Ask The Equine Nutritionist

I recently had someone tell me that one should not feed more than 2-4 oz of flax seed to a horse because it may cause thyroid problems. They also said that it's calcium/phosphorus ration is very unbalanced and that flax seed is inherently highly unstable. Because if this, I was advised to buy a product called " HorseTech's flax" (www.horsetech.com) that's processed in a way that adjusts the ca/phos ratio specifically for the horse, and it's stabilized so it lasts quite a long time.

Honestly, I've never heard of these things with flax seed, and we and other people I know have fed between 4-8 oz of flax seed.

Would you give me your opinion, please, on this? Is there a problem with the calcium/phosphorus ration and is the flax seed I buy at the feed store likely to degrade before I feed it?

The whole seed of flax keeps extremely better in fact than any ground version no matter how "stabilized' it is.

The calcium:phosphorus ration in 4-8 oz of feed is really not relevant when the animal takes in 20-25lbs of hay each day. I'd worry a lot more about the Ca:P ratio in the hay myself.

But the way to correct that ration is to add a half ounce or so of any calcium salt. You could do that by giving him a few tums or a teaspoonful of calcium carbonate (ground limestone). The tums would be the most palatable choice.

The whole flax is nutritionally the the same to the horse as the Horse Tech but a lot cheaper!

Dr. Melyni Worth Ph.D. - 2004 (c)

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