[RC] selenium, ultium and a Sweeny question - Marlene Moss
Ok,
we live in SE Colorado and buy our hay from Westcliffe, which is one of the
areas listed with high selenium content. Because of that, I haven’t
worried too much about getting extra selenium in our endurance horses diets.
One
of our boarders has a big paint that she has been training for reining.
He isn’t interested in doing reining. He can put on a grand show of
expending energy loose in the arena, but he looks very resentful of being asked
to work when ridden. So his owner talked to Purina and put him on
Ultium. They recommended 12 pounds a day, at least she kept it to between
6 and 8. I don’t know how much selenium this would have added.
Then
she showed up one day with another supplement. I don’t know what it
was because I wasn’t feeding it – she was adding it to his treat
mixture when she came out each day. Then she mentioned that it had
vitamin E and selenium. I told her that she needed to be careful adding
extra selenium since get our hay from a selenium rich area.
I
had an online friend that nearly lost her horse due to a selenium overdose –
he lost his mane and tail and sloughed his hooves. He lived on the
western slope of Colorado (about 100 miles from where Carla lives).
I
told this lady that if she wants to add more selenium that she needs to get
bloodwork done first because it makes me nervous. She didn’t do
that, but quit adding the extra supplement. Then one day he basically
attacked her, he’d been getting pretty hyper whenever she even lead him
and this was pretty bad so she called Purina again and has taken him off the
Ultium. He’d been on it for about 7-8 months and this was just 2
weeks ago.
Ok,
long story – now longer! This horse suddenly “lost” a
shoulder muscle a couple months ago. It just melted away. It’s
not the muscle usually associated with Sweeney, but it’s the same
behavior. This is supposed to be caused by nerve damage from a kick or
some kind of impact. A few weeks before this became apparent, the horse
had a liver infection. She had taken him to her property for a while and
thinks a neighbor did something to him. Her husband was injecting him
with penicillin and one location they used was the shoulder. That
bothered me and I kept thinking it might have been the cause of the muscle
damage.
I
don’t really know all the impacts there could be from a selenium overdose
– anyone heard of selenium causing anything like muscle damage in a
specific location? Sounds kind of wild, but I just get nervous when
people feed such huge amounts of “non natural” products.
Sorry
for such a long note – there’s probably no relationship with any of
this, but thought I’d toss it out there in case anyone had any comments!
