Hitting from a different direction, has horse had a Selenium test? This is a separate test from a blood panel. We have purchased two horses from Eastern States with extremely low Selenium levels.
We owned one who came up NQR as we were preparing her for a competition. Nothing we did made a difference. Not lame but off. Vet thought to test for Selenium as a distant cause, not really expecting to find anything because we WERE giving her Selenium! Test showed her terribly low, enough that Vet made a special trip out to give her Selenium shots before she keeled over!
Then he educated us about Selenium and how it worked in the body. How lack of enough Selenium caused all sorts of problems! Our horse was not getting enough Selenium and Vit E to absorb the Selenium. She was in a pretty intensive conditioning program for distance fitness, sweating off her Selenium. Her muscles and reproductive system were not functioning as needed from lack of Selenium. Two fingers run along side her spine would almost put her on her knees, it hurt so much! No endurance despite careful, building conditioning.
We humbly apologized to the horse, got her Selenium levels up to the proper numbers and she was like a new horse!!
We then went to new feeding protocols, with Selenium and Vit E supplemented individually to each horse DAILY. This let us KNOW each horse was getting enough supplement for their body. We no longer had the Selenium and Vit E mixed in with their grain. We don’t feed enough grain to ensure they got correct dosages of Selenium daily.
The two purchased horses were Selenium tested as part of our incoming routine. One was supposed to be very fit from being ridden and driven. We drove him to a carriage while waiting for test results, noticing he tired easily, seemed sore during brushing, compared to our other horses. His results came back to the Vet as extremely low, which we learned when Vet brought out more Selenium shots! He also responded well to increased Selenium supplementing, was a better horse when his Selenium levels reached acceptable numbers.
Third new horse tested low but not dangerously low like the others. So we have increased his Selenium supplement to get his levels up. He sweats if doing new things, sometimes a LOT which removes Selenium in his body. He will be retested again shortly to see if we are gaining in raising his numbers. He is learning new skills, our different ways of doing things. A bit of a worrier, “Am i doing what you want?,” so he shows foamy sweat instead of acting poorly.
So testing for Selenium deficiency could help. If low the sore back muscles might be a result. If horse is a mare, her reproductive tract could be malfunctioning with erratic heat periods, follicle movement, also giving her a sore back. Soreness leads to compensation to avoid pain, overloading other body parts. This makes chasing the root cause of NQR more complicated!!
Selenium testing is not real expensive, compared to many other types of testing. So it makes a good place to start, may save you some money if horse is actually Selenium deprived. Certainly you can’t tell about being low Selenium by looking at them! They can be as shiny as heck, prance about, run and play while being deficient.
). You might only be able to hand walk right now, but hand walking, longeing w/t, and eventually trail riding are all great ways to keep older horses going. 24/7 turnout is great, but forced exercise as an addition is so important.