Help!! Need ideas on how to get horse to eat

[StellaLenoir]

:ugh: My pain in the @ss horse Silver, has stopped eating the Sand Clear. She is off all food except hay, per our vet, but I can mix a little something in with the sand clear. She picks around it, and what she does eat most seems stuck on the roof of her mouth.

what to do?????

She really needs to have at least one if not more courses of the sand clear, I will try other brands next time, but she needs to at least get through this week. She is such a stinker, she leaves all the stupid sand clear crumbles, and then I have to stand there practicly forcing her to eat it.

Also, I found out her mama, Rainbow, who is not even nice to her, dumps some of HER food out onto the dirt for Silver. :nono: This is either a miss guided attempt to be nice, or Rainbows dasterdly plan to get rid of Silver through leathal sand ingestion. I havent decided which.

I am going crazy!

Ps........someone needs to invent a psyllium cookie.

:

:

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

My horses never liked sand clear but the really LOVE metamucil( the store brand is cheaper) It is sweet and oranged flavored. They lick it up like candy, no waste or struggle!!!

 

[StellaLenoir]

I can pick some of that up before her next dose tommorow. But how would the metamucil compare to the sand clear, dose wise? She gets about 2 oz of sand clear once a day....duh, I just figured out my own question, the vet had me doing metamucil 2 days a month 2 oz at a time but bugs got in the metamucil and I had got sand clear instead. so Ill give her 2 oz of metamucil next dose!

Thanks !

 

[Charlene]

ok, i have a question here because stella and i are dealing with the same thing...that pesky cow patty poo! red's bouts are occasional and i am dosing him again with ivermectin this weekend because i really do believe the problem could be worms.

metamucil, if i am not mistaken, is a LAXATIVE. is that not correct??? if it's a laxative, would this be a wise course of treatment for a horse who is already suffering from runny poo??

 

[idahopinto]

Try adding it to some soaked beet pulp. Your vet should have no problem with feeding it.

 

[StellaLenoir]

Charlene

I think the idea for the metamucil or sand clear, is to move the sand out. Cause the sand is what causes the cow patties. From what I have read on eof the signs of sand is apples, plops accompanied by liquid. Yum! Which is a great discription of Silver! And I hesitate to say ([SIZE=8pt]they are getting firmer[/SIZE]!)

idahopinto

yeah we had been doing soaked beet pulp for a while, and she had the cow pies with or without it. So I took her off everything except hay for now.

Her cow pies started to be her regular form of poo one day before my foal was born, so Aug 4 she started. Before then, she only had them during her heat cycle, or so it seemed.

 

[HGFarm]

I too would suggest a different brand because if she doesnt eat it- it isnt helping. Mine hate Equi Aid but love the kind made by Equus.

 

[Marty]

Stella, Stella, Stella, do not take your horse off of Sand Clear just yet.

First, are you sure you have downsized the amount by 1/3 or 1/4 the normal dosage?

If I am not mistaken, Sand Clear is pellets right? Ok, get you a zip lock baggy and put the pellets in there

and smash them up with a hammer.

Now, get you some applesauce or yogurt, or a handful of something she will eat and put it in there.

 

[runamuk]

ok, i have a question here because stella and i are dealing with the same thing...that pesky cow patty poo! red's bouts are occasional and i am dosing him again with ivermectin this weekend because i really do believe the problem could be worms.

metamucil, if i am not mistaken, is a LAXATIVE. is that not correct??? if it's a laxative, would this be a wise course of treatment for a horse who is already suffering from runny poo??

Psyllium helps bind the sand and make it pass out of the gut. It isn't really a laxative but a bulk fiber.

If you have a horse that is off and on with cow pies and has been well dewormed I would look to sand as the culprit. If feasable have the vet come and tube psyllium into the stomach and then use a psyllium product in large amounts(1/4 cup a day) for a month. Just my experience with a horse who had major sand and it took almost 8 months to diagnose (yes we tested poo always came back negative) vet ran blood work and a bunch of other tests there was no reason for it we could find, then one day he dropped a mostly normal pile and it had a weird sheen............it was sand lots and lots of sand.

You can always mix the sand clear with some soaked beet pulp.

 

[TriggynBluenDaisy Too]

ok, i have a question here because stella and i are dealing with the same thing...that pesky cow patty poo! red's bouts are occasional and i am dosing him again with ivermectin this weekend because i really do believe the problem could be worms.

metamucil, if i am not mistaken, is a LAXATIVE. is that not correct??? if it's a laxative, would this be a wise course of treatment for a horse who is already suffering from runny poo??

Metamucil is not a laxative, it doesn't cause the gut to spasm to push things through but it is a fiber that turns gelatinous so it can pick up things in the gut and carry it out. More so in people than horses, it would take a ton of fiber to have a laxative effect in a horse as their guts are designed to process only fiber. Sand Clear and Metamucil are the same psycillium (sp?) husks just in different forms.

The problem I have found with both is that if you don't feed it dry it clumps up and doesn't do what it's designed to do. The clumps do not disintegrate and do not pick up the sand so it's important to get in in before it goes into it's gelatinous state.

Blue hates the stuff regardless of what I use so I use the Sand Clear but mix it with a little bit of peanut butter. Then I put it on the back of a table spoon and apply it to the roof of his mouth. I have to do it several times to get the whole dose in him but he likes the taste but wouldn't eat it with out me putting it in for him and has no choice but to eat it in it's whole form. Kind of cute to see him licking and smacking his lips though.

If the Sand Clear doesn't make any improvements and it may not, you might try some Biosponge trial for 3-4 days. Whenever I have one with soft patties or out and out runs, I will de-worm even if not quite due, do a 7 day round of Sand Clear and it that doesn't do it often times the Biosponge will bring it under control. Kaopectate is another one that can be effective as well. It's safe and gentle--basically kaolin clay and apple pectin. Good luck and hope to hear your boy is having good poops again very soon. Amazing how a good poop from my horses, even though I have to clean it up, makes my day.

:

Hey Rori I owe you a Coke, posted almost the same thing at the same time.

 

[StellaLenoir]

Marty........I am not taking her off yet! No worries. I just noticed she was a complete stinker about eating the sand clear. I took the dose down to about 1/3 of the original dose.

I have tried it in the beet pulp, doesnt eat it.

I will try crushing, she cant pick around it that way. We have some apple sauce and maybe a little beet pulp for bulk, I just dont want to try a lot of stuff till we know her belly feels better.

I do plan on doing a few courses with a sand treatment. I think she has a signifigant amount in there.

Knock on wood she seems a little better, and I notice some of her belly bloat is going down. She is getting way more tucked up under her belly and at her flanks. No more watermellon gut!

But the dang, girl is still rooting in the dirt!! I am afraid that as fast as I get the sand OUT she is getting just as much IN.

Thanks for the ideas!

I will keep in mind the biospunge and kaopectate and if she doesnt eat the sand clear crushed in apple sauce, Ill try peanut butter, should be funny!!! thanks again!!!

:

 

[SunQuest]

I feel your pain with the sand clear. My horses won't eat it either and I have tried 2 different brands and hours of standing in the pasture begging my horses to eat the stuff! I have tried and tried and stood darn near on my head and no go.

I was having cases of sand colic when we moved the farm in 2002 or 2003 it started about 3 to 6 months after getting settled in and it was more than one horse and showed up in the tests at the vet's off.

Anyway, someone who does visit this forum told me to use whole flax seed on the grain. You can soak it if you wish in some water and it will produce a slimmy coating that is like a jell. Just put some flax in a small jar and cover it with water and place it in the refrigerator overnight. Next morning it will be gellatonous.

But I have learned you can just feed it whole without soaking and still get the same effect.

Ground flax will release the nutrients inside, but it destroys the slim that it makes which defeats the purpose. So for sand issues be sure to feed it whole.

Since starting to feed whole flax seed, I haven't had any more issues with the sand, the horses love the stuff and I can actually feed just it out of my hand. It is feed every day with the grain.

Just a note here, store the flax in the refrigerator and make sure that it smells nutty. If it smells real fishy, then it has gone rancid. Flax is known to spoil easy. Also make sure that the flax is dark brown in color. It is not good to feed unripe flax. I go to the local grocery store where the bulk foods are and get it from there. This way I hopefully get it fresher and I know the quality is better as it is human grade.

Now for your case, do follow the vets orders as I suspect that is very necessary right now.

 

[Carolyn R]

I have found that if you feed pellet food, put the sand clear in the food and add a little water. The pellets crumble and everything mixes together, there is no way in heck they can pick out the sand clear.

They gobble it right up.

Carolyn

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

We give any pysillium based product as a a slurry (really wet mash). The texture can put some horse off, so we add a bit of grain (Nutrena Senior which has beet pulp in it and/or beet pulp along with carrot pulp (from a juicer) or maple syrup or molasses, and a bit of salt (makes them thirsty - more water in) always works. If it's not colic related I may use apples or apple juic/sauce. Raw apples can be gassy so not the best for colicy gas prone horses.

I don't give pysillium products dry as they expand so much when they absorb water and not enough water can cause more problems. I don't want it pulling water from the gut, but rather go wet to get things moving and add water to a horses system. Horses with cow pie manure are losing water (same like us when that happens).

What we use (not advising others to do this) but we buy pysillium online (google search) much cheaper than anything else especially the horse products. I use it and store brand metamucil. In a pinch Trader Joes has inexpensive pysillium too.

 

[disneyhorse]

Hmmmm.... my vet says that whole flax seed or psyllium (he recommends either) IS a laxative and DOES NOT "bind" to the sand.

This discussion came about one day, when the lady at my barn and I took little ziplock bags and put in some sand, water, and then one bag each had psyllium, soaked flax, dry flax, ground flax, and metamucil in it.

We were going to see which product "bound" to the sand the best.

My vet came by, he said he admired our little "experiment" but that we wouldn't get results.

He said the flax/psyllium acts as a laxative to get the gut to convulse and it "stirs up" the sand from the bottom and helps it pass out. It doesn't "stick" to the sand as the sand is at the bottom and is just a mass in the gut sticking to the food it's mixed with, anyway.

With horses that are already laxative (as in has diarrhea) there is generally no need to feed a preventative sand-clearing product. If the horse is found to have diarrhea FROM the sand, it is important to keep them on the psyllium to keep the gut moving it out, but it is equally important to get them OFF the sand and into an area that is free of sand, until sand is found clear of their manure.

That is the information I have.

Andrea

Here is some information about sand colic:

Sand Colic

Sand Colic Article 2

 

[outlawridge]

Ps........someone needs to invent a psyllium cookie.

:

:

I don't have suggestions for you that aren't already posted, however I like your idea of a psyllium cookie! Am going to research and work on that in my treat line. Thanks for the idea! :aktion033: This may take awhile as I do alot of preliminaries before actually introducing a new treat, and right now the newest, Flax n' Honey Biscotti is in taste testing. Once I am to that stage, how about if your horses are some of the official taste testers?

: Sure hope you come up with a good solution for Silver.

 

[StellaLenoir]

Ps........someone needs to invent a psyllium cookie.

:

:

I don't have suggestions for you that aren't already posted, however I like your idea of a psyllium cookie! Am going to research and work on that in my treat line. Thanks for the idea! :aktion033: This may take awhile as I do alot of preliminaries before actually introducing a new treat, and right now the newest, Flax n' Honey Biscotti is in taste testing. Once I am to that stage, how about if your horses are some of the official taste testers?

: Sure hope you come up with a good solution for Silver.

HA ha, I hope you do figure out how to make a cookie version, and we would love to be taste testers, on one condition.........we get to come to YOUR place!!! I love all the pictures you have posted and am soooooooooooo jealous!!!! Good luck!!!

 

[outlawridge]

HA ha, I hope you do figure out how to make a cookie version, and we would love to be taste testers, on one condition.........we get to come to YOUR place!!! I love all the pictures you have posted and am soooooooooooo jealous!!!! Good luck!!!

You're on Girlie!!

: :bgrin