Analyzing nutrition - blood titre vs pasture test

[evans36]

OK so this is for my own personal curiosity, my guy is looking pretty good these days and I'm not worried about him. From reading about nutrition on here, I've heard folks told to test their forage and also to do a blood titre on the horse.

What are the guidelines about what to do when? I'm guessing that the blood is where to start, to figure out exactly what the horse needs, then using pasture forage to figure out where/how he's getting what he needs? When you're just trying to balance a diet for a horse that doesn't seem to have major issues, do you bother with a blood analysis, or just start with the forage to balance and then draw the blood if he doesn't start to look better? Are there things that you see that the regular person wouldn't recognize that tell you to do a blood test immediately?

Thanks for the free education :)

[deltawave]

IMO doing blood tests would be the very last thing to do, and only in a horse with metabolic or nutritional problems that just couldn't be puzzled through. For a horse doing well, with no major issues, I personally wouldn't check blood for any reason. There are lots of things blood tests can tell you, but a VERY long list of things they CAN'T. :)

I do believe in soil and hay analysis, just so I know a) what to do to get my grass to grow optimally and b) what my horses are actually getting in that 90%+ part of their diet that is hay. Knowing what's in my hay helps me to know what else they need (if anything) to meet their nutritional needs. To know what their needs are, I use textbooks, a homemade database I've sort of cobbled together over the years, etc. There's a new website (www.feedxl.com (http://www.feedxl.com)) that has a similar database so you can figure out if what your horse is getting is adequate.

[JB]

Right off the bat, a Selenium check of the blood would be worthwhile, since a mild deficiency can cause all sorts of niggling issues you might otherwise chase for what seems like forever.

Beyond that, I'd agree with DW - full nutritional profile checking of the blood really isn't necessary unless you're trying to find something. A forage test would be nice, but remember that even then, you are never, ever going to be able to *truly* balance the diet, because not every single meal your horse eats will contain the same amount of nutrients. It can give you a good idea though on areas where the forage might be really low, or really high.

[Equilibrate]

I agree re the blood work. Many of the blood parameters are so tightly regulated (for example sodium, calcium etc) that for the most part they will not show a deficiency even if there is one. Bottom line is that if what is going into your horse meets his requirements for the most part his needs will be met. Obviously there are horses who are more or less efficient at getting what they need from their feed but I also would not pull blood unless there is a specific issue such as insulin resistance or laminitis.

However, as has been mentioned a whole blood selenium is worth while it is one of the few tests that will accurately show body nutrient levels and you should not give additional selenium without knowing your horses status as unlike the other minerals toxicity occurs at lower ranges. Your feed may or may not be low in selenium depending on where it was grown and so you can also test your hay levels. When done in conjunction with the blood work this is useful.

I recommend analyzing hay if you buy enough to last several months, otherwise using generic values for your region are a good substitute. With this information good balance is possible. In fact it is possible to build custom supplements, and I regularly do, that provide just what your horse needs for his lifestyle based on what is missing from his diet. This can be pretty economical and is far less likely to end up in issues caused by nutrient excess or deficiencies. It is possible to have deficiencies caused by lack of balance even if the nutrient is present in enough quantity to meet basic requirement due to competition for uptake. For example iron and copper compete for uptake. Even if you provide enough copper to meet requirement, becuase iron tends to be very high, if the ratio of iron to copper is more than 4:1 you may still get a copper deficiency. Copper is needed for collagen formation so plays into tendon health, it has a role in red blood cells and so a deficiency can lead to anemia, it is also linked to coat color and a lack of copper can cause sun bleaching. So horses can look good and be performing well even with unbalanced diets but they will not be able to meet their full genetic potential unless the diet is correctly balanced.

Something to be aware of with software programs is that you can not apply art to them and many do not take into account nutrient ratios. Feeding is art and science but you can't program art. A huge part of what I do is communicating with the owner to determine exactly what the horses situation is, his particular nuances etc etc. The ability to brainstorm potential solutions and exactly what type of feeds might be good based on his energy needs, the type of work he does and therefore the best fuel source for him are hard to do with a software program regardless of how much flexibility is programmed into it. I use software, it makes my life a lot easier, but I find that I am often tweaking the requirements especially energy requirements to fit the horse I happen to be working with. Talking to the owner often throws up things that are important that the owner didn't even realize and would not have thought to put into a software program.

Just things to consider as you contemplate balancing a diet.

Clair
Independent Equine Nutritionist
www.equilibrateequine.com
info@equilibrateequine.com