Can molasses cause loose droppings?

[Marilyn]

Every winter, my mare's dropping become looser- not diarrhoea, but looser. She's regularly wormed and in good health, and she's holding her weight, so I've been thinking about possible causes, and I wondered if an increase in the amount of molasses she takes on during the winter could have anything to do with it? Does anyone have any similar experiences?

 

[ThePony]

Any change in diet can cause loose droppings - other than more molasses, does your horse have any other diet or management changes during the winter?

As an aside, I would try and avoid molasses, it is not a natural food for horses and is high in sugar. Something best avoided for good general health and feet in particular.

 

[Marilyn]

It's a molassed fibre feed- I feed them all year round but, in the summer, it's just a small amount, enough to have their supplements. I'm thinking of changing for the molasses free version of this particular feed, especially in light of her loose droppings. She is on a fibre diet, the only thing that changes are the quantities of what she has- she has more of the molassed products in the winter...

 

[ThePony]

Sounds well worth a try, especially if you can switch easily to the non-mollased version. I don't suppose she switches to haylge during the winter? It is fairly common for that to upset some sensitive horses. Might be also worth giving her a course of yeasacc to help her gut to work well? http://www.naturalhorsesupplies.co.uk/p/product/0901224736-Yea-Sacc+900g++%A31399/ I don't keep ours on it all the time, just give them a course of a few weeks about 4 times a year which seems to help everything run smoothly, esp if you have just wormed or the horse is going through a stressful period.

 

[Marilyn]

Thank you- she's on hay not haylage...but I have heard of haylage causing similar issues. I did put her on a course of probiotics but they smelt awful as it was a real job getting her to eat them! I'll have a look at that though, thank you.

 

[amandap]

Yes. Too much starch and or sugars can cause all sorts of gut upset with possible knock on symptoms throughout the horses body. Look at any forage change in winter as well as your bucket feed. Here's a great blog post explaining the effects of too much starch/sugars on the hind gut. Farting (lol) is only one possible effect, changes in poo consistency, smell, lethargy are just some indicators that sugar/starch overload is a possible problem.
http://barefoothorseblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/managing-your-microbes-or-how-to.html
Something like yea sacc or activated charcoal granules can help but of course dietary changes are important if excess sugars/starch is the culprit or one of them. It could be one ingredient in a feed too, some horses are sensitive to alfalfa for example.

 

[Ibblebibble]

i know horses digestive systems are different to ours but a lot of our laxatives are high in sugar as sugar absorbs water from the digestive tract to make the poo softer and easier to pass, I'm sure it would have a similar effect in a horses digestive system too!

 

[Marilyn]

Thank you- I think I'm changing to molasses free! Thanks for all your help- it's always good to talk through things with good horsey minds!