Just got the bill for Dude's two pound canister of Vitamin E supplement. He's been on it for two years (I think), but when I ordered it this last time the vet dropped off a different brand in the tack room and I just decided to go ahead and use it rather than try to trade it in. I actually don't think it's any more expensive. $68 for two pounds. It lasts him for, hmmnn, six months or so.
He got started on it one spring when we took his winter blankets off and cast a critical eye at his thin top line. Not that we were bad owners and didn't notice over the winter, but given winters in Vermont it didn't seem out of the ordinary for him to lose a little weight. But he didn't seem to be putting it back on in the spring. The vet had recently seen a lot of horses with the same problem and diagnosed Vitamin E deficiency. It hadn't been a particularly good hay year, and so he likely wasn't getting enough E in his diet even though his grain is slightly supplemented with it.
So on the E he went, first on a liquid supplement and then to a powder after about six months. Now he stays on it all year on a maintenance dose. The deficiency seems pretty common in this area; I seem to hear every few months about another horse going on the E supplement. And at least he licks his bucket clean and doesn't waste it, unlike Bestie who happily eats her grain and leaves the supplement, not caring at all about my "money down the drain" speech.
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