Seaweed question

poghag · Seaweed question

I've heard suggested that perhaps seaweed has a not-too-ideal balance of certain bits and bobs, such as too much iodine and not enough magnesium or zinc.

Golly. What DO people feed their horses? How on earth do you work out good balances unless you just feed a broad spectrum supplement? Or is this what people do?

I guess I'm eventually going to get to the stage where I just pick something and try it out!!

What's my question now??? Ermmmm.... looking for evidence to balance out the seaweed comment, or back it up?

What do you use, seaweed and yeast/linseed etc.... or a supplement?

poghag

Sorry folks, as I'm fairly new to this site I hadn't yet scrolled down to see the "feeding advice" thread which is helpful for this question, not to mention the seaweed and iodine thread on the next page.

Nic

PH - its true that seaweed on its own wouldn't give horses a balanced mineral profile - hope you've found that the other threads have helped, but if not post on here again Smile

N

vickyclink

I have replied to you elsewhere i think.. and i expect i am repeating myself here Smile

but i may have forgot to explain that i think the mineral profile of the seaweed, linseed and brewers yeast are all on the simple systems website. they list them seperately and together in the form of their total eclipse supplement.

due to 'cheapskate'ness I do not buy them from simple systems but directly from charnwood milling and then mix them up as i go. But i beleive they are the same products s.s use.
They are easy to find on google and lots of people on here use them.

the seaweed they sell is not kelp, and has less iodine than kelp. info on it is also available from 'glenside' http://www.glensidegroup.com/livestock/seaquim.html
they sent me a mineral analysis when i asked them for one.

i really did see improvements when i changed to this mix of seaweed b.yeast and linseed. topspec really made my horse a little bit mad! Shocked

brucea

horsesfirst

Grace gets seaweed and loves it (she quite likes curry powder too)

but this thread started me wondering.

Please correct my mistakes - I won't mind

So I am assuming that ppm = parts per million?

so a 'popular' seaweed has 2925 ppm iodine.

So per that is 0.002925/unit of measurement?

So if I fed 100g (max dosage in Feet First) that would give 0.2925 g?

Please someone check the math. I am sure I have messed up somewhere.

As far as I can make out this is well above the toxic level of iodine for a horse.

PLEASE CHECK MY MATH! Embarassed

hobnob

I have been feeding seaweed for ages. The way I look at it my pones are from the Shetland Islands (originally!). And guess what they eat, especially in winter when there is not alot about...

... seaweed !!!

horsesfirst

Hobnob - quite! I've never been worried about feeding small quantities of seaweed. But on another thread concerns were raised about quantities and toxicity. I like to get to the bottom of things.....

brucea

How has the toxicity been worked out? It sounded suspiciously like 10x the recommended intake...

horsesfirst

Feet First recommends 50-100g (p105). Calculations of iodine in this amount in earlier post. I asked someone (anyone)? to check the math for me.

I took the ppm figures from the seaweed place that maggie345 mentioned. It was 2925 (not 800).

Please someone check my math Embarassed

Jo Mitchell

The book called "The Truth About Feeding Your Horse" by Clare Macloud Would be a great place to start to give you all the info you need

http://www.equinenutritionist.co.uk/

maggie345

horsesfirst -
Here is the link to the reference in the NRC (hope this works):
[url]http://tinyurl.com/mrydck[/url]
There isn't an ultimate reference when it comes to nutritional requirements of horses, but the NRC is an attempt to collect information based on science. There are references in the text to the studies they base their recommended and upper limits on.

Your math is correct, as far as I can tell. I.e. feeding seaweed at 100g/day will result in feeding iodine at or above the level considered to be harmful in the NRC, whether the iodine concentration is 800ppm or 2000ppm.
Now, I'm not claiming the NRC is the be-all-end-all. It is just one reference, albeit one based on scientific research, rather than anecdotal evidence ("horses have been eating this for a long time and nothing happened"). Personally, I'd rather stick with their recommendations. But who knows, maybe new studies will show that higher iodine levels can be tolerated after all.

becnreps

maggie345,
that looks like a really good book, I'm really interested in this too but have had a look at some of the pages and quite a lot of the pages are blanked out and you cant see them! Confused

maggie345

Sorry about the link - it's just to a free preview of the book. Got that link copied from somewhere else, and it just so happened to show the pages on iodine (at least to me!). I'm afraid if you want the whole thing, you'll actually have to buy the book. It's not that cheap, I just googled it. But really, if you're going to spend that kind of money, I can only recommend Dr. Kellon's online class again. It's called "NRC Plus" exactly because she teaches the basics contained in the NRC, but with all her expertise as a vet and equine nutritionist added on to it.