Mare eating companions Poo

[onemoretime]

Shock horror just seen my mare eating her companions poo. She has plenty of hay at night and also hay in the field in the mornings. Her feeds consist of TB herbal chaff Spillers Stamina cubes brewers yeast 10 mil spoon of Magnesium MSM for her joints and Equinox supplement. Is there something she is lacking. In nearly 60 years of owning horses I have never seen one of mine doing this but have heard of other people's doing it. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

 

[SEL]

There is probably something she's lacking but it's doubtful it's anything you can provide her - she'll be topping up her biome somehow.

When my younger cob joined the herd he happily helped himself to one of the mare's poo piles for a few weeks (the smelliest one too!). I just assumed there was some sort of bacteria he needed. He didn't do it for long.

 

[deicinmerlyn]

Probably self medicating her gut

 

[PurBee]

Is the companion fed the extras - TB herbal chaff etc?

Scat eating by animals is generally a behaviour thought to obtain bacteria from others they lack.
There’s science behind it - Human fecal ‘implants’ - enema - is now a thing in the natural health world, which is a ‘cleaner’ way of another human ingesting another persons poop!
The gut biome can become imbalanced so for animals, using their smell senses, can be attracted to others poops, to broaden the bacteria groups in their own guts.

Im not keen on the tb ingredients tbh - if the horse is grazing there's nothing useful to be fed longterm in that product…except linseed oil, but they get omega 3 from grazing green grass, so thats not needed either in the summer.
Chamomile especially id only use to treat a condition, short-term, rather than give it as a daily feed that they have no choice but to eat. Chamomile is a psychotropic too, aswell as digestive calmative - but its use is for those conditions, not for use when those maladies are not present.
If i had a very high strung stressy, gut stressed horse, id try chamomile, if certain key nutrients didnt work first - but in a healthy horse, i personally wouldnt give a powerful neuro herb like chamomile.
Its from the ragweed/daisy family too, so its not a family of plants horses generally go for free-choice fresh in the field.

If your mare needs the dried grass chaff, i’d look for another plain one without the herbs.

 

[onemoretime]

Thank you Purbee. The companion pony has the TB chaff and the Brewers Yeast and a bit of magnesium but not the Equinox Vit & Minerals. Are you referring to the camomile in the TB chaff as otherwise she doesn't have camomile. I dont feed the mare linseed as she doesn't need to put on weight which she can do very easily. I have to strip graze them to control weight for both of them.

Which make of chaff do you suggest, I wont feed anything with straw in it as I dont like they way it is processed with chemicals. Thanks for your help.

 

[PurBee]

Thank you Purbee. The companion pony has the TB chaff and the Brewers Yeast and a bit of magnesium but not the Equinox Vit & Minerals. Are you referring to the camomile in the TB chaff as otherwise she doesn't have camomile. I dont feed the mare linseed as she doesn't need to put on weight which she can do very easily. I have to strip graze them to control weight for both of them.

Which make of chaff do you suggest, I wont feed anything with straw in it as I dont like they way it is processed with chemicals. Thanks for your help.

Yes, the chamomile in the tb herbal chaff. It doesnt say how much is in the whole bag unfortunately, so its hard to tell what dose theyre getting.
The tb chaff also has linseed oil in it - probably used like many do as a coating to make it more palatable, so likely not a huge dose to affect weight too much, in comparison to grazing.

Interesting the companion has everything else but not the vits and mins. Is it Equinox original youre feeding her?
Ive just been looking at the ingredients and it seems like its primarily a yeasty gut probiotic and amino acid supplement with good gram doses for those, but the minerals and vits are fairly low per dose. The ratios are not that well balanced either, despite the low dose.

Im wondering whether a switch from equinox to a more basic generic balancer type of vit/min powder like forageplus would be more helpful. Maybe the particular yarrowia yeast they use for gut health isnt suiting her? Or its that combined with brewers yeast youre giving also causing some imbalance? Its hard to know without trialling a change.
Yarrowia is not commonly used in equine supplements and companies like to have a unique selling point, but for equines, it may not suit aswell as humans. You wont know without trying a switch temporarily, see how she does. Brewers yeast is great for b vits and gut health, but doesnt supply b12. A dessert spoon uk is the general dose for a horse.

For chaffs in uk im not familiar with all brands available now as im in ireland and brexit put red tape export/import difficulties to getting bulk animal foods over here, so have stopped looking at new products from the uk.
Hopefully others will weigh in with recommendations for basic grass chaff, but emerald green and simple systems do plain dried grass. Theres the bigger commercial brands like dengie that offer just grass too. Check the ingredients to make sure its just grass. Anything saying ‘herbs’ i’d avoid unless wanting to treat an issue.

Emerald green are amenable to emails if you want to check with them to ask if any agri-chemicals are used in the growing of their grass, if you are keen to feed organic. Simple systems have organic products, unsure if chaff included off the top of my head, but worth checking them out.

 

[onemoretime]

Hi Purbee many thanks for your reply. Yes its Equinox Original but I want to change her over to Spillers Original Balancer so Im just finishing up the Equinox. Dengie Grass Chaff should be a good one. Simple Systems are a job to get hold of and you have to buy in bulk I believe but I will have a look at the Dengie range. Thanks.

 

[SEL]

I use Top specs basic grass chaff. Its got linseed oil as a coating but that doesn't cause any issues with my mare who reacts to micronised linseed. It's easily available which is a benefit.

For hiding powders simple systems soaked hay cobs, but they'll deliver to me. Feed shop has various grass nuts in and you don't need much when they're soaked.

 

[vhf]

My old mare has done this on a couple of occasions. Both times when a mare that potentially threatened her position as 'Lord of all I survey' was put in her domain. Pulled the most horrendous faces, and glared at me like I was making her do it. She's always had a very carefully watched and supplemented natural forage based diet (better than either of the newcomers!). They aren't the only ones she's lived with in that time. She's lived at home with me for 10 of 16 years of ownership so if she did it much more often I'd probably know. I've never known what to make of it?

 

[onemoretime]

My old mare has done this on a couple of occasions. Both times when a mare that potentially threatened her position as 'Lord of all I survey' was put in her domain. Pulled the most horrendous faces, and glared at me like I was making her do it. She's always had a very carefully watched and supplemented natural forage based diet (better than either of the newcomers!). They aren't the only ones she's lived with in that time. She's lived at home with me for 10 of 16 years of ownership so if she did it much more often I'd probably know. I've never known what to make of it?

My old mare has done this on a couple of occasions. Both times when a mare that potentially threatened her position as 'Lord of all I survey' was put in her domain. Pulled the most horrendous faces, and glared at me like I was making her do it. She's always had a very carefully watched and supplemented natural forage based diet (better than either of the newcomers!). They aren't the only ones she's lived with in that time. She's lived at home with me for 10 of 16 years of ownership so if she did it much more often I'd probably know. I've never known what to make of it?

Thank you VHF. It is the first time I have seen her do it. The companion pony only came to us in April when we lost our old companion pony that I had owned for 32 year. My mare gets on very well with the new pony, in fact new pony hero worships my mare. In all my years I have never seen one of my own horses do this but have heard other people speak of it.