Whole blood selenium testing - where please?

flintfootfilly

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Having relied on whole blood glutathione peroxidase testing for my gang previously, as an indicator of selenium, I'd like to have the actual selenium tested in whole blood for one of the ponies. Reason being ongoing muscle problems, and I understand the reference range for whole blood selenium is better established for horses than the glutathione peroxidase reference range is.

We usually go via Idexx for bloods (and have sometimes asked them to send bloods on to another lab if other tests were needed that they didn't offer), but I just wondered whether anyone on here could recommend a particular lab, or somewhere with a particular interest in selenium levels in horses.

Thank you.

Sarah
 

Fintan

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The savest or easiest option would be a hair mineral analyses.

A selenium test in the blood will cost about 50 Pound I believe.

If you do a hair mineral analyses this will cost you about 80 Pounds but with this you will get every thing.

The benefit is, these elements in the bloood are only a picture of the moment. So they will be higher a couple of hours after feeding a balancer or mixed feed and then the value will reduce. This is because of the uptake from the feed in the gut. Once when it is in the blood it has to be send to the "storage" and once when it is there it is not longer in the blood or at least not in the amount it was.

The hair mineral thing will give you an average picture from the last 2 months, far more precise then the blood test.

This type of analyses is also used and legal as a drug test.

As long it is done by a proper lab.
 

Rosie111

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Sarah,

I too am having a problem with getting accurate selenium results done from bloods on my mare who has suspected selenium toxicity. Her glutathione test came back as 114, but all the lab says is that it is above the lower limit of 15 and they could not give what the safe upper limit is. So my vet could not say if my mares results were high or not. She then had the blood test for elemental selenium which came back as normal. However the blood sample was taken a few days after I had taken my mare off her grazing (my mare is usually out 24/7) as a precaution as the source of selenium could only be her grazing. My vet thinks that as this test came back normal, selenium is not the problem. However my mares mane and tail is falling out and my vet has no idea what the cause is, as all the usual causes have already been ruled out. So I too have looked into getting mineral hair analysis done. Did you get the hair analysis done and if so which company did you use please?

I have found a couple of companies online offering the equine hair analysis, but they appear to be one man band outfits and therefore I am concerned about the accuracies of the labs they may use.

If anyone has any experience of hair analysis, it would be great to hear your views as I seem to be in no mans land at the moment with my poor and lovely mare.

Thank you

Rosie
 
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