black hard poop?

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XjenX

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My horse is our during the day and stabled at night when I was mucking out earlier I noticed her poop has turned black and very hard they were not more than 14 hours old she gets chaff and just changed from hay to haylage should I be concerned ??
 
If they are very hard it suggests she may not be drinking very much, haylage being higher in moisture may make her think she does not require as much water, try and get her to take in as much as possible with her chaff by making it into a soup.

The droppings being very black sounds unusual and would concern me although I am unsure as to what may be causing it, any dramatic change to the droppings should be taken seriously, any change to the diet should be done very gradually to allow the gut to adapt the bacteria required to digest the food.

I would be keeping a close eye on her watching for any colics signs, it could be that she has an impaction due to the change of diet, if at all worried phone your vet for advice rather than risk leaving her, colic is my number one fear with my horses as you can never tell how bad it is as they all react differently.
 
Your horse is dehydrated. Some horses don't like drinking very cold water. Add hot water to her bucket when you bring her in, add some mollases to the water and wet hay before feeding. If you can feed Sugarbeet instead of chaff you will introduce more water into her diet.
 
Offer like warm water, it often helps encourage them to drink.

As BP says keep a close on on her. In humans too dark motion would be either someone taking iron or a concern in case the darkness was blood.

Hope she is ok and it's just the change. Although normally a switch to haylage would cause loose pooh
 
can u wet haylage she was not eating very much so i put some water over the haylage n she eat it no problem but the other nite a woman at the stables said i should do it had a right go at me but when i put it in without me wetting it she wont eat it i cant c the harm ??
 
XjenX said:
can u wet haylage she was not eating very much so i put some water over the haylage n she eat it no problem but the other nite a woman at the stables said i should do it had a right go at me but when i put it in without me wetting it she wont eat it i cant c the harm ??
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Soaking haylage can start off a secondary fermentation. I'm not sure about wetting it but I would imagine it would be no more risky than feeding haylage from the field when it's raining.

My mare drinks about a quarter of her usual amount of water when her hay is soaked. Her droppings are exactly as they were before soaked hay so I assume she does receive an equal amount of water/ moisture.

I'm not sure just dampening haylage would have the same effect but any moisture is better than none at all.

As others have said, keep a close eye on her. Hard black droppings can be cause for more serious concerns.
 
I would take it extremely seriously. How much salt are you feeding? I would make her drink a couple of times a day at least. you can do this with sugar beet water, soaked alfalfa pellets or horse and pony nuts in a very sloppy liquid, even water with liquid molasses if she won't drink anything else. Try it with warmed water, anything to get her to drink.
 
thanks everyone when i was up yestersay the water bucket was still practially full so made her chaff up with lots of water kept her in her stable this morning so i can c what she is drinking. People keep advising me against chaff any reason?
 
XjenX said:
thanks everyone when i was up yestersay the water bucket was still practially full so made her chaff up with lots of water kept her in her stable this morning so i can c what she is drinking. People keep advising me against chaff any reason?
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not sure there is anything actually wrong with chaff but you may get more liquid in with soaked pellets. If you are feeding alpha A for example use dengie alfalfa pellets soaked. I had a similar situation ie horse that didn't drink much and got impacted colic due to this. Now I soak 8oz of alfalfa pellets and fill it up to half a bucket of water. He slurps down his gruel every night. Don't forget the salt.
 
XjenX said:
thanks everyone when i was up yestersay the water bucket was still practially full so made her chaff up with lots of water kept her in her stable this morning so i can c what she is drinking. People keep advising me against chaff any reason?
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The reason for not using chaff is that it's a dry, dry food ans if your horse is not drinking well then feeding the fibre in a different form eg Sugarbeet which is well soaked and holding a lot of water. These types of fibre are great for helping with hydration.
 
Great advice slightly warming water and soaking hay, hopefully just due to being slightly dehydrated, especially if horse is well in itself and bright and happy! If not well in self by Monday then exam by vet +/- blood sample would probably be a good idea.
 
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