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Does Bran work like sandclear?

3K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  ~*~anebel~*~ 
#1 ·
Well I got new horse, and to make a long story short, I asked the previous owner when was the last time he had Sandclear, she said she gave him Bran every 3 days she didnt do the sandclear.Can anyone tell me, does bran work? I know for one of my other horses the vet had me add bran and alfafia pellets to their feed along with sandclear to help get everything moving.Now my palomino senior horse I have to sandclear every other week per vet (long story but he was neglected in his earier yrs. and gets dairrehea all the time and when given sandclear he clears up, so vet seems to think its all the sand he has eaten over the yrs.and he wont eat metimucel so it gets costly) I was wondering if and what the bran does, if it just keeps everything moving in there system and will work the sand out or ????
 
#5 · (Edited)
Bran does not work on horse's like it does on humans. As a laxative it wouldn't be my first choice, not enough fiber and you'd have to feed to much to have a huge effect. Yes it's true you don"t want to be feeding it large volumes, it's very high in Phosphorus which can cause an imbalance in the calcium/PH levels.

The amount of fiber in bran is only about 11%. Whereas something like beet pulp is about 20%.

This a great article written by the Alberta AG.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/hrs3243#Bran
 
#6 ·
Just a quick two cents...a few years back, when I had my horses all on SandClear, my vet informed me that bran works just as well if not better. You cannot feed it more than a couple of times per week or it loses its effectiveness (as well as the calcium/phosphorous ratio). He sent me a copy of some studies that had been done on this issue. It has been a few years now, so I don't recall the details.

If the SandClear is working so well for your previously neglected horse, I would stick with what works for him!
 
#7 ·
Wheat bran or whatever it is is actually so bad for horses. Never feed it. If you need to make a bran mash to feel good about yourself, feed rice bran.
And that stuff about wheat bran being a laxative has been completely disproven many times over, it is an old wives tale.
 
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