By “best”, I mean most well absorbed, not necessarily “best buy”. My vets are pushing Emcelle, which I did purchase, but it’s so messy. If it’s the best, though, I’ll stick with it. In the past, I’ve fed Platinum Performance/Santa Cruz/Elevate. Thoughts?
The liquids are all the same. What about the Emcelle do you find messy? Its widely considered to be the best priced water soluble vit e, but you could do elevate ws or nano e (also liquid.)
Then you get to the d-alpha-Tocopherol Acetate supplements. They’re the same. Look at price per 1000 iu. Santa Cruz is very well priced, and popular. Elevate Maintenance is also popular, but a hell of a lot more $$, for the same ingredient.
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Do you need water soluble to rapidly solve a problem? If so, I think Emcelle is the least expensive option when you break it down per 1000 IU.
If not, there are several powder products that take longer to initially raise the level of circulating vitamin E but contain the more effective d-alpha form (vs. less effective dl-alpha-tocopherol). I use Elevate because it’s worth the extra money to me to not support a company that has abused animals on a massive scale. If that’s not a deal-breaker for you Santa Cruz is much cheaper.
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I’ve been very pleased with Elevate concentrate, which I’ve been using for 6 months or so.
I have no equine nutrition eduction, so personally I defer to the ECIR Group equine nutritionists who say natural (not synthetic) Vitamin E combined with fat (soft gel caps in oil) given at 1,000 IU per 500 pounds of body weight. I buy Solgar 1,000 IU natural E gel caps on Amazon and just toss two in with her supps and she gobbles them up.
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I’ve been happy with HorseTech’s Natural Vitamin-E 5000, without selenium, for ~4 years for two horses.
It didn’t come with a pump, so I’m syringing it. Come to find out, it should have, but company won’t send me one unless I purchase through them. ??? Kinda irked me that I paid more through my vet AND I’m stuck syringing it out until I finish the bottle. Just thought there might be something else just as good out there that was new that I might try.
Unfortunately, the other two water soluble vit e products, Elevate WS and Nano E, don’t appear to come with a pump, either, or any dosing mechanism other than what you’re doing now.
There is this: https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Made-Vitamin-Soluble-Softgels/dp/B000EQ2E9A
Which might be easier? Depending on how much you need to dose and what your horse thinks about the capsules.
We use Costco’s Webber Naturals natural source 400 IU Vitamin E 300 softgels. It costs $19Cdn. That works out to $0.16Cdn per 1000IU. Much cheaper than Emcelle at $0.23US per 1000IU. Just drop the softgels into their grain and they eat it up. No mess or worries that the vit E is oxidizing. Check out your local Costco.
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Just do note that those are not water soluble vit e, so not analogous to Emcelle. That’s the d-alpha-Tocopherol Acetate, in a flax oil base.
Googling around, the only capsule water soluble vit E I was able to turn up is linked above.
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True, but all 4 of our horse’s Vit E levels have tested normal since using the softgels and the overall cost is less.
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Yes, generally unless a horse is critically low, or has other medical issues, d-alpha-Tocopherol Acetate is perfectly sufficient and the added expense of the water soluble vit e is unnecessary 
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Not sure how much you have left at this point but I got one of those little plastic pieces that you stick into the bottle opening that a syringe fits into.
I just searched for syringe bottle top adapter or something like that. Was a huge help and made much less waste and mess.
Not a vitamin E suggestion but might help!
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I was kinda shocked to see human water soluble vitamin E capsules at a significantly more cost-effective price point than non-water-soluble equine d-alpha-tocopherol powders when you compare per 1,000 IU. But one of the reviews says it’s dl-alpha tocopherol, and in fact that’s what is listed in the “ingredients” section of the product description. There’s some concern that synthetic vitamin E may not raise serum levels very well, so it might be worth the syringe hassle for OP to continue with a highly bioavailable product.
That said, I know I’ve looked into the Solgar natural vitamin E soft gels before and they never compared favorably in price to Elevate in my prior investigations (perhaps I only found the 400 IU product?). But I searched on what Snowdenfarm listed and wouldn’t you know it – for the 1000 IU capsules it looks significantly less expensive than what I’m currently spending on Elevate. It’s not water soluble, but for those of us who are supplementing for maintenance, not to resolve a current deficiency, that shouldn’t matter. Anyone know if the capsules dissolve in soaked feed?
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Oh, good point, thank you! I just saw the label and didn’t investigate further.
That said, I know I’ve looked into the Solgar natural vitamin E soft gels before and they never compared favorably in price to Elevate in my prior investigations (perhaps I only found the 400 IU product?). But I searched on what Snowdenfarm listed and wouldn’t you know it – for the 1000 IU capsules it looks significantly less expensive than what I’m currently spending on Elevate. It’s not water soluble, but for those of us who are supplementing for maintenance, not
to resolve a current deficiency, that shouldn’t matter. Anyone know if the capsules dissolve in soaked feed?
I’ve used the capsules and found them to be a PITA. My horses would leave them in the bucket, even with soaked feed. I did not find them to dissolve. You can prick them and squeeze contents into grain directly before feeding, but that also adds a hassle factor. But yeah, for the price–you get close or equivalent to Santa Cruz!–it might be worth it for you?
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I’m using the same product for my 26 y.o. gelding. I’ve used their Selen AT, natural E with selenium, for years and added Blue Seal Sentinel LS grain. I know the selenium level locally is low but assumed what he was getting was okay. Blood work showed that he was at the top of the range for selenium.
I’ve been using HorseTech for a long time. Rod, the owner, really knows his stuff. I called about the selenium. He checked an online map for local selenium levels, looked up the grain on Blue Seal’s website, and converted them to the same units of measurement. He computed my horse’s daily intake and recommended vitamin E only because the grain has enough selenium. HorseTech products are in a food-grade ground flax base. My horse laps it all up and I know he is getting what he needs.
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I suspect it’s not a coincidence that that info is not more obvious! I would have missed it if I didn’t scroll through the reviews.
Thanks! My horse is generally good about eating things that taste funny but can be picky about textures. Squishy things are never o.k. (bananas, marshmallows, gummy candies – all poisons cleverly disguised to smell/taste nice). Capsules seem likely to offend for similar reasons – if she bites down on one and finds it texturally suspect she’ll probably sort them out for the rest of her life. Too bad they don’t dissolve! Maybe I could make a capsule-pricking device for myself (e.g. out of a syringe and a thumbtack) to make it more efficient/less messy…
I am using the HorseTech Vitamin E combined with selenium and like it. I’ve also used Elevate and the Santa Cruz product. I think they’re all very high quality and palatable for most horses.
I was using the Santa Cruz Vitamin E pellets when my horse was in work - the powder version is more economical, but it was too much of a hassle (you have to keep the bag closed when not in use and for some feeders, that’s too hard to do :rolleyes: - and it’s very lightweight so your feed room counter starts to look like someone was doing massive amounts of cocaine.
I tried Emcelle at first (and used an old Nano-E bottle/pump to dispense), but the sticky liquid ended up just getting all over, plus my picky horse wouldn’t eat it.
@Simkie, is that Vitamin E comparison chart still around?
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:lol::lol::lol: Can’t disagree
I put a bunch in a smaller supplement container with a screw-on lid, and scoop from there. That eliminates most of the issues.
