Re: RC: HELP!!

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated Thu, 26 Oct 2000  2:26:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
DreamWeaver <dreamweaver@gbis.com> writes:

<< At 10:44 PM 10/25/2000 -0700, Leslie Davis wrote:
>Start feeding the supplement with vitamin e and selenium in it or for fast 
>working effects, your vet can give it as a shot. Half dose in each hip.

WHOA!!!  Waitaminute here......You should not add a selenium supplement 
without first determining whether or not your horse needs it or not!!!

Besides giving a supplement that may not be necessary, we all know of 
horses that have *died* from selenium shots -- imagine that happening to 
your horse for something that was totally unnecessary to start with?>>

While Karen is right that ideally, horses should have their selenium levels 
tested, in some areas, there is such a profound deficiency that there is 
virtually no risk of overdose with an injection, given a history of minimal 
or no supplementation.  As for the risk of anaphylaxis with selenium 
injection--it is roughly the same as the rate for most common vaccines and 
for penicillin.  (As the survivor of anaphylaxis to penicillin myself, I can 
relate to this all too well...)  Yet we continue to administer vaccines to 
the vast majority of our horses (and with good reason, in most cases), and a 
great many people grab the bottle of penicillin for far less reason than 
there is for giving a selenium injection to a deficient horse.  Go figure!  
Furthermore, in an extreme deficiency, many horses seem to be unable to 
absorb adequate selenium even when it IS provided in an oral supplement--I 
don't know of any specific work in this problem, but my guess is (knowing how 
important selenium is to cell membrane function) th
at the cells lining the intestinal tract do not function properly to absorb 
the selenium in such a case.  Many of these horses will begin to absorb 
selenium just fine once their levels are gotten up to normal via injection.

Karen, you ARE right that selenium shots are illegal within the four days or 
so immediately preceding a ride.  I'd also point out that it takes at least 
48 hours for the injections to be of any use whatsoever, as it takes that 
long for the selenium to be incorporated into the enzyme systems in the cell 
membranes where it is needed.  Ideally, if the horse needs a pre-ride 
selenium injection, it should be administered at least 6 or 7 days 
pre-ride--not just because of AERC drug rules, but also to get maximum 
benefit!  Also, if you are administering injections to a horse in any sort of 
active competition, it is preferable to administer it IV so that there are no 
sore areas in the hip muscles as a result.

Heidi