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Too much protein sometimes can show up as skin problems, scratches, rain rot, 
etc, although it's difficult to really isolate the SBM as being the issue 
without knowing the entire ration, including forage, amounts fed, etc.  in my 
experience, skin problems from too much protein was usually from alfalfa, but 
I suppose it could originate from SBM as well.

Or, as heidi commented, it might also be from a subtle difference in zinc, 
methionine and other amino acids and/or minerals that all contribute to the 
problem.  Sometimes too much of one nutrient can overwhelm or otherwise 
physically block the utilization of another nutrient (calcium and phosphorus 
being the most familiar), so it might be that that is a contributing factor.

The bottom line here is that I don't think there is a simple obvious answer 
here, nor a simple solution guaranteed to solve the problem.  I have some 
doubts that increasing the amount of soybean from 2% to 4% of the mix would 
have much of an effect on skin health.  My feeling is that there is something 
else going on, like a fungus or some local reaction.

So I guess my suggestion would be to get some skin scrapings and see if 
anything else is going on.  In the meantime, you can add some extra vitamin E 
to their ration, as well as some flax seed.

Susan Garlinghouse DVM
 


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