Vitamin E Deficiency in Horses

[cowgirl16]

Does anyone have experience of this? What were the symptoms? I've just been advised (by a chiropractor) to have my horse blood tested to check for vit E deficiency before commencing treatment. Contacted Vet, and awaiting his response.

 

[ycbm]

I had one who was PSSM 2 we suspect, who went full on ataxic in the second half of winter when they don't get enough in fresh green stuff.

I have another now, and a friend has one the same, who are difficult to keep weight on in the second half of the winter without it. I believe there are many like this who could do with supplementing in the winter.
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[planete]

Following extreme lethargy, wobbly hindquarters and atrocious temper I put Woody on a vitamin E supplement. He still gets 2000 iu of natural vitamin E a day and I will increase it to over 3000 this coming Winter as 3000 was not enough last Winter. He tested negative for PSSM1 and the improvement I have seen is amazing, he is now normal, friendly and calm. I tried taking him off it and the symptoms started again. Just to be safe he spent two days at Donninton equine hospital having loss of performance tests, neurological exams and was scoped and ECG'd. All negative. I will not be doing any further investigations unless something changes. I am reluctant to say he has PSSM2 and am sceptical of the science surrounding it but will definitely go with a deficiency from what I am seeing.

 

[MissTyc]

I had one who just tripped over his front feet a lot, even going to his knees once or twice during schooling sessions. Tried to "fix" via months of balance work, strengthening, schooling, and then vet recommend vit E supplement. Different horse within weeks! No more tripping.

 

[SEL]

I'm forever recommending people try supplementing it before they head down the route of NQR vet investigations. Friends PRE had a tonne of non specific issues which all vanished after a month (he's on it all year) & another had a young cob negative for PSSM 1 who was nappy and grumpy - changed completely on it.

Both of those were on restricted grass due to their weight and a decent balancer but I think a lot of horses need more than the RDA

 

[Tiddlypom]

I'm another who simply tried supplementing my mare with extra vit E, in her case as a last ditch attempt to sort out her extreme grumpiness. I didn't hold out much, if any, hope of improvement, and was at the point of returning her to her breeder.

Massive improvement within 48 hours, and I had a happy horse at last. That was 5 years ago, and she remains on the extra vit E all year round. She will relapse if I run out, so I don't!

Tested - ve for PSSM1.

 

[lynz88]

Mine needs vit e supplementing. He loses weight, muscle/becomes weak and looks very poorly, not holding himself, etc.. He will disconnect from the world and just looks very unhappy. Put him on vit e and totally different horse within 2 weeks. He is EPM positive and did suffer from it about 8 or so years ago and they recommend keeping neuro (especially EPM) horses on higher levels of vit e in general. I've now had him off vit e supplementation twice - once in the spring and by the summer he was very poorly. I then made a feed change and took him off the vit e but again, went very poorly. So will have to keep him on year round.

Another person at my yard had some strange stuff going on with her horse. My YO told her to speak with me about vit e as her horse was displaying some odd signs which correlated to what mine was doing before vit e supplementation. Spoke with her and advised on which vit e supplement. Put her horse on the same. 2 weeks later she came to me and said she has her horse back and thanked me.

 

[JGC]

Ooh, interesting! I've just had the vet out because my horse had a shivering thing one morning when it was 16 degrees. Other low-level issues are sometimes a cramped muscle behind the saddle when it's been raining hard (x-rayed, not KS) and tripping occasionally and foot abcesses (tested for Cushings/EMS), dramatic seasons. We're doing the test for PSSM-1, but it's all so low level and generally she goes fantastically well, so am a bit on the fence about testing for PSSM-2 (me and the vet). Going to try the vitamin E supplements first now I've seen this thread for a couple of weeks first.

 

[Birker2020]

Where do you get Vitamin E from, any particular make or any particular dosage please? Desperate to try anything with mine at the moment. He's on Acid Ease so should he take any additional supplement at the opposite end of the day to him having the Acid Ease to prevent an issue with absorption?

 

[cowgirl16]

Vet came and took bloods this morning. Fingers very tightly crossed that he's showing a deficiency and we can get him right. Not counting any chickens yet though!

 

[lynz88]

I get my Vit E from Forage Plus. I get the 1kg natural as you feed less of it than the synthetic (synthetic is only 50% bioavalable to the horse so if going the synthetic route you need to feed double). I personally worked out the approx vit e mine gets on a daily basis from his general feed and supplement the rest - I have found aiming for around a total of 10,000 IU per day works well for my horse so tend to supplement with approx 6,000-8,000 IU though I will drop this off after a few months if I can to see how far I can stretch it without detrimental effects. Be aware that vit e is gained through green grass so if you have this in the summer, I would back off the supplement a bit but then bump it up during the winter months. It may just take playing around and see what works for your horse.

I will say that bloods don't always paint a true picture either. The horse I mentioned showed low-ish levels of vit e but shouldn't have been showing clinical signs of vit e deficiency. The owner decided to supplement regardless and she got her happy horse back.

 

[humblepie]

I put mine on the Forageplus one. He didn‘t like the taste so took quite a while to get him to eat the recommended amount. He’d lost quite a bit of condition and it was suggested. Have taken off now as more grass but will put back on in the winter.

 

[cowgirl16]

Thank you lynz88, I'll certainly bear that in mind.

 

[Hackback]

My Arab has always been what the vet termed 'a summer horse' - fit and healthy when on nice grazing and losing condition and getting ailments in winter. I tried him on the forage plus Vit E following some pseudo tying up episodes - typical symptoms but no raised enzymes. The supplement made no difference so I abandoned it. Fast forward a few years and he developed a horrible mud fever which wouldnt clear up. The bacteria causing it were identified and targeted with specific antibiotics and a steroid but it wouldn't shift for about 7 months.

Desperately googling to find some way of boosting his immune system I came across some research on vitamin E. This time I got him the water soluble type (Nano E) and the improvement was drastic and permanent. The mud fever cleared up, but the other amazing thing was that his overall condition improved and he no longer loses condition in winter. The change has truly been remarkable. I've had him on it for several years now, he gets double the dose winter to summer.

 

[AdorableAlice]

Where do you get Vitamin E from, any particular make or any particular dosage please? Desperate to try anything with mine at the moment. He's on Acid Ease so should he take any additional supplement at the opposite end of the day to him having the Acid Ease to prevent an issue with absorption?

Progressive Earth, Natural Vit E, don't bother with the synthetic.

My gas colic mare transformed from half dead to very alive within days of being on it. She had/has very restrictive grazing due to incessant gas episodes. Before the Vit E, she stood camped out all the times, her back was like a hammock, no top line and a total disinterest in life. She had every test going during her never ending visits to hospital. They termed her a 'repeat offender' and I was destitute.

I can't feed her concentrate at optimum levels for nutrients as she would pile weight on so I use Progressive Earth Pro Balancer and Vit E mixed in with her rather tiny meals, along with weighed hay and no grazing. Touching wood, she looks fantastic, top is back on, she stands up at all times and she is back to her normal forward going sassy self. The lack of grazing and allowing normal behaviour concerns me but when the grass is flushing and the sun is out I just cannot risk her. She will go out in winter again.

 

[lynz88]

it's so heartbreaking to see them when they are disinterested in life. It absolutely broke my heart when mine was that way (before finding that a lack of vit e was the reason). I remember one particular day just holding him in my arms asking if he wanted to call it quits on life . Turns out he didn't - he was just lacking some vits!

 

[Tiddlypom]

My gas colic mare transformed from half dead to very alive within days of being on it. She had/has very restrictive grazing due to incessant gas episodes

AA, I'm so pleased that she's doing better.

I wish I knew what I know now about vit E back when I had your mare's doppelgänger, the late maxicob. I lost him aged 8yo in 2015, he was subject to repeat colics too. If only I could turn back time, I'd have so many more options now to try with him.

He was under vet care, too. No one could explain the repeat colics.