My horse came up anemic after blood work. We ran a blood chemistry next, which didn’t reveal any issues. What does this mean and what can I give him to address this situation? Do I need to address it?
True anemia in horses is rare; I suspect a copper deficiency rather than an iron deficiency. Supplement with copper as found in several preparations or use the old trick of a handful of dried molasses every other day
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Food for thought…"Severe iron overload will actually mimic anemia, and thus make it look like a horse needs more iron. Feeding more iron will thus just worsen the issue. "
You need to get special blood work done to get proper iron levels.
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Was the horse worked prior to the blood draw? If not, any “anemic” reading is useless, unless is was so low as to be :eek: Extra RBCs are stored in the spleen, released when work requires them. Exercise causes them to be released into circulation.
What was the original reason for the blood draw?
sk is right - true anemia in horses is almost unheard of - rarer than rare. That’s because their forage provides pretty much all they need. Iron overload is a much bigger issue.
High iron forages, combined with added iron in almost every feed and v/m, makes for a copper and zinc deficiency in a lot of horses, and that can be the cause of what shows up as anemia. The answer is more Cu and Zn, NOT more Fe. Adding MORE Fe can too easily cause real anemia.
So, if the “anemia” is mild, assume he isn’t, and he is fine. You could do a ferritin test, but I don’t think it’s cheap, and I think there’s only 1 place in the US that does it, and unless there’s a really good reason to really dig into his iron stores, not likely worth it.
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We drew the blood as part of a soreness evaluation. He has foot soreness in front (he’s a QH) that often throws the rest of his body out of whack. He also has SI and Lumbar issues which were injected. He is sound but he is often cranky about work, tossing his head and not wanting to pick up the canter (both leads) . He does not have Lyme, but we were just wondering if anything else was going on. He is on very sandy soil if that has anything to do with iron or copper levels I don’t know.
Foot soreness, with all the other issues, says chronic low grade laminitis to me.
What’s his entire diet? I would absolutely start treating him as an IR horse, and ask your vet about doing the glucose challenge test.
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This article lists a lot of possible causes of anemia in horses. What I found interesting was the mention of Cushing’s as a possible cause. When my gelding developed laminitis several years ago, we ran bloodwork and tested for Cushing’s and IR (ACTH test and leptin/glucose). Everything came back normal except that he was slightly anemic, which my vet attributed to “anemia of chronic inflammation” which I took to be associated with the laminitis. His ACTH levels were normal so we did not start him on Prascend at the time because he really didn’t have any other symptoms.
The following fall we re-tested and the ACTH numbers came back high, so he’s been on Prascend ever since.
Anyways, something to consider with foot soreness.
http://forageplustalk.co.uk/causes-of-equine-anaemia-in-horses/
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High iron levels in a horse can contribute to laminitis issues.
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Maybe it’s navicular making him sore on front feet. Have you had xrays done? How old is your horse?
That article was very interesting, thank you for posting newhorsemommy.
When my horse got lyme the blood test showed mild anemia as well. We caught the lyme right away and treated it, it was interesting to read that lyme or chronic inflammation of any kind can cause anemia. The horse is also being treated for an old injury which might have caused some inflammation. I have been giving my horse a B complex vitamin ever since.
Besides what is in the article I read that eating ferns can cause anemia. I had some growing under my fences so made sure I pulled them all up.
Our well water has minerals in it. It was tested and safe for us to use but we put an elaborate filter system on it because it left orange stains in the toilets, etc. The barn water does not go through that, I am going to have to change that after reading the article.
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