Supplementing Horses With Vitamin E

Vitamin E deficiencies can cause neurologic and other health problems in horses. As such, at-risk horses—from breeding stock and foals to equine athletes and pasture pets—might benefit from supplementation.
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Supplementing Horses With Vitamin E
Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant primarily found in green pasture grass that plays a role in muscle wasting and neurodegeneration in horses. As pasture lands become increasingly more limited and more horses are housed on less acreage, vitamin E deficiency becomes a real problem. | Photo: iStock

Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant primarily found in green pasture grass that plays a role in muscle atrophy (wasting) and neurodegeneration in horses. As pasture lands become increasingly more limited and more horses are housed on less acreage, vitamin E deficiency becomes a real problem.

Stephanie Valberg, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, ACVSMR, Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, in East Lansing, described conditions linked to vitamin E deficiencies and how to manage them during the 2018 Kentucky Equine Research Conference, held Oct. 29-30 in Lexington.

Veterinarians see three neurologic conditions associated with vitamin E deficiencies in horses, said Valberg, and which one the horse develop depends primarily on genetics

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Alexandra Beckstett, a native of Houston, Texas, is a lifelong horse owner who has shown successfully on the national hunter/jumper circuit and dabbled in hunter breeding. After graduating from Duke University, she joined Blood-Horse Publications as assistant editor of its book division, Eclipse Press, before joining The Horse. She was the managing editor of The Horse for nearly 14 years and is now editorial director of EquiManagement and My New Horse, sister publications of The Horse.

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