A nasty new thing

[MiniforFaith]

Hi, I was just wondering if it means anything when a horse eats poop? I caught my mare doing this today, and my son said he saw her do it yesterday :smileypuke: Is she just being gross or does it mean she is lacking something?? She has access to a salt block 24/7.. Anyone else has a mini that does it?

Thanks,

Jodie

 

[targetsmom]

Yep, ours do it too. I don't worry about it much (although it is gross) because ours are all on a daily wormer. Ours are show animalss and get all kinds of supplements and salt blocks, so I don't think that is what causes it.

 

[Marty]

In my humble world it means a mineral defiency

 

[Gena]

We used Buckeye free choice minerals and free choice salt seperately - we had a handy container that we screwed to the wall of each stall and put the minerals in one side and the salt in the other. Our Buckeye supplier explained to us if they want the minerals but not the salt they won't eat the salt blocks with minerals added to it.

 

[Russ]

I strongly agree with Marty.

:

In my humble world it means a mineral defiency

 

[StellaLenoir]

I wonder too, my mares have access to free choice minerals, but my 2 year old will sometimes eat poo. She roots through and only eats certain ones, I think its because she is board. Its usually between hay feedings. My girls are dry lotted most of the time so maybe that has something to do with it. My older mare doesnt seem to do it.

 

[ChrystalPaths]

I'd be getting a tube of probios. She may feel her gut is lacking something?

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Whatever we wish to feed and however we choose to feed it, a horse come preprogrammed to eat 22 o/o 24 hours a day.

When you do not allow this to happen they eat whatever there is to hand.

It is not necessarily out of hunger- although this is a very relative term as a horse is basically ALWAYS hungry, they are supposed to be digesting long stem fibre pretty much all the time.

If you take away the poop she will find something else to eat.

Horses are grazers, dry lots are foreign to them.

I realise some do not have a choice but, if you do, put her out to graze and the problem will cease.

Even my show horses go out for five hours a day- I just keep the grass short, but they are grazing - their stomachs only kick up when their heads are messed with- it is a totally psychological thing.

 

[Jill]

Could be mineral diffiency, boredom or if you feed oats or sweet feed with oats, undigested and stll yummy oats...

 

[whitney]

One of the treatments I discovered for the gut bug was feeding (hold onto your hat) manure tea from a HEALTHY horse it puts good bacteria back into the gut, horses will do this on their own if they run in a herd.

 

[minih]

In my humble world it means a mineral defiency

or boredom.

 

[babygoose]

I think more often than not it is due to boredom. Especially when it occurs on horses that are stalled or dry lotted and not able to have free choice hay. My draft cross eats her poop. Most of the time she does it right after she has finished her hay. She has to kept on a diet or she would be grossly overweight. It is hard to find grass hay where I am at so she gets mostly alfalfa. So unfortunately her time spent eating is cut shorter than I would like. She does it less when I am able to turn her out into the pasture daily, even though there is little grass in the pasture, she can at least keep her head down and pick away.

My mini mare is in the same boat, but she doesn't eat as much poo. Possibly because since she eats less overall I can give her more grass hay which increases her chewing time.

 

[HGFarm]

I have seen other horses do this when their diet consists mainly of pellets or they are not getting enough fiber also! Which could also mean a lack of minerals or vitamins that they would normally get from that source.

As someone stated, horses are grazing animals, and they are designed to eat off and on all the time. Lack of fiber, boredom, etc... can cause this. This is one reason I hate seeing horses (of any size) being fed just pellets or concentrated feeds.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Just had a brain wave!!!

Get a cube ball!!!!

 

[BlueEyedPony]

My QH mare did this quite a bit last winter, and I was totally perplexed. She was (and still is) on 6 acres of pasture, and was splitting a bale of hay a day with 2 other horses, so always had something to eat. She has always had access to a mineral block and plenty of water. She would only eat the manure of the dominant mare in the pasture, and would eat up almost every pile the mare made (but ignored her own manure and that of the weanling filly). I put her on Accel, which contains minerals, vitamins, and probiotics, and she stopped within a few days. She has only done it once or twice since then, and each time when I forget to give her Accel. I really think my mare had some sort of intestinal pain/imbalance (but not to the level of colic), and the Accel took care of it. Just a thought.