Grass/Soil Analysis

[clarea]

I know a few of you have had this done recently so just wanted to get some thoughts from you guys.

Since coming to my current yard (just over 2 yrs ago), my gelding has suffered on a regular basis (every 5-6 weeks) a very gunky sheath (sorry ) He gets very uncomfortable with it and although he has seen the vet about it 4 separate times they have all said that it is an overproduction of the natural stuff that is usually there.
Prior to coming to this yard we have never had this sort of problem so I am thinking that there must be an imbalance or something in the grass. Do you think that is possible and could it cause that sort of problem? Incidentally the other gelding all experience the same thing (although not as regularly but still frequently).

Would a grass analysis show if there is an imbalance? Would a soil test be better?

Any ideas gratefully received!

[Deleted]

IMO grass analysis is better than soil because the grass won't necessarily take up all of the minerals present in the soil so soil analysis isn't as representative of what they're actually eating.

It certainly seems like it must be something to do with their grazing for it to affect all the geldings on the yard, and for your boy to have not had it before moving there. Possibly could be hay/ haylage if you're all on the yard supply although I'd have thought it less likely as presumably you won't have been feeding the same stuff all that time (and if you don't feed hay in summer then presumably it would improve in summer if the hay were the cause).

My companion horse has always been like this, and this summer it got infected and he had to have antibiotics etc, but since the infection cleared up it seems to have been a bit cleaner then pre-infection.

[clarea]

Thanks michellep. Does a grass analysis give a full breakdown of all vits/mins and does that get interpreted for you (I would have no idea what are 'normal' ranges?

[taklishim]

shop.forageplus.com/epages/es137718.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es137718/Categories

this site tells you how to get your grass analysed and the types of analysis available. There is also a service on here to interpret the results. You will presumably also be analysing your hay as well?

anyway loads of info on that site.

[Deleted]

I got mine done by Dodson and Horrell and then took the results to a nutritionist I trusted, in my case Nicola at Top Spec. I told her I wanted to know if it was worth supplementing any individual minerals and as it turned out she said not and actually told me a couple of things to avoid feeding such as seaweed. D&H tell you (on the results sheet) whether each mineral is in the low, medium or high categories but don't offer much other than that, they probably would have done on the phone but I went to Nicola instead as I know she'll recommend what's best for the horse, not just her own products.

[taklishim]

Jan 5, 2012 16:55:29 GMT 1 @michellep said:

I got mine done by Dodson and Horrell and then took the results to a nutritionist I trusted, in my case Nicola at Top Spec. I told her I wanted to know if it was worth supplementing any individual minerals and as it turned out she said not and actually told me a couple of things to avoid feeding such as seaweed. D&H tell you (on the results sheet) whether each mineral is in the low, medium or high categories but don't offer much other than that, they probably would have done on the phone but I went to Nicola instead as I know she'll recommend what's best for the horse, not just her own products.

obviously you did a lot better than me then. The advice I got from TS was bad. It is the last place I would ask for advice again.

[clarea]

Thanks taklishim I'll take a look at that site. I'm not going to get the hay tested at this stage as it is normally from our fields anyway but on the occasions we have got it elsewhere, the sheath problem as remained.
Will have a look at D&H too. Many thanks.