Horse obsessed with licking soil

[mousesmum]

Hi, we live near the coast and have sandy soil. For the last 6 months I've noticed that Ralph has been licking and taking chunks out of soil. It was first noticed when he was on box rest so hand walked/grazed, instead of eating grass he would take mouthfuls of soil, so we gave up on the grazing. He's been off box rest for around 4 months and is regularly seen licking soil which is obviously not a good thing in a sandy area. He is booked in to the vets tomorrow to be scoped for ulcers as has been off his food/hay for about 6 weeks now and extremely fussy about what he eat. Everywhere says that it's a lack of minerals etc but he gets a balancer, has a salt lick and is fed recovery mash after work. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of a horse that insists on giving itself sand colic, he's on psyllium but my question is why is he needed to lick the soil? As I said earlier I'm working with the vets and he's booked in tomorrow but just want to know if anyone else has any experience of this. Thanks x

 

[Green Bean]

My horse does this from time to time. I believe it is mineral deficiency of some sort. Some balancers are not that great at providing the correct amount of minerals required and can be counteractive in some cases, so maybe take a close look at what you are feeding and do some research.

 

[Bernster]

Agree with the above, could well be a mineral imbalance so check what’s he’s getting and what might be lacking. A standard balancer sorted out my chap a few years back bit sounds like something in your horse’s feed might still not be right.

 

[Carrottom]

You say he has a salt lick but does he use it? One of mine used to eat soil but never touched his lick. I added a teaspoon of salt to his feed and he stopped.

 

[ester]

Mine has done so even on balanced to forage minerals, - though only in particular spots. However only intermittently so I've never worried about much (also on clay) yours sounds a bit more determined/obsessive?

 

[Lovely jubbly]

Lacking salt not many use a salt lick

 

[ester]

re salt licks even if they do use them they are rarely getting anywhere near an RDA