Horse Health Dull Coat

Breeders' Cup Classic: Uncle Mo seeks fairy-tale end to remarkable comeback

Louisville, Ky. - Todd Pletcher When Uncle Mo put on a truck bound for a farm in Lexington on the morning of May 9, two days after the Kentucky Derby was run, the winner of multiple Eclipse trainer do not know if he would foal new champion.

Three days earlier, Pletcher and owner of the colt, Mike Repole, held a press conference to announce that Uncle Mo was removed from the Kentucky Derby because of a disease, the exact nature and severity of this which was not known. All that was known was that Uncle Mo had one elevated enzyme, a depressed appetite, loss of weight, and his hair coat was not right.

“Honestly, I had no idea what to expect,” Pletcher said in a recent interview. “It would have not shocked me if he had been diagnosed with cancer or something like that. That’s the way he looked; something was really wrong with him and we didn’t know what it was.”

It took almost a month for some of the most experienced equine veterinarians in Kentucky to diagnose Uncle Mo with the rare liver disease known as cholangiohepatitis, an inflammation of the liver and bile passages. The vets quickly determined that the illness was not life threatening, but thought it would likely end his career. After all, Uncle Mo was the undefeated champion 2-year-old colt of 2010 and it was deemed unlikely he could return to the level at which he had previously performed.

But Uncle Mo did make it back. On Saturday, six months after he was scratched from the Kentucky Derby, Uncle Mo is the morning-line favorite for North America’s richest horse race, the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. And, honestly, very few people know what to expect when the gates open at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Dr. Bill Bernard, of Lexington Equine Surgery, was one of the three veterinarians who teamed up to diagnose and treat Uncle Mo.

Iron Overload in Horses | Suite101.com

Iron is a trace element that is essential in the diet of a horse, but iron supplementation is rarely necessary. Iron is generally abundant in the diet of a horse, many horse owners either intentionally or unintentionally provide more iron to their horses in the form of supplements. It is probably fair to say that iron is one of the trace elements most complete on-fed horses.

Iron is in almost everything that a horse eats and drinks - hay, grass, water, most commercial feeds, and many supplements. Even the dirt is a major source of iron.Only 40 ppm of iron is needed in the diet of a horse all day, but most diets contain iron horse much more than that. Iron deficiency is very rare, but if a deficiency is suspected in a horse, a serum iron test must be performed by a veterinarian, and iron binding capacity and ferritin levels should also be checked.

Excess iron in the diet of a horse can block the absorption of copper and zinc, two other trace elements that are crucial to tendons, ligaments, hooves, and skin health. A horse that has iron overload often have a dull, dry hair, poor shoes, and possible tendon / ligament problems.While iron is often over-filled, copper and zinc are generally under-filled. Most supplements horses commercially available iron is abundant, but are not even close to the National Research Council (NRC) recommendations for copper and zinc.

Anemia is a condition in which there is a shortage of hemoglobin - a protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the blood. When many people think of anemia, they think of iron as well, but anemia in horses and people differ a bit. Iron deficiency anemia does not occur in horses unless there is an extreme loss of blood.Even then, the horse can usually recover within a few weeks because his body is so efficient to store and reuse iron. Excess iron is stored in the horse spleen, liver and bone marrow. Iron supplementation is generally not necessary in the equine anemia such as iron does not increase red blood cells or hemoglobin.

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