manure | Horse Racing Free Tips

Is There Such A Thing As Too Many Carrots?

Many horse owners and caretakers offer their horses treats as a reward or as a sign of affection, and most horses willingly eat the more-traditional treats of apples and carrots. But is there such a thing as too many treats? Can feeding too many harm a horse's health?

Some horse owners feed up to 10 gallons (or more) of carrots to their horses with no ill effects, reporting that the carrots add weight and are a good water substitute. Kentucky Equine Research notes if the horse doesn't have metabolic issues, there is most likely no harm in feeding that quantity of carrots, but there is concern as to if the horse is obtaining all the dry matter and nutrients needed for a healthy diet.

Carrots are primarily water (85 to 90 percent), so they do assist in keeping a horse hydrated. Assuming one five-gallon bucket of carrots is a meal, the horse would be consuming just 1.5 pounds of dry matter, of which 25 percent is water-soluble carbohydrates. As the horse takes a while to eat through the bucket of carrots, the nearly six ounces of sugar and three ounces of soluble fiber from the carrots slowly enters his bloodstream.

The high amount of water could make the horse's manure loose and provides him with a lot of calories, so he may pack on the pounds. Additionally, the horse's coat may develop an orange tint as some of the beta-carotenes are absorbed as carotenes by body tissues. Carrots do not contain significant amounts of other nutrients.

Study: Dewormer Use Drastically Reduced On Farms Using Fecal Egg Counts

Scientists have been touting the need for horse owners to use fecal egg counts before blanket deworming the horses in their car for years. However, until recently, no studies had been conducted to see if farms that used this method saw a true reduction in deworming.

Drs. Liselore Roelfstra, Marion Quartier and Kurt Pfister studied five farms in France and Switzerland that had switched to an evidence-based deworming protocol in 2014 to determine the long-term reduction rate of anthelmintic treatments.

The study used 90 horses and three ponies ranging in age from 3 to 32. All of the horses were housed at riding stables that used paddocks and pastures. There was no routine manure collection in the fields on three of the farms; the other two farms removed manure from fields at least once a week.

Since 2014, each horse had a fecal egg count performed twice a year, in the spring and fall. The horse only received a dose of dewormer if the analysis showed that he carried a worm burden of 200 eggs per gram or more. In total, 757 fecal egg counts were taken; only 34.7 of them had an egg count over 200, which resulted in the horse being given a dewormer.

This meant that 263 doses of dewormer were not given, which would have been routinely administered in the past. This shows an overall reduction in anthelmintic treatments of 65.3 percent.

The scientists conclude that conducting fecal egg counts is feasible on farms with multiple horse owners, and on farms with a transient equine population. Buy-in of the farm owner or manager was paramount, but all the horse owners were prepared to pay the cost of the fecal egg count test. An additional positive outcome was that the horses with high worm loads were able to be treated with the specific product needed to eliminate the parasites the horse is hosting.

The overall reduction in dewormer use shows the potential of fecal egg counts to slow the development of drug resistance.

Read the study here.

Diarrhea: Deadly Or Just A Drag?

Equine enthusiasts are taught early in their foray into horse ownership that any type of abnormal hgorse stool is a concern—whether that means the horse has diarrhea or is not passing manure at all. Though no passing of manure is of great concern, diarrhea can be as well.

Changes in diet are the No. 1 cause of diarrhea; they can also be hardest to identify—and rectify. If a horse's diarrhea is bad enough to call the vet, there are two main possibilities: that the horse has a chronic issue that will be very hard to find and treat or that the horse is very sick and could infect other horses in his barn or pasture.

Diarrhea occurs when the digestive tract is not working properly; in particular, when there is a disruption in the large intestine. The large intestine can absorb as much as 30 gallons of water a day; when it can't absorb the water, it is excreted in manure.

Diarrhea is a symptom, not a disease—it can occur when a horse eats too many carbohydrates or when he has ingested too much sand. Diarrhea can be a symptom of something minor to life-threatening. But how to tell which is which? Questions to help decide if the horse's health is at risk include:

Is he uncomfortable? If the horse is pawing or looking at his flanks and acting colicky, the situation may be serious.
Does the horse have a fever? This could indicate he has an infection, which is more serious.
How long has the horse had diarrhea? Acute-onset diarrhea is more concerning that a low-grade diarrhea that's been present for months.
Has he been around another horse that has diarrhea? This increases his risk of infection.
Does lab work show a low white cell count or a decrease in proteins? These are concerning.

If the vet doesn't feel that his condition is life threatening, she may suggest adjusting the horse's diet. Many vets believe horses are susceptible to orchard grass hay and suggest eliminating it from the horse's diet to see if the diarrhea clears up. Removing NSAIDs and antibiotics from a horse's management can also help (if possible).

Proper parasite control is key, and investigating the use of prebiotics or probiotics won't hurt. Additionally, protecting the tissue of the affiliated horse's intestinal tract is also important: Using products designed sooth tissues, like those that contain smectite clay or bismuth subsalicylate, are worth investigating to try to get his diarrhea under control.