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 Expert
Posts: 1857
   
| We recently purchased a new place and moved about 4 months ago. Last month I noticed that one of our mares was loosing her tail, from the underneath and appeared to just be broken off. I thought maybe it was another horse doing it. It did not show signs of being rubbed out at all. Then I started noticing her mane was falling out, from the underneath. Power packed her and covered her with Permectrin CDS.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago and now a geldings tail is doing the same exact thing. Breaking off from the underneath. Gave him the same treatment but it's still getting thinner. I haven't noticed any cracks in their hooves. I pulled everything off the pasture and everything is on dry lot now.
From google, I have read that these symptoms can be from; worms, no-see-ums(flies), or selenium toxicity.
I have the tested results from our well and it doesn't show that there is that much selenium. This test was done about 5 years ago, so not sure if levels can change that fast. We have 7 springs on our property and I wonder if the water from the springs can have different levels than the water in our well?
Has anyone had issues with selenium? Does this sound like it could be the issue?
We live in western Colorado. I am going to work on getting the water & soil tested but in the mean time does anyone know of anything that I can feed that, if it is selenium, will counteract it, and it if it isn't, won't hurt them?
Edited by FlyingJT 2017-08-10 1:11 PM
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Meanest Teacher!!!
Posts: 8555
 
Location: sunny california | get hay form an area that is deficient in selenium. no grain they always add vitamins and minerals which do include it also. |
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Meanest Teacher!!!
Posts: 8555
Location: sunny california | your state is loaded with it
https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geochem/doc/averages/se/usa.html
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | Agree with the levels of selenium...  |
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Expert
Posts: 1857
| I do too, is there anything that can be fed to lower the levels? I read Sulfur, which means I can feed MSM but can I give them a sulfur block, like you would cattle? Also copper, but what supplements are there for copper?
Edited by FlyingJT 2017-08-10 5:01 PM
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Before I would jump to selenium toxicity I would have the hay and grass tested for selenium |
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
Location: OH. IO | I would have a serum and whole blood test done on the horse as you may get the results much faster.i would still test the forage but I would test the horse and get results asap. |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | Where I live you never know...one area is selenium rich and another area selenium poor. You can have you ground tested, your hay tested, and your horse tested if you are worried. And always read the labels on mineral/salt blocks/loose minerals along with grain, pelleted feed and supplements |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| You might PM Rocking AS - they went through this in the not too distant past with selenium issues .... She might be willing to share how they diagnosed and what they did to mitigate it. |
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