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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 808
 
| I have tried finding a supplement that is strictly for horses with a copper deficiency (sent hair sample in) he is high in iron, low in copper. From what I've read is that too much iron can inhibit a horse from absorbing copper? So looking for one that has little to no iron.
Has anyone else had this issue before? All my other horses came back with pretty normal levels of everything. |
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  Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
  
Location: NE Texas | Is your horse having any particular issue or did you just have hair sent in and the imbalance is what the test showed? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 808
| He was sun bleaching really bad, even in winter. Even when I was feeding him black as knight. His mane was kind of frizzy and somebody mentioned that sun bleaching and frizzy hair can be a copper issue. If he was just a barrel horse I wouldn't care but he's my show horse and it's embarrassing having to dye my horse and chalk him to return him to his black color.
And for those wondering, he is a true black that's been color tested.
Edited by The1CowgirlsEnvy 2016-02-02 2:05 PM
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | This is common in our area. I haven't been able to find a supplement for horses only but I've had good luck with ranchway's loose mineral 12-12 with copper |
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 Expert
Posts: 2258
| I have not had just a copper supplement but what I do is start feeding something like TC 30%, LMF supper supplement, Tribute Essencial K they are about 200 ppm copper and you only feed a pound or so. I just make sure I adjust what they are already eating so I don't get them out of balance or I just feed the supplement. I had a mare doing the same thing last summer and I put her on Animal Element detox and in 10 days she was back to her normal color all the brown fuzzy came off. She is not on Curost and looks amazing.
Edited by cutnrunqhmt 2016-02-02 2:24 PM
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | The1CowgirlsEnvy - 2016-02-02 1:04 PM He was sun bleaching really bad, even in winter. Even when I was feeding him black as knight. His mane was kind of frizzy and somebody mentioned that sun bleaching and frizzy hair can be a copper issue. If he was just a barrel horse I wouldn't care but he's my show horse and it's embarrassing having to dye my horse and chalk him to return him to his black color. And for those wondering, he is a true black that's been color tested.
I don't know if we have a deficiency of copper in our area, but my father in law has sheep so we can't put out any mineral that contains copper as it can be toxic to sheep. I feed my show horse THE Equine Edge. It has all the vitamins, minerals etc that they need. I would be more than happy to send you pictures of him. I live on a ranch so keeping a show horse in perfect condition is tricky. Besides elbow grease and THE, he is blanketed in the summer with a kensington protective sheet to keep the UV rays off of him. He looks like a million bucks and gets more natural exercise than most show horses that are kept stalled. His diet is pasture grass and free choice grass hay if he is locked in. I took him off of processed grains and give him alfalfa and beet pellets soaked. This is really working for us. |
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Blessed 
Location: Here | www.cuhorse.com
and let your horse absorb what he needs from the fabric  |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 871
Location: Bama | If you're wanting to add copper
http://www.bigdweb.com/Poly-Copper-1lb/productinfo/11802/
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 808
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Thank you, this is exactly the type of thing I was looking for!
He's on THE and covered in a UV sheet, I even had the neck guard but it started rubbing his mane out. He's also got the UV boots and so everything that was covered up was black but his knees and hocks were brown lol
I'm not sure the copper deficiency is even effecting him health wise but to not have to spend an extra 4 hours dying him would be great!
Thanks guys! I'd post pictures but I'm on a phone and haven't figured out how to attach them. |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | The1CowgirlsEnvy - 2016-02-03 6:30 AM Thank you, this is exactly the type of thing I was looking for! He's on THE and covered in a UV sheet, I even had the neck guard but it started rubbing his mane out. He's also got the UV boots and so everything that was covered up was black but his knees and hocks were brown lol I'm not sure the copper deficiency is even effecting him health wise but to not have to spend an extra 4 hours dying him would be great! Thanks guys! I'd post pictures but I'm on a phone and haven't figured out how to attach them.
that is strange that his hocks and knees lighten. Let us know if this fixes it :) |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 808
| those were lightning up because that's where he was getting sun bleached. His UV sheet protected everything else.
I just wanted to update that I put him on the polycopper. I *think* it is working as the last bits of his winter coat are blowing out and the hair under is a nice dark black. I haven't had him sheeted because his neighbor ripper his sheet so I haven't gotten a new one yet.
I plan on pulling hair at the end of this month and having it tested to see how his levels are. Thanks again for all your help!
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| Please update us when you get your results in. I find this interesting. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | I am wondering why the horse would be copper deficient? Most every fortified horse feed has copper added to it and even then that is often times not necessary with a good unfortified diet. This question seems especially important when the other horses are not deficient and probably on the same feed program? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 808
| Tdove - 2016-04-18 12:49 PM
I am wondering why the horse would be copper deficient? Most every fortified horse feed has copper added to it and even then that is often times not necessary with a good unfortified diet. This question seems especially important when the other horses are not deficient and probably on the same feed program?
The vet as well as what little research I could find on the web is that a horse with high levels of iron cannot properly absorb copper. Something about iron blocks the ability to do so.
Now remember he is a show horse. When he was a weanling and yearling he was being fitted and shown in halter. They had him on a lot of things, and my vet thinks they probably had him on an iron supplement such as red cell, which is probably what led to the huge imbalance. My other horses don't have it because ones a barrel horse and the other is my retired old pasture pet that stay at home with me.
This colt is now 4 and has been home for the last two years. Last year I noticed I couldn't really get him to "bloom" without chemical help (frizzy mane and major sunbleaching). This is what caused me to become concerned and look it up. Found that these symptoms were common among copper deficient horses. So I decided to pull hair and while I was at it decided to do the others as well, because it's just money right? Lol
Physically this colt is on top of his game, he's placed in the top 5 of every class I've entered him in and just gets better and better the more he's worked. The only issue was that cosmetically he wasn't right.
Will post what his new hair sample stats are when we get it done. |
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 Did I miss the party?
Posts: 3864
| SG. - 2016-02-02 4:08 PM www.cuhorse.com and let your horse absorb what he needs from the fabric
Agree.
And Uckele sells a copper supplement. |
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