Yucky...but I have to ask...

[coconut]

Does anyone have any experience with horses eating their own or other horse's manure?

I have hesitated to ask this for months now ...I've kept this to myself because it just grosses me out on so many levels but now I'm wondering if there isn't something behind it...or do I just have a gross horse?

We had to break up the Girlfriend Grazing Party this afternoon because SOMEONE committed the ultimate party foul....and when I tried to chase her away from it she not only circled right back around to protect her "treat" but actually turned her hind in to me with her ears back.

The girls don't spend much time together alone in the pasture, mostly because Coconut can't handle a lot of hay or grass product. She'll get the runs if I leave her on too long. But after a good ride the girls enjoy a little down time so I allow it to a point. This, however, is a point I'm not so comfy with...

[fanaberia]

Yup, sure do.

A lot of horses will eat manure after being wormed... even ones that generally don't have this habit. Worming can often deplete or eliminate good microbacteria that aids in digestion in the gut. This is how horses (and other animals) reestablish their microbacterial colonies! (Probios can help in minimizing this grand event) Other substances or even an illness can reduce bacteria as well.

Of course, as with other things, there may be other reasons. Sometimes its a dietary need, sometimes its a habit. Never hurts to pick up your phone and call a vet familiar with that horse's history.

Might be something you look into though Jet- low microbacteria may be what causes Coconut to have the runs after eating a lot of hay or grass.

[maeve]

well, my personal theory is that coconut did it for years when she was in Elledge starvation hell- her insides were so damaged by parasites for so long that it was probably all she could eat.
but it was all fun and games today until someone eats some poo...

[coconut]

Over a year ago I was so frustrated with the whole digestion issue that I permanently switched her to Timothy Pellet and have not had a problem since except in those rare occasions where she eats a full meal of hay, alfalfa or too much grass. At the point I made that switch I had tried Probios and it failed to help her. Our vet had me try BioSponge and swore it helped every horse he'd ever used it on...but not Coconut! And then I tried the ZeoComplete and ZeoClear for a month. Then we learned about the severe parasite damage found in the necropsies of the Elledge horses and even though we'd been worming regularly the vet had me do a power pac on her and I can't say if it was the combination of the Zeo products/power pac/ (and/or) the switch to Pellet feed but we finally fixed it. She's been off the Zeo or any type of probiotic since I think October 08 and have had very consistent droppings.

I will give a call to the vet and see what he has to say about the eating the manure thing... She did have a mild colic about two weeks ago. I think I caught it every early in the process and we were able to give her a dose of banamine and walk her until she relaxed. It's her first one since the really bad one in Sept 07. I've been very mindful of her digestive system since then.

[fanaberia]

The poor Elledge horses; they are like opening a whole new can of worms.

I've been lucky, Khramer has had no runs since I got him and his fecals run negative when I do them. I've been lucky where I have had him since there wasn't a way for him to re-infest himself. And apparently, his body wasn't as beat up.

She might be eating it out of habit. Probably the only thing for those horses to eat during the winter...

[mswan]

Holly hasn't had any problems with her digestive system. I still have her on the daily wormer that we started them on soon after we got the horses and have done regular wormings as needed too. I wasn't a fan of daily wormer but it has worked for her. Holly has grown and is so pretty. We are back to riding again and she loves it. The thing that I have noticed with Holly is that she didn't learn to canter and play until she was here for awhile. Maybe because it was all about trying to stay alive. It has taken her some time to get her balance. Now she runs and plays like a normal horse.

[fanaberia]

I have a similar experience to mswan- Khramer really had a hard time with balance and didn't want to run around and play either.

The more I think about it, the more I become doubtful of the previous history causing this great of a digestive upset. You've had her for a long enough time for those organs to heal, so I doubt a major role in any digestive upset.

I know that none of the horses that came through Mission and were adopted out have any digestive issues.

Daily wormer is a pretty good deal, since it doesn't allow for a mass infestation but isn't a high enough dosage to kill off gut flora.

[schwung]

I can certainly imagine that the massive worm infestations these horses had could have resorted in some kind of internal damage to the digestive system. Hope had issues with diarrhea that took a long time to resolve and Jasmine is still pretty sensitive to certain feeds or feed changes.

That said, many horses have sensitivity to certain types of hay and don't have any history of worm infestation so its really impossible to say for sure what caused Coconut's problem.

[honeydofarm]

I went through manure eating with Daisy a few months ago. She has had a tendency towards loose manure, excitement, even slight/incremental changes in diet and heat cycles would bring it on. She started having very loose manure and then began eating manure shortly thereafter. She would only eat one other horse's manure, going so far as to chase the other horse away immediately after she deposited it to eat it. She left the other horse's manure alone. I supplemented with probiotics and had to try a few different combinations of hay to get her back on track. For her a mix of local grass and orchard seems to work for her. Pretty disgusting but effective way of letting you know something is amiss.

[shekaberry]

I read somewhere that this can be the result of protien or fiber deficiency, I believe they called it Coruphagia. A wives tale I heard said that if the horse has molasses in its diet, their manure will taste like molasses.

[cricket]

Feb 4, 2010 22:43:58 GMT -5 coconut said:

I will give a call to the vet and see what he has to say about the eating the manure thing... She did have a mild colic about two weeks ago. I think I caught it every early in the process and we were able to give her a dose of banamine and walk her until she relaxed. It's her first one since the really bad one in Sept 07. I've been very mindful of her digestive system since then.

I don't have any input regarding the manure eating necessarily, but I do have info regarding colic issues and feeding an all pellet diet.

I looked into this when I was feeding a 32 year old mare with bad teeth. It was really hard to keep weight on her, so I fed her a lot of various pelleted feed. After doing a bunch of reading and talking to the vet, I learned that it's important for horses to have some long fiber in their diet to help things move along smoothly through their digestive tract. The fiber should be at minimum 1 inch long. The pelleted feeds may meet their caloric needs, but they are too chopped up. Horses really need that long fiber for a healthy gut.