement [Equimins or Feedmark], at the recommended rate, fed in a mash [Fast Fibre if a fatty or Ready Mash type if not] with a nice bit of top quality chaff [Dengie].
Micronised linseed [Equimins] fed at 100gm per pony will also help skin and joints.
Her current diet should provide all the vitamins and minerals she needs, and with Equimins you get a money back guarantee!
Her hair and her feet should improve in less than six weeks, you should see a difference in two weeks if she has been held back due to nutrition.
A good summer at grass will help to repair a lot of damage.
There are also immune type supplements, but I would start with the basics.
 
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Waste of time and money.

I had my mares hair analysed as she was having liver problems and we didn't know why.

One of the things it came back with was that my mare had low iron.
In fact she didn't, a blood test showed she actually had too much iron, and a subsequent test of the hay also showed it to be high iron.
Since removing as much iron as possible from her diet her liver enzymes have come down.
Had I followed the advise of the hair analysis and given her more iron I could have made her very ill.
 
Would have to agree with others.

What's happened?

Will go and find your posts about Ebony....
 
Hi, she's already on fast fibre, was on alfa oil and sugar beet but during being ill went off that feed, she also has haemovite and proteinex, she had a chronic onset of weight loss and muscle wastage... We have eliminated lots but I was wondering if this could be linked to heavy metals, liver function is normal though. Long shot and I doubt it's that but was just musing. Lots of posts on here about what we've tested for and eliminated. Thanks all
 
I considered this a few years ago and was advised to get forage and all diet tested.
There is mixed opinion on this but I am once again considering it mainly for toxins or toxic levels.
If testing forage etc. don't forget the horse is eating browse etc. as well as grass (if on grazing of course) and imo all water sources need testing too. My water here is fluoridated which I only discovered recently so now collect rain water for drinking. One of my horses had persistent soft/loose poo which stopped once I stopped allowing access to tap supply.
 
Gawd it's all so flipping confusing! I've used rain and tap, although when she started to get poorly she was on tap water... May well check this, she was on the same hay all winter so I doubt that caused the problem, all her bloods are looking pretty normal so I don't think there is any major deficiency going on, it was more to do with heavy metals although wouldnt this show an affect on the liver?
 
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