I am stumped with this one. I feed quality hay, commercial grain and a decent vit/min supplement. This is the only one I have like this.
Horse is from Europe, not sure if this matters but I’ve been told the horse has a ‘euro coat’.
Not itchy but constantly shedding a white dandruff type thing from coat. But the hair is super shiny.
Recently clipped and did hot oil towels and was good for a day. What am I doing wrong?
I’ve always added freshly ground flax for dry skin or if I don’t want to grind daily, I LOVE
Omega Horseshine. It has some ground flax plus added goodies and quickly takes care of dry skin. At least once every winter I put mine on it.
Do you grind your flax in a coffee grinder? If not, how?
How much do you feed?
Easier not to grind but just feed whole flax ( cheaper too). My horses all eat whole flax but don’t like ground flax because it is powdery and gets gummy when they eat.
I feed 3/4 cup daily.
Mine has the same thing and he’s definitely not European 
I feed very similar to you. Good quality hay, excellent vitamin/mineral supplement and plenty of added fats to diet. Lovely, shiny, dappled soft coat and beautiful feet. Still has flaky white dandruff. Doesn’t appear to be itchy and disappears for a few days after a bath with Head and Shoulders.
In my case, I think it’s largely due to environment. I live in a dry area with fairly harsh winters (Canada) and much like my skin, the weather takes its toll. My property is also quite sandy and the dirt is very fine and dusty. My horses have created a lovely little dust bowl that is their preferred rolling spot.
I’m tempted to try feeding flax and see if that helps but not overly hopeful. Most of the horses I know in this area struggle with the same thing and I suspect it’s mainly weather related.
I used to use a coffee grinder but recently I bought a huge bag of ground flax. I feed 1 cup per horse.
Mine stopped doing that after he’d been on additional vitamin E (3000iu/day) for a while (months - after his other needs for vitamin E had caught up so to speak).
That’s interesting. I did notice my horse’s skin was better this summer but I put it down to nicer weather and having a fly sheet on to keep the worst of the dust off. But he was also on Vitamin E then which has since run out. Fortunately a new tub arrived today so I’ll be interested to see if that helps.
A lot of the things this horse is eating has added vitamin E/Selenium, should I add more?
Should I try the flax first? I always thought that pre milled flax didn’t have much nutritional value, and the same for whole flax… am I correct? Is daily grinding of flax the optimal route?
If you feed a pre-ground flax, it needs to be stabilized otherwise it will quickly go rancid. We have a great locally produced flax so I haven’t used any of the more popular products like Omega Horseshine etc. but so long as it is stabilized, you should be good to go.
It is worth it to do the math and figure out how much Se your horse is getting if you’re feeding multiple products with added Se. Toxicity is no joke, so best to figure out the actual amounts.
As far as adding more E, supplementation has been shown to be quite safe at very high levels - up to 10,000 IU / 500kg of bodyweight daily - so you’re likely very safe to up the E, if you like.
I personally feed 3000 IU of D-Alpha Tocopherol (natural Vit E as opposed to synthetic DL-Alpha Tocopherol, as it is more readily absorbed). E really needs to be fed along with a fat for good absorption, so you are on the right track feeding it along with flax. The other option is feeding one of the water soluble E supplements like Elevate or Emcelle, but they are quite pricey.
Is he always like this? I’ve had a couple WBs where it would be the worst during coat transition times. So, for current guy who started growing winter coat in October, he was getting scurfy around that time. And itchy. I did wind up clipping him because it was still very hot here this year, and that made it easier to groom some oils into his skin.
For ones that I never clipped that did the same thing, lots of hot toweling helped if it was too cold. And then when weather allowed, I would scrub mane and tail scalp and then condition the hair. You could also bathe the whole body in something like Head & Shoulders. And of course on the spring end of things when there’s more shedding, a lot of currying.
I should note horses already eat flax. I think it’s just dry climate plus coat transition.
Same. here. I tried flax last year, a 50lb bag of whole flax from the co-op was like $22, so eh, cheap enough to try. I used an old GNC “smoothie” blender and would grind up a week’s worth at a time - 1 cup whole per day. I didn’t see a difference. This year, I have him on the Biotin Plus for his feet, but he’s gotten beautiful dapples as well (and hey, biotin does good things for my skin and hair). I also have gotten hooked on Purvida’s coat conditioner (if anything, it makes his mane and tail soft and smells so good). I’m hoping currying that in every few days helps, too. He is perfectly shiny and not dandery in the summer; I think it’s just this cruddy cold dry winter weather.
Just wanted to come back and say my horse has been on double dose of Vitamin E for about 5 days now and I’ve seen a marked improvement in his dandruff. Thanks @RedHorses for the tip!
Maybe an oil would work better, fish, flax, etc. something higher in Omega 3 than 6.
What brand vitamin E?
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