Simple systems feeds and anemia

[Ahrena]

I'm wondering if anyone has noticed a correlation with this?

I'm just wondering as going to have bloods done to test (one of many things!) after my disastrous attempt at a novice at nunney yesterday, as two horses at my work (where I keep him) are on red cell after being diagnosed with it. All the horses on the yard are fed simple systems.

I'm just wondering (no idea how common it is) as at my old job we had 50 horses, none were on supplements for it, but 2 (pos 3) out of 20 are on supplements for it here, so I'm wondering if perhaps the feed just isn't giving them everything they need? They are also all on instant linseed and a feed balancer.

Just wondering on other people's thoughts as I've never has a problem with it before

 

[Oberon]

Dietary anaemia is usually caused by a lack of copper.

Copper is often low in the forage.

Depends what you are feeding from SS but their Total Eclipse is linseed, brewer's yeast and seaweed - unless you need more iodine in the diet....the seaweed is a little redundant .

 

[Erin]

Echo Oberon.

I would not be supplementing Iron unless you have a blood test confirming the horses as low in Iron (very rare in horses)
Excess Iron when you are already low in Copper can cause a whole other set of problems.

 

[hoggedmane]

Most horses in my yard are fed SS and all look and go extremely well on it. I emailed the company when I changed my 21year old shire x tb on to it and they recommended what to feed including Total Eclipse. She also gets biotin and devils claw supplements. She has never looked or felt so well. The horses on our yard on it do a range of activities from eventing dressage, sponsored rides, hunter trials etc and none that I know of have anaemia.

 

[Ahrena]

Ok perhaps I'm confused i thought anemia was iron deficiency. Both those horses were diagnosed as anemic via blood tests and are now on red cell.

(wasn't planning on starting a supplement of any kind unless bloods show he needs somthing)

So if forage is low in copper, and as far as i understand (please correct m if wrong) ss feeds are made up of types of grass (to a point, going off the 'red bag grass pellets' ect) and the general supplements the horses get aRe instant linseed and total eclipse, that could be the reason for the anemia?

Eta: I'm on a professional eventing yard sponsored by ss by the way, I'm not criticising, I just noticed this and wondered if that could be the reason

I may be confused :s

 

[Erin]

Anemia is is a decrease in number of red blood cells, or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood.

Horses only get iron deficiency anemia when they lose a lot of blood. Iron overload, however, can cause anemia in horses as it blocks the uptake of copper.
I suspect if you get your vet to test for Iron levels in the blood they will come back high.

The SS feeds make a very good base for a diet (because they are essentially forage), but their supplements won't have enough copper and zinc to combat the typical UK high iron, low Copper + zinc forage (this includes the hay/haylage & grass the horses eat aswell)

So say your current batch of hay is higher then average in Iron and you're not supplementing any extra copper then the horses can become anemic.
The SS feeds on their own won't have caused this, most likely a combination of circumstances.
(My mare has been suffering from high liver enzymes, initially caused by her eating something toxic, but prolonged by a batch of hay that was very high in iron, she is now on different hay, fed adequate amounts of copper & zinc and getting better)

I would recommend getting you hay/grazing tested (forage plus have the fastest turn around time and will be able offer you very good advise) stop the red cell, and get them on a good vit & min supplement (Equimins Metabalance, Pro Hoof or Pro Balance, or the Forage Plus balancers) and check anything else your feeding for iron levels.

 

[alsiola]

Red blood cell values need extremely careful interpretation in horses. A lot of the "normal" values are from TBs in a good amount of work, that will have much higher % red blood cells than the average horse. A lot of "anaemia" in horses is simply misinterpretation of results in my experience.

In a truly anaemic horse there are a multitude of causes. The most common by a long way is anaemia of chronic disease - this is a non-specific anaemia that occurs in horses whenever there an ongoing inflammatory process. The only way to deal with this is to deal with the underlying disease. Iron deficiency can occur in horses, but accounts for <1% of anaemia seen so feeding an iron supplement is illogical and can be harmful (reduction in copper absorption mentioned above, as well as the fact that iron is a pro-inflammatory substance). It is not possible to diagnose iron-deficiency anaemia without fairly exhaustive tests to rule out any ongoing systemic inflammatory disease, non-obvious blood loss (e.g. into peritoneum) and failure of production in the bone marrow (via bone marrow biopsy).