This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > "Dave and Ann Sperl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > We were looking at some pictures of our Fjord and see that the one > taken last spring and the one taken recently show that the tail was > about 12 inches longer in the spring. > > Wonder what that means, if anything??? Any ideas?
Basically, it means that the animal is losing tail hair faster than it's growing. From what I've read, common causes include: * Excessively thorough brushing of the tail---too often, too "firmly", or with tools that "grab" the hair too much * Use of certain grooming aids on the tail---for instance, Show Sheen is reputed to make tail hair more brittle * Lots of tail swishing, at insects---especially in the presence of mesh or barbed wire fences, which tend to "grab" tail hairs * Tail rubbing, often because of bug bites, such as ticks * Nutritional deficiencies---supposedly biotin helps tail growth, likewise for Vitamin E and selenium (but test, first---too much selenium is as bad as too little); and I had good results with a flaxseed meal supplement. My old mare, Nansy, had a nice tail when I got her, but "lost" most of it a couple years later, shortly after we got our 2nd Fjord. I found a huge hank of tail hair in her stall; I suspect that Rom came in behind her when she was lying down, and was standing on her tail hair when she got up! (Her remaining tail hair had a horseshoe-shaped "cut" to it, and she was really crabby at him whenever he came into her stall behind her for a long time.) For years, her tail stayed shorter than her hocks. It'd grow out some, then she'd rub it out again when the ticks got bad. She also grew hoof slowly (age? Cushings?). Interestingly, when we moved to Oregon, she finally started growing and keeping her tail! Not sure if it was the change in hay/pasture, a different mineral supplement (more selenium in the standard supplements here), the lack of ticks, the fact that (while we were building the new house) I didn't always find time to give them their regular groomings, or what. Sleepy has always had a long, full tail---it wears off "square" near ground level. Rom's tail is thinner, and "pointed" at the end, which is not quite down to his fetlocks. (Rom has much "finer" mane/tail hair than does Sleepy.) I haven't noticed much change in their tails here, although their hooves have improved a great deal. Rom did go thru a period of thinning tail in the year or so after we got him, but his tail returned to normal after I took the bottle of Show Sheen away from my husband, and only let him "comb" tails with a dog brush (wire slicker). Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! 15 mi SW of Roseburg, Oregon
