Recommend me a dry feed please

[Surbie]

I've moved to a new yard on sand & have bought some psyllium husk which I now see says to feed dry.

Horse currently has soaked feeds of Agrobs meadow cobs and speedibeet - about 600ml total when soaked as a token feed.

He's on a diet and losing weight steadily on soaked hay and approx 8hrs turnout.

Can you recommend me something that is tasty, but not loaded with sugar, to feed the husk in?

 

[PurBee]

Why not add it to the soaked speedibeet?

psyllium does soak up loads of water, so be mindful of that. For humans, the protocol to use it as a ‘sticky substance to brush the intestines clean’ is to add a large spoonful to a pint of water and drink. If you Leave it for 15 mins as the psyllium swells-up, becoming a sticky gluey substance.

So if you add it to speedibeet feed, remember to add extra water for the psyllium to swell, otherwise the psyllium will pull moisture from the bowels to hydrate itself, and thats not good.

 

[PurBee]

Its worthy to note that studies have been done in psyllium husk removal of sand from equines, results vary, with some showing hay being a better material to sweep intestines, psyllium via nasal gastric tubing is effective emergency treatment than feeding at home.
one study showed a 1g per kg dose of psyllium made no difference to sand clearance than ponies in grain/hay without psyllium.

http://media.news.health.ufl.edu/mi...cuation from Equine LI VS 1998 PH and DEF.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5059958/#CR21


The take home message from the studies are mixed results with psyllium, with none that ive read so far, showing spectacular advantage to using psyllium as an intestinal broom for sand, even at 1g per kg bodyweight. Which would be half a kilo for a 500kg horse daily!
They warn not to be over-reliant on psyllium and become complacent about avoiding sand ingestion.

in the above study they fed ponies sand via surgery, and it was quite a brutal study requiring all ponies to be euthanised to collect accurate results of remaining sand in the intestine. When they measured the sand leftover from treatments, they recovered more sand from psyllium treated ponies than controls, and when they deducted/diregarded the ponies which had significant accumulations left, they found the same amount of sand in the gut between both groups at the end.

The general advice from the studies is to really try to avoid sand accumulations in the first place, not feed hay in a sand school turnout, not allow sand soil paddocks to be grazed very short etc.

Psyllium however is good for constipation and can promote loose stools, in humans and horses.

 

[Surbie]

He gets plenty of (soaked) hay and the field has plenty of grass, but it's very wet and the grass will be pulled out easily.

The instructions say to feed dry. I have only ever fed him soaked feed so am after some feed recommendations for a good doer.

 

[PurBee]

I wonder why the instructions say to feed dry?
psyllium is sticky when hydrated, and it requires a fair amount of water as it swells so much, like beet pulp. It needs to be in a sticky state for sand bits to stick to it. It’s a bit like thick wallpaper paste when adequately hydrated and very sticky.

In the psyllium dose of 1gram per 1kg bodyweight study they added 3 litres of water - so thats roughly 6 times in ml the weight of psyllium fed.
I’ve personally used psyllium for bowel cleansing and even after hydrating it and consuming it, became constipated for 2 days, i think maybe its stickiness slows the peristaltic bowel movements.
Hence why, for a horse, i’d add it to the sloppy beet feed initially just to help the bowels deal with the new ingredient.

Hopefully others who’ve used it on their horse will chime in with their experiences, whether they used it dry or wet.

Most horses have the sense to drink more when theyre consuming very dry feeds - like mine, on 10% moisture hay drink 3-4 times as much than when theyre on 45% haylage.
Winter drinking tends to change with them, i add hot water to take the chill off in these freezing conditions and they drink loads more compared to when i fill with ice cold water.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

No advice on feeding the psyllium but if you want to check whether your horse has sand in his system it’s easy to check. Get some of the long fingered vet gloves they use for internal examinations and put a few pieces of poo in and mix with water. If there is sand in the poo it will sink to the bottom of the fingers.

 

[Surbie]

Just as an update, horse is eating the psyllium happily, mixed into a damp feed of honeychop plain oat chaff, sloppy meadow cobs and a scattering of micronised linseed.

I'd done the sand test, but in a bucket. Definite sand, but to be honest I don't know what that tells me other than sand is going through. I wasn't very scientific about it.

 

[CrimsonDivine]

Have you tried alfalfa? that doesn't need soaking and most horses seem to be ok with it and enjoy it. Haven't known anyone to say it needs soaking. However, be mindful if you feel a need to soak hay for any particular reason; this may not be ideal for your horse. Is there any reason why you soak so much of their feed? What's the reason for seaking out dry feed? Have to say when it comes ot grain feeds it's difficult to find many, if any, that don't require soaking first.
I have heard an American say they feed beet to their horses dry, not sure if this is beet itself or beet pulp but of course it's not recommended here in the UK and I wouldn't want to advise it just incase. Just throwing that in there due to topic of soaked and dry feeds. Not sure whether you can give rolled oats dry? Again might not be a well suited thing for your horse without knowing its requirements and medical history. Anyway, that's my suggestion.

 

[Surbie]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately alfalfa sends him loopy and he really doesn't need oats. He's doing really well with his winter weight loss.

His hay is soaked as he coughs on dry hay plus it helped to reduce his waistline.

He's always been on a low-sugar minimal wet feed. He doesn't really need a feed but it carries his supplements.

 

[CrimsonDivine]

Ok well perhaps try readigrass? Any particular reason why he can only be out 8 hours a day? I'm generally against this sort of thing and 8 hours is a very short time, especially for a horse. However, I do understand that there could be medical reasons or silly livery rules that hold some people back. From what you're saying it almost comes off as he has some kind of underlining problem? If he prefers, or needs, wet food then perhaps dry feeds are not within your best interest. Only things I can think of that are dry are forage or grains that are safe to eat dry, which aren't really that many to be fair. You say you already feed him chaff but you dampen it? Again I have to wonder the reason for why. I know you say "to help reduce his wasteline" but honestly? With most low sugar feeds this really doesn't make alot of difference and horses do need a bit of sugar in their diet. Over-reducing sugar from their diet can cause other problems, as with most things if you try to remove it since they won't be getting enough to stay healthy. It's a necersary evil but of course should be fed in small amounts to be most suited and avoid possiblity of laminitis and obesity. Again alot of dry forages don't contain that much sugar to be fair. If he's having a cough reaction then I'd get that looked at and perhaps stay clear of dry feeds. Personally I'd look into whether you can actually soak the psyllium as PurBee suggested. Unfortunately I can't advise on it as I am not experienced with it and thus have no knowledge of it, sorry.

 

[Surbie]

Readigrass composition is at 10-12% sugar so it wouldn't be something I'd pick for my horse given other available options. (It was something of a lazy initial question, and I've done my research now!) I don't agree with your comments regarding feeding sugar to a good doer - there is enough in the grass and soaking his hay will remove some but not all sugar.

I'm happy with what I've got - and have to thank YCBM for the Honeychop plain oat straw recommendation. He's losing weight steadily on the tape and he's very happy in himself. Will see how much he has actually lost at his March weigh-in. ?

 

[CrimsonDivine]

Eh, you're probably right but I wasn't sure he was getting enough grass, being only out 8 hours and all. Seem to me you were restricting for a particular reason. Frankly I find it unnecersary if there is no problem with the horse and you can't guarantee that he's getting enough out of the grass this time of year due to frost and rain. I was going to suggest the chaff but you had already said you were giving it to him before so I didn't. And yes you are right there is far less sugar in Honeychop Chaff than Dengie Readygrass but you didn't say there was any problems with him having sugar, as I said. Either way, best of luck and hope all goes well. Take care.