Horse eating poo

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lucy1984

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I noticed this morning that my rising 5 year old was nibbling on fresh poo.

She lives out and has access to ad-lib hay. I only ride her on the weekends currently.

She used to be fed a small amount of chaff to get some herbs down her (rosehips, spearmint, biotin & limestone, Magox, seaweed) I stopped feeding her this about a month ago as she started to spit it out like she has a bad taste in her mouth - so I stopped feeding the seaweed but she still didnt seem that interested and preferred to eat her hay.

Do you think this has anything to do with it? Is it a sign that she is lacking something?

My friend suggested I buy some live yoghurt. Has anyone else had experience of this?

Any suggestions?

Thanks x
 
Hi there, yes I knew a horse who used to do this and when raised with a vet, the owner was told the horse could be doing it to replace something that's missing in their diet. Apparently, it's quite common :)
 
How about swapping out the herbs for a broad spec vit + min supplement? Or you could try a balancer like pink powder.
 
Thanks for the replies.

She only has hay at the moment. Would I be ok to feed pink powder and chaff on their own? She doesnt need hard feed at the moment as her weight is good and she is only worked on weekends.
 
There are a few reasons why they do this;
1. To get the right bacteria in their digestive tract (foals do this with their dams' poo).
2. To try to get vitamins/minerals lacking in their diet.
3. As a way of coping when their diet lacks enough fibre.
Solutions;
1. Feed a probiotic, and make changes to feed gradual to give the population of bacteria in the hind gut time to adjust.
2. Feed a vit/min supplement or provide a vit/min lick in the field.
3. Increase the fibre content of the diet - more hay, etc.
Hope this helps.
S :D
 
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