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Copper and zinc for feet

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 1:43 am
by Tanga
My horses are barefoot and I maintain their feet myself. In my quest to always try to improve and do better, I follow Pete Ramey's page on Facebook as well as others. He and his followers are big on CA Trace, the idea being that horses really need copper and zinc for their feet is much underrated.

I don't like to feed my horses all in one supplements. I feed them individually, so I can see what's working and what's not. Their feet are quite good, but I'm always trying to see if I can do better. I could not find a copper and zinc supplement close to the doses recommended. I finally did find separate poly copper and poly zinc supplements, marketed mostly to improve coats. I am giving it to them at that dose, which is a bit more than the CA Trace. After some issues with flipping the feed and not liking it, they will now eat it as long as it's well mixed in and not a blob of it.

Has anyone used the CA Trace or other supplement and noticed a big difference? Has anyone just supplemented with copper and zinc for that and noticed a difference? I'm just starting this, so it will take awhile, but I would be interested to know if anyone else has done this.

Re: Copper and zinc for feet

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 1:50 am
by Chisamba
When I was in Colorado foals would often get epiphicitis which resulted in grossly deformed limbs. My veterinary clinic had a supplement made up with high copper and zinc. It was designed for the area and did cure the epiphicitis, but was also fantastic for feet.

I hadn't thought about it since leaving Colorado til you mentioned it here.

Re: Copper and zinc for feet

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 11:28 am
by kande50
I think probably the best way to do it, if you have a fairly consistent hay source, is to have the hay analyzed and then formulate the mineral supplement based upon what is actually deficient in the hay you're feeding. Pasture grass can be analyzed too, although if you're buying your hay locally the minerals in the grass will likely be similar to those in the hay.

A commercial mineral supplement is more of a shotgun approach, with the forage values most likely taken from a pool of hay samples that come from the general area in which the supplement will be sold.

Our hay is very high in iron, which competes for the same binding sites as copper and zinc, so my mineral supplement has copper, zinc, magnesium, selenium, and salt. I buy the minerals in 50lb bags and mix my own, but when I started doing that I had 10 horses and none of the commercial mineral supplements had the balance I needed.

Re: Copper and zinc for feet

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:29 pm
by Tanga
kande50 I know I should analyze the hay to be really good about it, but I don't have any say on the hay since I am boarding, and no real issues. In general, the hay here is too high in iron from my reading, and low in selenium. I have always given a vitamin E and selenium supplement because of the regios. And I always have a salt block. But, to make the copper and zinc more edible, I mix it with salt, which seems to do the trick.

Chisamba--Thank you for the feedback. I'm interested in seeing if I will notice a difference.