Evaluating gelding's nutritional needs

You can feed whole flax seed and get the same effect. It doesn't need to be ground for the horse to get the fat/nutrients out of it, and it doesn't need to be refrigerated. I give my horse 2 oz of flax seed daily with his ration balancer (Triple Crown 30% Supplement), but you can definitely feed more than that.

The recommendation for Vit A for horses is 6,000-8,000 IU per 100 kg of weight. So, if your horse is 500 kg (1100 lb), he should get 30,000 to 40,000 IU of Vit A daily. In 1.5 lbs of Gro N Win he gets 33,000 IU, so he should be getting enough from that alone.

You should definitely provide him with some salt. Free choice loose salt is best, but can be difficult to do if he's not stalled. You can also add in some iodized table salt to his grain (I give my horse 20g daily) and also give him a salt block that he can lick if he feels the need for more.

I'm wondering if an iodine deficiency is the problem for him, as it can lead to a dry, lusterless coat (source) among other problems. Aside from no access to salt, his diet seems sufficient as-is, so maybe try adding in some iodized salt and seeing if that makes a difference.

Will look into the cost of flax seed vs. supplement vs. hemp!

I thought he might be deficient in something... its just not right for his coat to look the way it does. I'm going to get better photo's of him this afternoon, I will be out treating his rainrot again.

The article provided says:

Now, the Gro n' Win contains 4ppm of Iodine minimum ... I don't know if this is on a dry matter basis or not (again I do small animal food, not large but I'm getting there!) but it seems like its on the high end for an amount of iodine, other feed brands (ration balancers - similar to Gro n' Win) I cannot even find info regarding iodine. He is about 500kg's. Should I still supplement ionized salt or hold off?

I think I am going to call the company and speak with a represtantive to get this information on a dry matter basis so that I can see if its too much/too little. If he's getting too much then maybe I need to decrease what he's getting or switch to a different ration balancer. He had been on Gro n' Win previously for a year, then switched off and has been back on for 4 months now.

4 ppm is that same as in my ration balancer, although I only feed 1 lb of it. That concentration provides 1.8 mg of iodine per pound. I think the amount given in that article (1-2 mg for a 500kg horse) is a bit low. There's a lot of conflicting research/opinions on exactly how much a horse needs, with the National Research Council (NRC) estimating it to be somewhere between 0.1 to 0.6mg/kg diet, or 0.9 to 5.4mg/day for a horse eating 20lbs of hay. I like to shoot for somewhere in the middle, about 3-4 mg, for my horse.

Supplementing with a little bit of iodized salt should be safe- toxic levels are ~5ppm, or 50+ mg per day. According to wikipedia, iodized salt in the US is 46-77 ppm iodine, so each 10 g of it contains 0.46 to 0.77 mg. Not enough to be unsafe, but enough to tip the balance if the horse is slightly deficient.

How do you feed the flax seed? Do you feed it whole? Do you grind it fresh each day? And how much of the flax seed are you feeding per day?

What are the temps like where you are in CA? If it's cold enough, just leaving flax or other cold products outdoors may be close enough to refrigeration to be going along with! :)

CA as in California or Canada?

As inThe temp has been fluctuating way too much here. Currently we're sitting at 15C. Tomorrow we're in the 1C range ... last week we were dipping into the negatives!

It's not possible for me or the boarding facility to grind flaxseed fresh each day so if I cannot feed it whole then I need to look into another source for Omega's for him. I was unaware it had to be refridgerated?

As in Canada ;)

Ah, okay
Ground flax seed goes rancid pretty quickly. Whole flax you can store nearly forever. I used to grind it fresh every day with a little coffee grinder.
Now I've discovered the Omega Horseshine and LOVE it. No more grinding for me

Gah! There is just too much varying information online regarding flaxseed!

Whole vs. Ground vs. Soaked

I think I am going to try to get some whole flaxseed and start with a small amount and see how it goes. I ended up pulling my gelding off pasture board and onto full board for the winter. Poor fella has seemed very stressed out the last week when I go out to check on him around 6-8pm ... so hopefully being inside reduces some stress and re-evaluating his diet we will successfully get over this rain rot.

Yes he should have free choice salt and water.
He looks to be on the heavy side.
I recommend Hoffman's Minerals, if he is lacking, vitamins or minerals. This is also fed free choice.
There is an Absorbine product for rainrot, fungas, ringworm ect. Should work. Its a spray on and leave in and also comes with a medicated shampoo.