A local farm recently had several horses come up with extremely low selenium. That is not something I want to supplement willy nilly nor is that common for our area (to my knowledge).
I’d like to have my horse checked for piece of mind. At the same time I’d love to look at things like vitamin E or other things that could be impacting general health and wellness. What type of panel should I be requesting? I trust my vet. I just want to be able to communicate well when having the conversation.
Vitamin E and Selinium are the tests you should ask for. They are not part of any other regularly run panel and you should specifically request those two things.
Your area doesn’t matter if your (their) hay is coming from a selenium deficient area.
Do you know if the local farms with the issue are buying in hay and where from? If they are using local hay, and ended up with this issue, it’s probably an indication that you may need to think about implementation.
We test E and Selenium at least every few years, but were also in an area where it’s a common issue.
Blood work for nutrient status has very little value. As said, Se, and Vit E, are 2 that have great meaning. You can tell copper status to some reasonable degree but I wouldn’t bother. Do a full diet analysis if you want to make sure they are getting enough of all the things, and in good balances.
E and Se are specific tests, they aren’t part of a CBC. That said, if your horse is older than 10, it’s also not a bad idea to do a full blood panel now, so that if things pop up as he gets older, you have some baseline. Some abnormalities are a given horse’s normal (within reason)
What made the farm test those horses? Like sascha said, the local soil doesn’t matter if the hay is coming from elsewhere.
If your local soil is on the low side, and hay is local, and most horses are eating a ration balancer or regular feed, and those few horses aren’t, that alone could be why they tested low, but it’s not an issue in general.
Hay is local but I don’t know how local “local” matters. Probably within a hour? My understanding is that both horses were displaying muscle tightness and other diffuse issues under saddle not identified through a lameness evaluation, EPM testing, etc. and the vet recommended testing selenium levels as part of more diagnostics. Both owners are very educated and at a reputable barn so if not on the minimum amount of a complete feed they would have been on an appropriate amount of ration balancer.
Sounds like asking for vitamin E and selenium are not a bad idea to get a baseline.
Local matters a LOT!
I live in a selenium deficient area. It is also an area that exports a fair bit of hay. So, living in a “good” area doesn’t mean you’re hay is sufficient if you are bringing hay in from outside the area. Even if you live in a selenium rich area but are feeding hay from a selenium deficient area, your horse could be deficient.
But super important to the local question is If the horses that were deficient became deficient on local hay, then it may turn out your area is a selenium deficient pocket in a wider area that is not known for deficiency.
Knowledgeable and established and reputable don’t always mean much when it comes to specific points of horse care. I’ll never forget a very good farrier and decent horseman telling clients many years ago that our area (Great Lakes) is selenium rich and to not feed anything with any extra selenium in it because it will ruin their feet. UM?! Great Lakes is selenium deficient - we need to take care our horses are getting enough!
If you enjoy podcasts, give this one a listen: https://springhillequine.libsyn.com/s4e17-blood-tests-demystified. It covers testing for SE/Vit E, along with the basic CBC.
At the end of the episode, they also mention a great resource for interpreting results.
You can get a rough idea of local soil selenium levels here.
It will give you an estimate of what the levels in hay grown on that soil will look like.
(Or you could spring for a hay analysis to get a data point or two.)
Well, I am co-teaching an introductory soils course this semester…
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