Advice please

[Balibee]

Hiya

My horse was spotted eating poo today!

He was fed in Dengie Hi fI, Spillers HF nuts and pink powder (ad lib hay).

A while ago he started scouring, not normal scouring but soaked back end and legs. His poos were normal, he just had squit before and after. Spoke to the Vet who put him on codiene and a Probiotic powder, told me to drop the Pink powder temporarily while he was on the probiotic and feed him a fibre beet.

I have followed this to the letter and his back end is pretty much back to normal but he has now been spotted eating his poo. Now I know this means he is lacking in something but is this a result of stopping the pink powder? Something else going on?

I am going to phone vet again on monday but just wondered if anyone else had similar experiences?
Thanks

 

[china]

We have one down the yard that eats his pooh as hes hungry. he cant eat haylage as his back end is hurrendous so he gets a small amount of hay and a hay replacer being a bucket or dried grass and quick fibre. he is such a pig he eats it all in 10 minutes then gets hunngry and eats his own pooh. but if given ad lib he ends up the size of a house! i wouldnt worry to much but it may be hes lacking in something.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Unfortunately, antibiotics zap ALL bacteria, even the "good" bacteria in the horse's gut. He may be eating his droppings in an effort to repopulate his gut with the good gut flora, since some of these bacteria are shed in the droppings themselves. The pre- and post-biotics you're feeding should be helping but if you want to speed the process up a bit, you can feed him some live yoghurt. Stick it in his feed. If he's picky, try to get fruit flavoured. Must be live. I think there's a specialist horse live bacteria product - never used it, can't remember name. I think it was Imogen on here that posted about it so you could pm her if your horse won't eat live yoghurt (amount upped to reflect horse size v human size). Make sure he's having fibre, fibre, fibre as it's this that the "good" bacteria thrive on.

 

[Balibee]

Thanks for the replies.

I have put him on Allen and Page fast fibre. Hopefully things will settle down soon.

I will try the live yoghurt too. That sounds like a great idea.

fingers crossed