Dogs eating horse poo.

TheresaW

TheresaW

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 January 2006
Messages
9,323
Location
Nottinghamshire
Visit site
Luna has been coming up to the horses with me this week as I’ve been off and has settled in around them very well. I do keep a very close eye as I don’t want horses or her hurt, plus with her off lead, and the high prey drive etc. Field is fully enclosed, and then electric inside for the horses.

Anyway, I’ve noticed she’s partial to a bit of horse poop. Because of Aled being a Border Collie, I never take him up there around worming time, and not for a week after, but he doesn’t seem to eat the poo anyway, which surprises me, as he will eat most things.

Because I’m cautious about him being poisoned by wormer, as I will be with Luna too, I am a bit worried about other drugs that could be in poo. Dolly has cushings and is on 1 prascend a day, and Mac occasionally has the odd Bute if his legs are playing up. I’m hoping the novelty will wear off for Luna, but in the meantime, can she get ill from this. I am telling her leave it, which she sometimes does, but other times she will run off with a bit.
 
i think its just a thing that dogs do. mine always have and i just dont take them to the yard if we have just wormed. if you tell them off they will think its more valuable so have a pocket of treats and call her to you if you see her eating poo, then she shouldnt run off with some. i dont really worry too much if they are only nibbling, it doesnt seem to upset mine at all.
 
I'm not sure about whether the horse drugs are a problem or not but just want to offer reassurance as both my dogs grew out of it more or less... with just a bit of training to get an automatic leave. One of mine once ate so much he was doing dog poo shaped horse poos for a day. :lol: I think it was round about then I started keeping them a bit more contained on the yard and did a bit of poo-avoidance training. It is just something dogs do.
 
Sheep poo is far and away the best!!!! I reckon it is an extension of when they eat grass, seems to be to settle their stomachs. Poo of the herbivore persuasion is just processed grass with the added benefit of bacteria, which is what we often pay good money for in a probiotic :)
 
Horse poo is really good for dogs as it provides them with partially digested fibre and good bacteria. Ours eat it every day. I must say I hadn't considered the worming issue and have never prevented them. They haven't been affected in 10 years. But they're very big dogs.
 
Thanks guys. With regards to the worming, there was a post on here a couple of years ago. Border Collies can have a gene that makes one of the wormer ingredients particularly poisonous. Someone’s dog ate a tiny bit of wormer the horse had dropped, and sadly, a couple of hours later it died. That post has always stuck in my mind, so have kept Aled away at working time just in case.

It has now made me wonder about other drugs, but I think going by the responses on here, I am being a bit over cautious on that front.
 
TheresaW said:
Thanks guys. With regards to the worming, there was a post on here a couple of years ago. Border Collies can have a gene that makes one of the wormer ingredients particularly poisonous. Someone’s dog ate a tiny bit of wormer the horse had dropped, and sadly, a couple of hours later it died. That post has always stuck in my mind, so have kept Aled away at working time just in case.

It has now made me wonder about other drugs, but I think going by the responses on here, I am being a bit over cautious on that front.
Click to expand...

Theresa, look online for MDR-1 and herding breeds. it actually only has a low prevalence in border collies and you can have a DNA test done for about £30. Fitz is MDR-1 affected and smooths, roughs, aussie shepherds, shelties etc have in about 50-70% of the population, which is why its not easily bred out, especially in a rarer breed. while eating faeces with digested wormer in has been documented as causing illness in susceptible dogs, the risk is much lower than from dropped/spilled wormer. its also worth pointing out that its not just wormer, but certain flea treatments, loperamide and anaesthetics and there are alternatives for affected dogs.

I am obvioulsy careful with Fitz and horse poop, also sheep and cow poop-but he prefers badger anyway :D

http://vcpl.vetmed.wsu.edu/problem-drugs
 
It depends how pernickity you want to be and what sort of dog you want in future.

A dog that will ignore you and run off to eat horse poop will ignore you to eat a fish with a hook in it or a poisoned rat etc etc.
Learning the right way first is better than being allowed to do it the wrong way and then having to be retrained.
If you have one eye on the horses and one eye on her it's not something that will be fixed, that first mouthful of lovely, lovely poop and the hit that it gives her is the thing you will be fighting against from now on.
If you have no physical/mechanical way of stopping her the you're also fighting that too.
A 'leave it' command is something that needs dedicated training and can be a real lifesaver.

With my own dog, I never discouraged him from playing with empty plastic bottles and cans, in fact I thought it was cute and showed how much drive he had.
Now I have a seven year old dog who will grab and puncture a bottle of butane, tin of marker paint, some poor kid's full bottle of Mountain Dew - wow, that was explosive, and sticky - or a two year old carton of very curdled milk and ask questions later.
Because that's what does it for him.
The onus is on me as an owner to keep an eye on him (it's really easy to tell when they are hunting, particularly if they have pointy ears and a bushy tail) and physically or verbally correct him when he is still thinking about it. When they are on top of it or have it in their mouths already is too late.
To be honest if it has flooded or I am walking down a certain road where the students like to toss their rubbish, it is just easier to keep him on a line as it is safer and less stress for us both (he isn't going to get hurt on anything and I don't have to spend the whole walk on alert and going 'no' 'leave' 'out' etc - and every time he is quicker than me then it is back to square one).
The other alternative is to let him carry his own ball on a walk which is something I also do.
However I know there is a difference between possession/holding things and just being a dirtbird :p and this would not work for everyone.

It also depends on what you want to do in future - for me, if my dog decides to stop what he is doing and dig into some poo while he is on a track or an empty can blows onto a field when I am doing obedience, then I am pretty stuck.

So for all that rambling, it is basically what you are prepared to put up with. My dog has eaten some pretty shocking things and survived ok, I have recalled him off cats, herons, etc, but it's not ideal and if I was to do it all over again, I'd be a lot more exacting.
 
Last edited:
A friend's young JRT ate a tiny bit of wormer that a horse had spat out (the yard is at their home so the dog was always around) he suffered convulsions, lost his sight temporarily and almost lost his life. His sight came back but is not 100%. It has made me very careful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top