Straining/Constipation - Health & Supplements - Health & Supplements - Horse Community, Horse Pictures, Horse Forum and Information

Posted : 5/2/2010 2:18:12 PM

Hello Everyone,
I am an owner of a young rescue horse. Sept 09 she arrived at the ranch skin and bones, several hundred pounds underweight. She was victim of neglect and starvation.

Now she is filled in and Growing! She's looking like a happy healthy horse. She's about 2.5 years. Probably Arab/Quarter mix. Yesterday we turned her out in the arena to run and play, which she did with gusto. At one point she stopped to go poo. She lifted her tail, a little poo came out, then it was obvious she had to strain or push the rest of the poo out. You could see her abdomen scrunch up twice. Afterwards she was back to playing. This is the first time she's been witnessed doing this. Googling constipation and horse talks about colic. She has no other symptoms of cholic. She's eating like a vacuum cleaner. She gets hay morning and evening, senior grain and scoop of weight gainer once a day.

Anyone else seen this? Is this worrisome? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Michelle

2manyhorses

Posted : 5/2/2010 3:07:08 PM

She sounds dehydrated. Monitor her water intake. She should be drinking a minimum of 10 gals per day. 20+ would be better. If you have auto fill waterers, turn them off and give her a tank or buckets so you can measure what she drinks. The water could have an off taste or there could be a current or fill issue also. Add 1 Tbsp salt (table salt is fine if you don't use loose stock salt) and sprinkle it one her feed. Add water to the senior to make a mush for a few days just to get a little more water into her. Salt is vital to get them to drink enough. If you use traditional salt licks, horses tongues are not abrasive enough to get enough salt off the lick. Add a bucket of loose salt (I'd do 50-50 salt and loose vit/minerals) to her pen and let her free feed. If she's deficient, she will power though 1-2# of the mixture in a few days. When she starts eating 2-3 ounces per day that's pretty normal.

hunterseat

Posted : 5/3/2010 2:38:09 AM

I use Sr.Feed for my youngster, too, mostly cuz the old timers all get it. [ ':)'

]
Yup, I've heard salt, too. TSC has big tubs of minerals I want to get a couple for my guys.

TanyaC97

Posted : 5/3/2010 2:04:51 PM

What 2many said is right in line. You can also add a bit of corn oil to help lube up a bit.

Bottom line is get more water into this horse.
Did you do a pinch test at all to check for any amount of tenting?

MMottster

Posted : 5/3/2010 8:01:00 PM

Hello All,
Thank you for writing. All vital signs are normal, tenting normal. She had a mineral salt lick up until a couple weeks ago. We thought she was peeing too much. We have returned her salt lick. Her morning BM was a little strained, but her other BM's during the day were normal.

If we were to use corn oil, how much?

Thanks

TanyaC97

Posted : 5/4/2010 1:18:54 PM

Start with a 1/2 cup and you can work slowly up to no more than a full cup.

I usually do only 1/2 cup.

I am sure others will do more, less, none-- this is just what I would do.

2manyhorses

Posted : 5/4/2010 1:56:02 PM

Those hard trace mineral blocks are a poor source of minerals and salt. They contain about 1% trace minerals and little to no macro minerals and vitamins. If feeding alfalfa, I'd want to be offering something with at least 10% Ca, 10% P and 100,000 IU/lb Vit A. Again if you are feeding alfalfa, she should be drinking and peeing alot more than a horse on grass hay.

Corn oil wil not have a laxative effect as it's well absorbed unless it's fed at extreemly large quantities (3-4 C per day). Mineral oil is not absorbed and is a laxative.

Have you dewormed her for tapeworms?

MMottster

Posted : 5/26/2010 8:05:20 PM

Thank you to everyone. We gave her back her salt block and all is good again.

MMottster