Too much oil??

[junior_7178]

Is itpossible to give a horse too much oil?

A few months ago my 8 year old Gelding lost his "Shine" due to a lack of turn out i belive amongst other things.

I started adding 2/3 pumps of Soya oil to his Am and Pm feed.He has one scoop of sugar beet,one scoop of conditioning cubes and one scoop of AlfaA.

He is now going out again every day and generaly very happy in himself and has got his shine back more than ever....im not sure how much is down to the feed and how much is down to him getting turned out again every day.

Also this month the feed merchant didnt have any normal alfaA in stock so i bought the one with Soya oil in it instead.It occurred to me today that i hadnt thought about him getting too much oil in his diet now?

Do i need to worry about it or can i just carry on how i am? When the sack of AlfaA WITH oil has run out he'll be back on normal AlfaA with the oil added out of the bottle on its own.

Thanks HHO

 

[hellybelly6]

Reduce the amount of supplemented oil and see how he is then. I have heard that when feeding oil, increase vitamin E as the oil depletes this vitamin.

 

[eoe]

Be careful too much oil can make the feed pass throught the intestines too quickly without the nutrients being absorbed and thus the feed you are giving is of no value too your horse, we had a livery a few years ago who gave her pony too much oil and it rapidly lost weight and we couldn't understand why until I watched her make her feed up and she gave him nearly a teacup full of oil, once I stopped her giving him the oil, he soon gained his weight, we then showed her how much to give him and hey presto one happy, up too weight pony.

 

[Ali2]

2-3 pumps is only 60 - 90 ml so nowhere near the recommended maximum (if feeding for energy) so I wouldn't worry but if he doensn't need the calories then I'd reduce it.

 

[TGM]

Alfa A Oil is supplemented with Vitamin E anyway, so you don't have to worry about that aspect. The only problem you might have, as someone else pointed out, that if your horse is a good-doer then he might put on weight, as oil is very dense in calories. If you are feeding oil just for coat shine, then you could save money by dropping the soya oil whilst you are on Alfa A Oil, then resuming it when you go back to normal Alfa A Oil. However, if you choose to feed both then it won't harm him at all.

I feed 400ml of oil a day to my 16hh veteran mare, which really helps keep her weight on and gives her a lovely shine too!

 

[UKa]

For some horses (with EPSM related conditions - won't go into detail about these now...) a diet based on high quantities of oil is beneficial so don't think it harms but you need to supplement with Vitamin E as someone has said