Laxative feed

[rhylis]

My 20 year old mare has developed problems passing droppings. To cut a rather long story short my vet has advised that I keep my horses droppings as loose and sloppy as possible. I should allow her to graze and keep her off of hay, luckily I have almost unlimited good grazing and she mostly lives out. I'm very aware though that this type of management is going to be majorly difficult when it comes to avoiding laminitus. She's on sloppy sugar beet with liquid paraffin added (vets suggestion) and her droppings are reasonably soft at the moment.
Does anyone have any suggestions for anything else I can give her to get things flowing so to speak!
Thanks in advance for any advise anyone can give me to help her.

 

[Goldenstar]

Bran and Epsom salts with the sugar beet mixed in will work very well as long as the horse is well hydrated .
It's very important you don't give Epsom salts to horses who are not drinking enough

 

[be positive]

Bran and Epsom salts with the sugar beet mixed in will work very well as long as the horse is well hydrated .
It's very important you don't give Epsom salts to horses who are not drinking enough

Bran is a good laxative but I suspect the issue is that she is not drinking enough generally so try to get a couple of sloppy feeds into her every day to keep the fluid intake up, when they are on fairly good grass they often hardly drink and can easily become slightly dehydrated.

 

[rhylis]

Many thanks Goldenstar and be positive, I will give all of that a try. I will definitely keep up the very wet feeds to avoid dehydration. Its a very strange problem that she has going on, the vet was surprised by what she found when she examined her. Its more the actual mechanism of passing dung which is going wrong. The vet could feel that the lower part of the bowel has gone slack, and isn't efficiently pushing dung to the rectum resulting occasionally in a build up. Its something I've never come across before.

 

[vetsbestfriend]

Another good laxative feed and a way of getting extra fluids in a horse is pony nut soup. Scoop of high fibre cubes covered in lots of warm water, let it soak for 5 to 10 minutes, giving it a stir, then offer it to the horse. It is appealing to the horse, and used this method a number of times to help horses that are starting to harden their droppings. Won't block the horse up and soft as it passes through the system. When my gelding had tissue granualation in his rectum, this is all he could have for a week as we couldn't take the risk of harder/normal droppings causing the granulated tissue to split. Global Herbs also do a product called Clear Out which helps keep food moving through the system.

 

[Micky]

Add salt to her sloppy feed? Maybe help with the drinking scenario? Or apple juice to her water to tempt her to drink more? Can you soak her hay as that can help with fluid intake...

 

[BORODIN]

Id have a look at Havens slobbermash - hope things get moving soon