Horse not pooing as much as usual

[Serephin]

Last week my YO requested that my horse, and another, moved to a paddock with more grass (has been rested for a few months) as my paddock was a bit bereft of grass. We moved them, and on the YO instruction, put them back into original paddock at night, to give them time to get used to the new grass.

I am a little concerned as when they first went in, they pooed for england, but as the week has gone on the amount of poos has dropped considerably. My horse is still eating and drinking but is not pooing much at all from what i can tell when poo picking each day. The poos he does do are cowpat like, so I don't think he is dehydrated.

Should I be worried? I put him on pink powder to help with his digestion, as the grass is bound to be richer, but I am stressing big time that he is going to end up with impaction colic or something.

any advice, I am fretting! Thanks in advance.

 

[DuckToller]

Can you count the poos and divide by 2 to get an idea of how many he is actually doing?
Should be between 8-12 a day, but as the grass in the new field is of a reasonable length, and horses tend to bite off the top 2-3cms which in your case is more leaf than stalk, perhaps he is actually eating less fibre (in percentage terms) and therefore there is less bulk to his dung.

Or perhaps he gorged himself in the first few days and now his eating has slowed down.

I wouldn't have thought cow pat dung would lead to impaction colic - quite the opposite, but if you are worried he is not getting enough fibre, how about putting a few piles of hay out in the night field?

 

[irishdraft]

My horses are not pooing as much either and they are on new fields, some grass but not huge amount, I have stopped hay and cut hard feed right down, they look fine and I certainly wouldnt think about impacted colic, just not having the same amounts of fibre going thru and possibly the body is making better use of the new spring grass instead of plopping it all out.

 

[Serephin]

there were 4 in the night paddock last night - which is not a lot for 2 horses I thought - and about 5/6 in the day paddock. He is getting hay in the night paddock, a wedge each.

The poos that they do are massive in comparison to usual. I was listening to his belly to night and it wasn't making any noise, I think I may of heard a tiny gurgle which made me worry even more!

I hope I am stressing over nothing and being a neurotic new owner!

 

[Serephin]

My horses are not pooing as much either and they are on new fields, some grass but not huge amount, I have stopped hay and cut hard feed right down, they look fine and I certainly wouldnt think about impacted colic, just not having the same amounts of fibre going thru and possibly the body is making better use of the new spring grass instead of plopping it all out.

that makes me feel a bit better, thanks. I was wondering if it was the body making more of the new grass, but seem to have gone into panic mode instead!