HorseAdvice.com Equine & Horse Advice: Whole flax seed fed to pregnant mares?

Better information makes for healthier horses,
Horseadvice.com is where equine science and horse sense intersect.

HorseAdvice.com » Horse Care » Equine Nutrition, Horse Feeds, Feeding » Fats and Oils in the Diet of Horses » Whole flax seed fed to pregnant mares?

Discussion on Whole flax seed fed to pregnant mares?

Use the navigation bar above to access articles and more discussions on this topic.

Author

Message

ANN COLLIER
Member
Username: Dres

Post Number: 145
Registered: 10-2000

Posted on Friday, Jan 10, 2003 - 2:48 pm:

i was just told that feeding flax seed to pregnant mares is harmful... something to do with the mares ''slipping'' the foal..

is this true..? if so should i be worried at this point as i have been adding this to all my horses diet for over a year, one mare is due in 7 weeks...

if it is harmful what should i be watching for, and what to do to correct it..??

thank you for any info ..
Ann

Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: Dro

Post Number: 7567
Registered: 1-1997

Posted on Saturday, Jan 11, 2003 - 8:24 am:

Here is a repeat of a post I made to a discussion from last year. Nothing has changed that I can find:

Of more interest to researchers has been the mildly estrogenic compounds found in flax seed or meal. However no work has been done on the use of these products in reproducing horses. Rats have been looked at fairly closely and so far flax is not thought to interfere with reproduction.

The prostaglandin that induces abortion is PG-F2a so probably the Pg-E1-like substance is not of any concern, but it would take research to know for sure.

Essentially Ann, we do not know but I cannot find any cliinical reports of abortions associated with the use of flax and some research that does not find a problem in other species.
DrO

Post a Message to this Discussion

Posting
Instructions:

Full Service Members may post to this discussion and should address the orignial poster's concerns or other information posted here. New questions about your horse should be started in a new discussion. Use the navigation bar at the top of this page to return to the parent article and review the article and existing discussions. If your question remains unanswered "Start a New Discussion", the link is under the list of discussions at the bottom of the article.

Post:

Username:

Password:

Options:

Enable HTML code in message
Automatically activate URLs in message

Action:

Home Page \| Todays Discussions \| Search \| Top of Page	Administration