Coprophagia

C1airey

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Adult horse has suddenly started eating poo. Not just anyone’s poo though (jeez....), only from one horse, and only since that one horse has been swapped into Alfa-A as part of his feed. Has anyone else found this? The other horse (with the tasty poo) isn’t mine, so I can’t change his feed back and see if it makes a difference.

My horse is a fair doer, gets good quality low-calorie haylage and Bailey’s #14, so I’d be surprised if he was lacking in anything which might prompt the poo-eating. Any suggestions?
 

Nasicus

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How's the other horses digestion? If stuff tends to run through him quickly, it may be coming out the other end not entirely digested and still semi-palatable. And well, some horses have pretty low standards on what they will eat o_O
 

C1airey

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Yeah, I did wonder if the other horse wasn’t fully processing the alfalfa ? His poos are distinctively pale. Equally, he’s the second fizzy horse on the yard yo have settled after switching to an alfalfa product, so there maybe something missing in our grazing.
 

Lois Lame

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Maybe try him on some lucerne chaff or lucerne hay. (Alfalfa is what Americans call lucerne.) Of course, it's easier to give less if its chaff. It's messy to pull apart a biscuit of lucerne hay as the leaf falls from the stalks where you are doing the pulling.

ETA: Lucerne is rich in calcium.
 

Leo Walker

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Maybe try him on some lucerne chaff or lucerne hay. (Alfalfa is what Americans call lucerne.) Of course, it's easier to give less if its chaff. It's messy to pull apart a biscuit of lucerne hay as the leaf falls from the stalks where you are doing the pulling.

ETA: Lucerne is rich in calcium.

We also dont have lucerne hay here.
 

Steerpike

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I know someone who has managed to get Alfala/Lucerne bales here so it is possible to get it, just very difficult.
 

C1airey

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Give that I work in a tack shop, a bag of Alfa-A is where I’ll start, although I suspect it may be that the other horse is producing particularly tasty poo, rather than a deficiency ?
 
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