Vitamin e supplement needed please!

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Mynstrel

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I have lots of questions I’m hoping for answers for!

Can anybody recommend somewhere we can get a good vitamin E supplement for a horse being treated for suspected EMND? Our vet has said we need to provide an additional 4000iu on top of what’s in his daily feed ration but we’re struggling to find a supplement that just has the vitamin in it and nothing else.

As the only thing I can find that’s just vitamin E, I have been looking at human capsules for him, does anybody else use these and has anybody found any differences in results from using the natural or synthetic version of the vitamin?

Also, if you do use the capsules, where do you get them from – and do you use normal or vegecaps?

Finally, how do you put capsules into a feed - whole, chopped up, melted or by squeezing the middle out?

Thanks in advance for any replies :)
 
I use the Holland and Barrett capsules. I just lob one in with his feed and it disappears. The ones I use are 1,000 iu.

You can also buy Vitamin E powder (I think ProEarth on eBay do it?). I think I worked out the capsules were cheaper for me, because H&B had a special offer on at the time. They're certainly easy to work with.

ETA: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VITAMIN-E...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item3f24bfed25

vs

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=902&prodid=621

The Holland and Barrett ones were half price when I got them.
 
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Here's a "comparative review of vitamin E and associated equine disorders" C J Finno and SJ Valberg: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...ionid=3BD151E0B2162DB9FFF080516684139B.d04t04

From this it seems that D-alpha tocopherol (ie the natural one) is still the favoured one.

I buy vitamin E caps from Holland & Barrett too. I've heard some people buy from ebay, but I prefer to stick to a well known brand in the hope that quality control will be high. I feed the 1,000IU caps to a horse with muscle disease. I used to feed them whole, but I'd discover some discarded on the yard, so now I cut the end off a cap, squeeze the contents onto the feed and then cut the cap in two and pop that in the feed as well. Haven't seen anything discarded since doing that.

I don't know much about EMND, but isn't it found mostly in those that aren't given access to grass? Is that the case with the horse you mention? Just thinking that this time of year, if there's no good reason to keep a horse away from grass, then presumably they should get plenty of vit E from the grazing? Some balancers only add vitamin E in their winter balancer because of this.

Hope the horse improves.

Sarah
 
I have used the KER Nano-E, a liquid Vit E supplement in a pump-action bottle from Saracens, really really good but also really expensive, I switched a few months ago to the powdered Vit E in a silica base from ForagePlus and not noticed any difference, and it's more cost-effective.
 
Thanks for all the responses.

ENMD is Equine Motor Neuron Disease, we think it's been the last summer and winter being so bad that's triggered it as they didn't get the turnout they usually do and he's obviously got the genetic makeup to make him susceptible to it. We've been in touch with the physio we use and she said it's the second case in one of her clients this year and she's never come across it before so she thinks the bad summers and winters have triggered a lot of problems as she's had a lot more oddly broken horses recently than she does through normal winters.

It's not nice to see but the vet seemed hopeful he'd respond to the treatment so it's just a case of getting him on all the right stuff! He is getting the grazing now although he's coming in to chill out and catch up on his kip at night but the vet has specified a large dose of vitamin E daily in addition to his grazing which is why I'm looking for supplements

Hen - that's good to know, I had read that natural was beter but I'd seen the powder you're mentioning too and it's good to know you've tired both and not seen a difference, that could make a difference to the budget if they both do the job.

I'll have a look at all the suggestions & see which one might be best for him, thanks
 
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Hen said:
I switched a few months ago to the powdered Vit E in a silica base from ForagePlus and not noticed any difference, and it's more cost-effective.
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That's the same one that Progressive Earth on Ebay do.

I use both suppliers regularly as they have the same forms of straight minerals and vitamins but for some reason one is cheaper for some things and one for others.

Forageplus can work out expensive for postage for small items but if you buy enough, you qualify for free postage. Progressive Earth have more reasonable postage if you are buying just one thing but if you are buying more it gets expensive and you never move on to free postage.

Just looked at the Gold Label one which looked really good value till I realised it also contained Lysine (which is much cheaper) as well as Selenium.
 
Just looked at the Gold Label one which looked really good value till I realised it also contained Lysine (which is much cheaper) as well as Selenium.
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Life starts to seem very complicated when they break and bog standard stuff can't fix them doesn't it? I think I've found out more about vitamin e in the last few days than I ever though I'd need to!
 
Hello,

I use the Vitamin E oil from equimins - you have to call them and ask nicely for their insulin resistance line it is natural source vitamin E. 6ml/day is 5000iu. it can gte a bit messy so I just decant mine into a tupperware box and just syringe out the necessary amount so no mess!

Alternatively there is Forgae plus who do a powdered version but I am not sure if this is natural or synthetic source vit E.

Hope this helps :)
 
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