# Red cell



## FabioandFreddy (14 January 2013)

I've been recommended this by my new dressage instructor who swears by it. Just interested in opinions on if its made a difference to your horse if you use it? She did say don't be surprised if there's a few bucks and liveliness initially - so may not start it for a few weeks as Fab's already going through a 'boingy' stage for the last week!


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## ILuvCowparsely (14 January 2013)

FabioandFreddy said:



			I've been recommended this by my new dressage instructor who swears by it. Just interested in opinions on if its made a difference to your horse if you use it? She did say don't be surprised if there's a few bucks and liveliness initially - so may not start it for a few weeks as Fab's already going through a 'boingy' stage for the last week!
		
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I used it with my mare and had good success, It then got harder to find and I switched to propell plus.
 The latter I found hardly made any difference.  Red cell is much better.


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## milliepops (14 January 2013)

I've used both propel plus and red cell. Neither made my mare any more lively  she was already fairly bouncy  
I started as a general pick-me-up after a rough winter and only stopped it recently as I've started feeding Blue Chip. I did rate the Redcell , my girl always looked and felt well on it. She's usually a very good doer so I never fed the recommend ed


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## milliepops (14 January 2013)

Argh ! Phone ! Was trying to say I didn't feed the recommended amount of hard feed so the Redcell topped up her vits and mins.


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## FabioandFreddy (15 January 2013)

Thanks. Fab's on token feed as he's a fairly good doer and usually add a general purpose supplement. Will give it a go and see if there's any difference.


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## Happy H (15 January 2013)

Used to use pro-pell plus which is pretty much the same thing I think - a blood tonic.

Just used it in the summer along with straight oats, chaff and a balancer to lazy fat horsey.  That combination worked a treat


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## TwoStroke (15 January 2013)

Red cell contains large amounts of iron, which is usually excessive in uk grazing and forage anyway. Too much iron in the diet inhibits the absorption of other vital minerals, such as copper (which is usually already deficient in uk forage). Blindly supplementing excessive amounts of unbalanced minerals is, imo, unwise.

It also contains high levels of selenium, so I would certainly not feed it with any other supplements containing selenium, as it is toxic in fairly low doses.


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## sbloom (15 January 2013)

I'm with TwoStroke - horses get a lot of iron in their diets and iron toxicity is real, I have a customer with a horse who has a damaged liver from one large batch of hay that was too high in iron! Much better to use a properly balanced supplement - either customised to your forage and/or grazing, or one of the good ones that barefooters rate.


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## Happy H (15 January 2013)

Sorry - was red cell I fed!  It has balanced copper/iron, so should not have to worry about that.  It does say on the label to check the selenium levels of your other feeds tho and tells you max they can have.

I don't get the argument that all animals need exactly the same levels of vits and mins - after a bad reaction to some pain killers, I now need to take vitamin B supplement every day or I get a mouth full of ulcers.  If there is a problem, using herbals/vits/mins etc. to support their system can be a good thing!


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## sbloom (15 January 2013)

Balanced copper/iron (no idea if that's correct) does not mean there isn't the chance of iron toxicity.  And most horses do need pretty much the same balance of vits and mins, but they're all fed different forages - each yard could feed the same tailored mix to all horses and do pretty well overall if they're all fed the same hay/haylage/grazing.


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## TwoStroke (15 January 2013)

Happy H said:



			Sorry - was red cell I fed!  It has balanced copper/iron, so should not have to worry about that.
		
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I agree with sbloom . Moreover, I've looked at the mineral breakdown, and the iron/copper ratio certainly does not look well balanced to me! And that's not taking into account the fact that most horses will already be getting too much iron and too little copper from their forage, so this supplement will unbalance them futher.


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## Clava (15 January 2013)

I wouldn't feed an iron supplement (unless your forage when analysed was low which is very rare I think) I would feed a copper and zinc supplement though to balance a high iron intake from forage.


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## Hexx (15 January 2013)

My boy was diagnosed with a low red cell count last year after he became lethargic and very quiet which was unlike him.  The vet thought it was probably due to an virus that hit the liver hard.  He was on IronXCell for about 6 months until the blood count picked up, and he perked up and was much more like himself.  He now just has milk thistle to support the liver.

As others have said, I don't think that I would use it as a regular supplement as it is high in iron and vit b, so could overload the system.


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## cptrayes (15 January 2013)

Hexx said:



			My boy was diagnosed with a low red cell count last year after he became lethargic and very quiet which was unlike him.  The vet thought it was probably due to an virus that hit the liver hard.  He was on IronXCell for about 6 months until the blood count picked up, and he perked up and was much more like himself.  He now just has milk thistle to support the liver.

As others have said, I don't think that I would use it as a regular supplement as it is high in iron and vit b, so could overload the system.
		
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Just for information, anaemia (low red blood cell count) is also caused by iron overload in horses and the remedy is increased copper.


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## Hexx (15 January 2013)

Might it have been a low white count then?  I always get them mixed up!!


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## cptrayes (16 January 2013)

I think there are even vets who assume that any anaemia is automatically caused by low iron


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