Vitamin E

[Carrottom]

A couple of recent threads have put links to Dr David Ramey's website so after reading the relevant articles I had a look around. He has written a piece on vitamin E basically saying it is unnecessary to supplement it most horses provided they eat grass for 6 months of the year as they can store enough in their fat cells. I have previously read that horses living mainly on hay in the winter benefit from added vit E, any comments?

 

[paddy555]

I have a PSSM horse and am therefore well aware of vit E deficiency. Entirely up to people what they do or believe. My horses get vit E supplented all year round but especially in winter. Steph Valberg of MSU wrote some interesting pieces on VED ie vit E deficiency.

 

[SEL]

^^^ what Paddy said

Vitamin E deficiency can present as a myopathy. I'd be interested to know how vitamin E in grass was affected by last year's prolonged drought.

 

[ycbm]

The article:

https://www.doctorramey.com/vitamin-e/

One of my horses got solid bum muscles if not fed high levels of vitamin E and alcar, which strongly suggested PSSM, and another got solid bum muscles unless given vitamin E supplementation. Both horses needed much more in winter. Both had access to grass all year around.

I have a gut feel it's likely that there are more horses which need vitamin E supplementation, particularly those with heavy horse blood, than we realise.

I didn't realise there was a blood test for vitamin E levels. But I do wonder if normal levels in blood necessarily mean that the horse doesn't need supplementing?

 

[Carrottom]

Thanks everyone for your replies, I will try to find some more research.

 

[SEL]

I've asked a couple of vets about blood testing for vitamin E - i supplement 2 with it so if I'm wasting money I'd like to know!

It doesn't seem to be a common test in the UK. One of the vets told me blood serum levels aren't meaningful - but I can't really back up that statement. I do wonder whether they don't test because it isn't something the regular in-house labs do / isn't cost effective to do.

 

[PapaverFollis]

My vet also told me that blood serum levels aren't necessarily meaningful. I think it's because it's fat soluble? Maybe?