Have I stunted my horse’s growth?

[paintedpennypony]

sentence

[candyappy]

How old is she? Breed and does she seem stunted?

I never gave my youngsters a lot of grain but they did get some daily while growing and it was formulated for the growing horse. We always had high quality hay and my young horses grew well.

Can you post a current picture? Her overall look and body condition will say a lot.

[JB]

Because you’ve been feeding some alfalfa, the odds of any protein deficiency are pretty slim. It’s also taken care of what might be a bit low ca:p ratio in the grass forage, which CTP doesn’t cover.

What HAS been missing is vitamin E, so I might get her blood level checked asap.

[candyappy]

@paintedpennypony

She’s a little short at 14.2/14.3 but not too much. Mom is 15.1 and dad was 15 flat. She’s always been a little under muscled and was smaller than average when I bought her but her breeder described her as a late bloomer. She’s definitely grown a lot and has filled out a lot in the last two months. I’ll post a pic when I get back this afternoon. I bought her at 2y 8mo and she’s currently 3y 7mo

She still has time to grow and they can grow a decent amount in their 4 year old year, as well as fill out .

With the height of her parents I don’t see why she won’t eventually get to 15.0 at least.

[Bogie]

@paintedpennypony

synthetic gel capsules

Keep in mind that synthetic Vitamin E is significantly less bioavailable to horses. Here’s an interesting article from UC Davis on Vitamin E. I pulled out one paragraph, but if you click on the text it will take you to the whole thing.

Not all vitamin E supplements are created equally. The first generation of supplements were termed synthetic vitamin E, in that they contained alpha-tocopherol, the main antioxidant component of vitamin E, in all of its different chemical configurations. Later research demonstrated that only the “natural” form of vitamin E, or the one containing only one particular highly bioavailable configuration, was highly effective at increasing vitamin E levels in the blood of horses. Since then, additional alcohol-based vitamin E supplements, termed “water-dispersible,” have been developed for use in horses. These are the most effective of all supplements in that the water-dispersible formulation is readily absorbed and the natural vitamin E quickly increases blood and tissue levels in most horses.

[JB]

@paintedpennypony

We did a full bottle of Emcelle and once that was done we went to natural powdered VE, but I’m not feeding it with oil (I know I know)

Oh good! But, you don’t have to feed with oil Vit E is digested with the help of bile salts. And since horses constantly secrete bile, it’s all good.

PEOPLE have to eat it with some fat, since for us, fat is what triggers the release of bile from the gallbladder.

@paintedpennypony

once this bag is done we are going to synthetic gel capsules

I wouldn’t. It takes about 30% more to equal the equivalent dose of natural E. UltraCruz Natural E, powder and pellet, are about $.13/1000IU, which is almost as cheap as it gets. The only really significantly cheaper was when it was part of an actual oil product, whose name I forget.

[RhythmNCruise]

I doubt seriously she’s stunted. Sounds like she’s on track to finish around 15 hands, which her genetics support.

My gelding ate crappy round bale hay from the time he was weaned until he was a yearling and I bought him. He looked like a weanling instead of a yearling. By the time he was 2, he looked so much better/bigger that I thought he was ready to break/ride. So I did, and he was fine with it. Only in hindsight, I should’ve definitely waited. By 3, he was even bigger and more stout and by 4 he was getting close to where he finally finished…a solid 16 hands of muscle and good bone. The little forgotten colt who looked like a pot belly on twigs for legs now has people asking me if he’s mixed with draft horse (!!!). He’s not, by the way. He’s all QH and Appaloosa. I know his parents and his grandparents on one side personally. The only one that was 16+ hands was his sire. His mother was quite small. But I remember when he was born, and he was a big baby. He was always meant to be big, and he got a little behind due to some definite malnutrition during his formative first year (he was weaned early too because his dam foundered and had to be put down). But he found his way back.

And honestly, after having one that was born big and I fed like I was fattening him up for slaughter, and the issues that resulted for him later in life as he grew too fast and then developed metabolic issues, etc…I think it’s better to err to the side of less for these growing babies.

[frugalannie]

I have no idea if the string test works at her age. Take a string, run it from her elbow to the base of her fetlock (ergot). Still holding it at her elbow, rotate the string above her withers and see what her height might be. I’m pretty sure it works for yearlings!

[frugalannie]

And she looks like she’s growthy.

[JB]

Yes, string tests work any time after about 12 months.

[Bonnie2]

I had a colt born with legs so crooked we almost put him down. We kept him very thin until he was 5 to moderate his growth. He grew to be a sound 17.3. Mom was 16h and dad was 16.3.

[quietann]

@JB

It takes about 30% more to equal the equivalent dose of natural E. UltraCruz Natural E, powder and pellet, are about $.13/1000IU, which is almost as cheap as it gets.

And don’t choke on the price; 1 scoop of powder is 8000 IU, which is way more than most horses need.

[JB]

the price is cheap like I said - $.13/1000IU. Their scoop is not 8000IU, it’s 4000IU. They say a day’s dose is 8000IU.

“Give 1 level scoop (5.7 g) twice daily.”
Guaranteed Analysis: Per recommended daily amount (2 servings; 11.4 g):

Vitamin E (d-alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate): 8,000 IU (312,000 IU/lb)"

Calculate the cost per IU for the big bag, and it’s $.13/1000IU.

[JB]

@paintedpennypony

I thought you had to feed VE with some sort of oil because it degrades in the presence of copper or zinc or s/t?

If E is mixed with Cu, without some protective oil, like California Trace, then it degrades.

You don’t have to add the protective oil if you’re adding E to CT (or VB or anything else like that).

It’s the prolonged contact that’s the issue.

@paintedpennypony

FeedXL is saying she’s getting a crazy amount of VE, like 8000iu or something, but I figured a good amount of this was being degraded because I wasn’t feeding with oil.

what are the sources of E?

@paintedpennypony

Man, yeah, it is expensive, but I guess the 10lb bag

The cost per $1000IU is CHEAP. UltraCruz Natural E’s biggest bag is 4lb, not 10lb.

@paintedpennypony

I think I’d probably only do the 1 scoop/ 4000iu vs the 2 scoop/ 8000iu unless I’m missing a reason to do the 2 scoops

Why would you even need 4000IU? A nice healthy amount for a normal healthy horse is 2IU/lb, which means 2000IU for a 1000lb horse