Magnesium

Shavings

Shavings

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Can we talk about horses low in magnesium please
I wrote on here a wile along (with in the last month) about Chance being difficult to lead, turns out he appears to be at his worse in wind, which is odd for a horse that’s lived out 2 winters!!

many way I have noticed he is sluggish in work, very twitchie/hates being brushed and some what over reactive to minor things, and finally has lost a lot of weight/top line, now I will not lie he needed to loose some weight but this has all appeared rather quickly and a fell livery things he may be lacking magnesium as there is a not much grass as the moment and he just gets hay (cut up apple at feed time to stop door kicking wile others get a meal)
My worry is that I have seen feeding magnesium can send them loopy! Which would really be counter productive.

so is there such a thing as a multi-vit he could have ?
Or am I residing myself to another vet call out for blood tests

Ps when I say this has happened quickly I would say 8/12 weeks as the period
 
I feed magnesium because its been recommended for pssm horses. I stopped for a bit for some reason and Charlie's mallanders flared up badly. It may have been coincidental, but I'm now superstitious about it. It makes 0 difference to his behaviour if he does or does not get it so I'd be inclined to at least try it, it's not that expensive really.
Failing that, I feed Bon progressive earth's balance plus and he's been looking and doing super on it
 
i would be very surprised if too much magnesium would send him loopy, but too little might! If they are magnesium deficient then they can be irritable, nervy etc, which is why magnesium is used in calmers. Any magnesium he doesn't need just gets excreted in his pee.
 
The magnesium will send the horse loopy if it's not balanced with salt and potassium. An average 500kg horse needs about 2 tablespoons of salt per day - a salt lick is not sufficient!
If you feed salt ,.and he's getting turn out so should be getting potassium the magnesium should be in balance wirh the other two minerals.

Mine has 2 tablespoons of salt per day and uses his salt lick on top.
 
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Dave's Mam said:
@I'm Dun put me on to a site Soil Observatory, where you can look at the elements in the soil in your area.
It works for me, as all our hay is made on site & our area is in an area on the map that has a real dip in Mg content, so I feed MgO & it has made a difference.
http://ukso.org/
Click to expand...
That's a great site. It showed me that we are really, really low in selenium and after a comment by a sheep farmer I did a soil test for copper - also low. I can see a deterioration in hoof quality since we moved 6 months ago so I'm now supplementing.
 
Never heard of magnesium making them loopy but considering your horse has dropped condition and is sluggish, he may just be lacking in a few essential Minerals and vitamins so I would consider putting him on a all round supplement and see if he picks up, I tend to use progressive earth pro balance when I think my horses need a bit extra.
 
Thank everyone for the advice I will look in to them all :)

I have heard from a couple of the local farmers the island soil is low in magnesium in general and unfortunately that map doesn’t want to recognise us !

so think I will go with the balancer and see, if he continues to go down it will be a vet call!

up side he is no longer fat!!
 
Pinkvboots said:
Never heard of magnesium making them loopy but considering your horse has dropped condition and is sluggish, he may just be lacking in a few essential Minerals and vitamins so I would consider putting him on a all round supplement and see if he picks up, I tend to use progressive earth pro balance when I think my horses need a bit extra.
Click to expand...
you have not met my mare then :). On a mag free diet
 
Dave's Mam said:
@I'm Dun put me on to a site Soil Observatory, where you can look at the elements in the soil in your area.
It works for me, as all our hay is made on site & our area is in an area on the map that has a real dip in Mg content, so I feed MgO & it has made a difference.
http://ukso.org/
Click to expand...

This is really interesting - where my horses are is 50 percentile for Mg but 10 percentile for Potassium. Mine are on a broad-spectrum balancer (Oxydane) and I usually up the Mg in spring but maybe I need to balance that with K - any thoughts?
 
j1ffy said:
This is really interesting - where my horses are is 50 percentile for Mg but 10 percentile for Potassium. Mine are on a broad-spectrum balancer (Oxydane) and I usually up the Mg in spring but maybe I need to balance that with K - any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Unlikely. Hay and grass tends to be high in potassium and it’s really needed to add, unless heavily sweating.
 
j1ffy said:
This is really interesting - where my horses are is 50 percentile for Mg but 10 percentile for Potassium. Mine are on a broad-spectrum balancer (Oxydane) and I usually up the Mg in spring but maybe I need to balance that with K - any thoughts?
Click to expand...

My area is 0.47% for magnesium, so pretty low. I dont think your soil can be 50% magnesium?
 
Dave's Mam said:
@I'm Dun put me on to a site Soil Observatory, where you can look at the elements in the soil in your area.
It works for me, as all our hay is made on site & our area is in an area on the map that has a real dip in Mg content, so I feed MgO & it has made a difference.
http://ukso.org/
Click to expand...

I think I am being thick. I have found the magnesium page. There is a lot of red. Where is the key to the colours? Where do I find the percentages? Thanks
 
Dave's Mam said:
View attachment 92135

Where my dodgy arrow is shows where you can get the key up.
Where I have dropped an arrow is where my yard / grazing is. As you can see there's a lot of variation in a smallish area.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
I live in a red area. Does this mean I don’t or do need to add magnesium?
Guess who didn’t understand chemistry at school?
 
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