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  Discussion on Corn oil vs. flax
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 5, 2002 - 2:34 pm:

I give my horse 1 cup of corn oil a day to help her maintain weight. Recently I have read a lot about flax, and would like to try it. My questions are:

1. Does corn oil have the Omega 3 fatty acids that are supposed to be so good in flax?

2. Is flax as an efficient "fat adder" as corn oil?

3. If I start my horse on flax, do I reduce or eliminate the corn oil?

4. I have read a lot about flax being great for hooves - can you explain why? How does this compare to Biotin for hooves?

5. If I start to feed flax can I reduce or elimate the hoof supplement that I feed? It has 20 mg. of biotin per dose.

6. Lastly, the flax product that I want to use says it has 300 ?g per pound of biotin - what is the ?g that they are referring to? Here is the link...https://www.flax.com/enreco/Products/Horseshine.htm#Guaranteed

Thanks for your help!

Posted on Thursday, Jun 6, 2002 - 7:14 am:

Taking your questions one at a time:
1. Does corn oil have the Omega 3 fatty acids that are supposed to be so good in flax?
No

2. Is flax as an efficient "fat adder" as corn oil?
No

3. If I start my horse on flax, do I reduce or eliminate the corn oil?
No, not until your horse gains condition.

4. I have read a lot about flax being great for hooves - can you explain why? How does this compare to Biotin for hooves?
I do not know any reason flax might be great for hooves over other good quality feed stuffs.

5. If I start to feed flax can I reduce or elimate the hoof supplement that I feed? It has 20 mg. of biotin per dose.
No.

6. Lastly, the flax product that I want to use says it has 300 ?g per pound of biotin - what is the ?g that they are referring to?
I think this is a misprint and can't figure out what they might be referring to.

For more about flax in the diet see Care for Horses: Nutrition: Fats and Oils in the Diet of Horses.
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jun 6, 2002 - 11:30 am:

Dr. O., Thanks for your reply. I called the company that makes this product and here's what they told me.

Flax has Omega-3 fat, and corn oil has Omega-6. They said that the Omega-3 is much better for a horse, and that it is one of the building blocks for hooves. That is why so many people feed it and notice a huge difference in their horse's hoof condition. I also asked them about the 300?g, and apparently that symbol mean "micrograms" - a microgram is the equivalent to nothing from what I gather. Does all of the above sound reasonable from your experience?

Another question; ever since I have been feeding the hoof supplement (6 months) which has all of the ingredients that this website suggests (that's why I selected it), my horse's hooves have been growing supper fast - like I almost could shoe her every 3.5 weeks if my farrier would let me. What do you think about reducing the supplement so her hooves do not grow as much? And, because they are growing faster does that mean that they are of lesser quality?

Thanks Dr. O.!!!!

Posted on Friday, Jun 7, 2002 - 7:19 am:

The question mark is not the symbol for micro. Apparently they are using a HTML convention your browser does not recognize and it inserts the question mark for the unrecognized HTML. The microgram symbol looks like a small u so in THe ADvisor you will see a microgram written like this: ug. or sometimes ugm. You are correct 300 ug. is about 1/7th the amount recommended for a supplement.

I know of no work to suggest that horses on a good diet to begin with benefit from flax supplementation.

No I do not believe faster growth equates to lesser quality, in fact just the opposite: horn deteriorates and wears down with time.
DrO
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