Poo sample for a herd living out?

[HorseyTee]

I need to get samples for a worm count but have a herd of 3 living out 24/7 with no stable or shelter. I don't have time to stand around waiting for each to poo because I always have the boys with me.

Anybody else have horses living out, how do you get a sample?
Do you just take a few random samples and hope you get some from each horse?

Really not sure how to do this?

 

[pixie]

use electric fencing to make a small corrall for each one to stay in during one day

 

[Nasicus]

Make up some little temporary individual electric fence paddocks, make sure they're clear of poop and then put them in one each for a few hours? That's what I would do.

 

[MissTyc]

The unridden ones in my herd are taken for a little walk around the block or loaded into a trailer/horsebox where they almost always go right away.
The ridden ones are either tied on the yard and the owners wait, or they hop off when they poo on a ride. Most horses poo in a predictable routine. E.g. if I come to the yard at 6am and tie everything up, I will have a poo from all by 7. If I come at 8, I might be waiting until 11 or 12!

 

[Zero00000]

Are you able to tie them with a haynet/feed and groom them until the deed happens?

 

[HorseyTee]

They absolutely wouldn't stay in electric fencing unfortunately and I can't in hand walk as I've got the kids with me and there's nowhere safe to tie up.
I'm really not sure what to do.

 

[twiggy2]

Put a glove on and stick a finger up their bottom and scoop a bit out, never tried it with a horse but its what we do with the sheep

 

[HorseyTee]

There's also no hardstanding for me to have the boys safely in their pram so I have to put them in a wagon but they can get out of it.

I have some herras panels....I could maybe try 2 small corrals with that and leave the 3rd horse free and grab poops once done if they do them within half hour.

 

[HorseyTee]

Put a glove on and stick a finger up their bottom and scoop a bit out, never tried it with a horse but its what we do with the sheep

Well that's certainly an interesting suggestion I'd never have foreseen ?

 

[Supercalifragilistic]

Do you have to get all the poo samples the same day? Unless you are literally there for just a few minutes, if you keep an eye out then chances are at least one of them will poo whilst you are there. You may find that over the course of 10 days or so you manage to get a sample from each horse.
Of course you will need to post each sample when you get it, so it may end up costing a little more in postage.

 

[laura_nash]

I must be really sad because I can recognise which horse did which poo in my fields..

 

[meleeka]

I can tell whose is whose which makes the job easy. I have 5 but the biggest and smallest are pretty obvious! (16.2 and mini shetland). The ones in between have their own particular style of dung ?

 

[Gloi]

I must be really sad because I can recognise which horse did which poo in my fields..

Same here

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I must be really sad because I can recognise which horse did which poo in my fields..

Me too, not just now with a 14hh and a 32" but previously with more out together.

 

[stangs]

Do they have any habits you could take advantage of - i.e. pooing in the first five minutes of a hack?

 

[Annagain]

Wrap the kids up warm, put them in the herras fencing corral with some safe toys and keep an eye on them while you wait outside for the horses to poo.

.....only half joking .

 

[Auslander]

I must be really sad because I can recognise which horse did which poo in my fields..

Same - and I have 14!

 

[HorseyTee]

Gosh I wish mine did different poops. They all look the same.

I'll have to try the corral with the herras and see how we get on...either horses or kids inside lol.
I guess if I have to send them all separately then so be it.

It definitely needs doing though as with pregnancy and a hectic year I embarrassingly neglected worming last year, but the TB reacts funny so I try not to worm unless needed, hence I'd rather worm count them worm accordingly if needed than just worm anyway.

Bloody horses.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I must be really sad because I can recognise which horse did which poo in my fields..

So can I ha ha ? glad I'm not the only one.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Mine will go if I put bandages or travel boots on.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Ok, this might be mad but could you feed beetroot or beetroot powder? ?

 

[HorseyTee]

Ok, this might be mad but could you feed beetroot or beetroot powder? ?

Ohhhh this is a really good idea! Dye the poop so I know who's it is!

Hmm what else could I feed another to make their poop different? ?

 

[MissTyc]

Unless you bloodtest for encysted redworm, you will need to be using moxidectin in the next 2-3 months anyway - perhaps if it's such a faff, it would be a better investment to moxidectin them all (and praziquantel if you're not Saliva testing as part of your worm count), and then do a resistance test ~3 weeks after worming so you can rest easy. The problem with the situation you describe is that you'd be relying on an unreliable test (they're great for tracking worm burdens over time, not so great for ad hoc - I can get 100-700 outcomes from the same horse on the same same from different shit). You'd have no insight into the encysted little friends (baby redworm) nor the sectional little friends (tapeworm) unless you specifically did those tests too. So a worm count at this time of year to make a worm / not worm decision is actually (sadly!) not the best strategy.

 

[dorsetladette]

I must be really sad because I can recognise which horse did which poo in my fields..

This

If your poo picking daily you learn the difference in each horses. B does elephant droppings, Robin is the smaller ones and livery pony is somewhere in between and a little softer.

Just a thought, if you can't tell the difference could you feed one of the something they may not digest fully for a couple of days? B doesn't digest rolled oats or rolled barley so it show up in his dropping quite easily (scared the life out of me finding this out as oats sprout really quickly)