Asking this question because it came up in a recent convo. Acquaintance and I were talking about our young horses, and she told me that while hers was shiny in his summer coat she has frizzy/fish hook type hairs on her back and neck. I immediately thought a copper (or copper and zinc) issue do to experience(s) with my own horses, but that was what they first looked into. No other signs of deficiency, levels seemed alright, but they are feeding more anyway. So then I thought parasites? What else could cause this? Heat, sun, parasites?
what does “looked into” mean? You can’t determine that via blood work, you have to analyze the whole diet
When did they start feeding more - just recently? It won’t fix the current coat, it can only impact the next one
What’s the grass/hay situation? If little to no grass, I would make sure there’s ample Vit E and Omega 3 added to the diet
Erm, I know you can’t determine that via blood work, but thanks.
It was the diet. I am familiar with her horse keeping and they test their hay, soil, and grazing (hay comes from their own land). Between the forage, ration balancer, and added copper/zinc, it’d be near impossible for their to be a deficiency by the sounds of it. I went through this with my own horse a few years back and did see changes with the next coat, so I’m familiar with that.
As for ample vitamin E, I’m not sure, she has good grazing/grass, but maybe that’s not enough. I suppose suggesting a top dress of Omega 3 to the feed could be worthwhile. I fed mine flax oil, not sure about the availability of that in the US.
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Lots of people think you can do blood work to determine if a horse is eating too little/much of a nutrient. I don’t know what you, or the owner of the horse knows, so just added that for clarification.
It may not be an outright deficiency as much as it may be a “deficiency” of cu and zn in relation to how much Fe is present. If, despite adding some cu/zn, the fe:cu ratio is like 30:1, that is potentially an issue, and I’d want to lower that a bit if possible.
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Sunlight oxidizes pigments in the hair follicle which can result in fading. Genetics plays a role in how much the hair follicle fades (such as the amount of melanin in the follicle, etc.) and because of that, some horse’s coats will bleach regardless of a mineral deficiency or not (mineral deficiencies are linked to bleached coats but certainly not always). You can try coat supplements to help prevent fading but as mentioned, they need to be given in advance prior to the seasonal coat (it effects the pigments in the coat and how they fade during the season). Even with these types of coat supplements which usually contain things like Hungarian paprika, etc., it is not guaranteed the coat won’t fade and produce what you are describing (unfortunately).
All that to say, sometimes you can clip the coat to remove the end of the hair follicle which has faded and make the coat darker. There are also shampoos that essentially dye the coat darker, and you can also use UV sheets to block the sun or turn out at night, etc.
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Oh yeah, that’s right! There is a relationship with Fe.
I don’t know that the horse has faded (she looks to be her normal bay, but I don’t know), it’s that the hairs are almost frizzy in some places or curled up on the ends. Mostly on her back and neck IIRC.
Yes the fish hook look is very often a lack of enough copper, where “enough” is contextual, and often 2-3-4x what is normal for an average horse at 100mg/day
Yeah, and that’s what it was with my last horse. I just was curious if it could be for anything else. The convo just sparked a “wonder” for me
You’re right that it could be parasites. Hookworms can cause the hooked, rumpled texture and fading on the coat.
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PPID is another possibility as failed to shed hairs can have that look as well.
In a 2 year old though? Although with horses…
And honestly, from what I can tell, the horse shed her winter coat. It’s her summer coat but the ends just sort of stand up, appear frizzy if you look real close, or are a tad hooked on appearance.
So it’s not a case of a horse holding on to winter/old coat, IMO.
Did he shed out with these funky hairs, or have they developed in the past few weeks? What is her living situation like–out 24/7? In an area with a lot of sunlight/where it’s been a warm spring/early summer?
My horses (except for the grey) tend to get this along the top of their neck/shoulder area once it starts getting truly hot. Diet is balanced and supplemented with plenty of Cu/Zn. It hasn’t made a difference when I’ve doubled Cu/Zn (as much as possible within the confines of what they’ll eat). Dewormed 2x/year and negative on FECs. They shed out beautifully this spring but are starting to get a little bit of the frizz/fading in the usual spots after a few heat waves. All adult geldings ranging from 8yo - 17yo. As best we can figure, it’s UV damage from the sun and/or from sweat. We’re in the Sacramento Valley and it gets hot and nasty, and there is shade in their field but not a ton. Working on adding more with shade cloths, but that will only do so much if they don’t stand under it. I use UV-blocking fly sheets when I can, but it’s just too hot when we get into 95+ weather.
It’s certainly possible that even with VT Blend Pro + additional Cu/Zn that I’m not balancing to iron totals (hay is tested but well is not), but I’m feeding as much as I can that they will eat. I’m not concerned enough about it to give myself ulcers trying to get even more down them.
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I wondered about that, just because she’s in a hot and sunny location, and where the horses eat hay and primarily graze is full sun. There are shady areas, but she always sends me pics of them grazing in the full sun, blazing heat, midday. Horses.
Honestly, I’d put my money on it being sun/heat/sweat related then.
Bays will show visible pigment loss to UV damage as well.
One way to tell if it is UV damage versus something else is by looking at the location of the “bleached” looking hairs. A coat suffering due to parasites or poor nutrition (etc) will generally be consistently poor quality all over the body. UV damage occurs more so on the points hit most by sunlight.
I missed the age of the horse! While possible, I agree PPID is pretty unlikely at that age.
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