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Trouble has a poop problem!

1K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  Smilie 
#1 ·
Its disgusting. he's started to eat poop. I noticed when I walked into the barn this morning. He kicked some of his own poo up to the front of his stall, and was eating it. He had hay in his bag. I let him out, and he went to a pile and started picking around in it. I shovelled all the piles out of the turn out area, but he'll go back and forth from eating his hay and eating the fresh poop that comes out the other end.

Why on earth would he be doing this? He was extremely thirty this morning, and drank two five gallon pails right off the bat. Throughout the day he's drank another bucket which is odd, as he usually drinks a five gallon pail a day, give or take, and has done so for the last six months I've been hauling buckets by hand.
 
#2 ·
I wonder if he might be lacking a nutrient of some kind - you guys have been buried in snow for a while, right?

Does he have access to salt? Do he get grain of any kind, or is he just on hay?

Hopefully someone who knows more than I do will comment. It's never fun to find your horse exploring some new, weird, habit!
My gelding used to eat wood at a voracious speed, turned out it was directly linked to his muscle disorder and was a pretty common symptom. It was highly disconcerting to show up one morning and find that a quarter of the outer wall on his shed was gone because he had systematically dismantled it overnight!! haha
 
#3 ·
He's on hay nearly 24/7 free choice, give or take if he runs out overnight. No grain as he gets super obese, went down that road and I do not want him overweight at three and a half, or ever for that matter. They've been out of salt for about two weeks, just have to get around to the co op to pick up some more.

It could very well be that he's lacking something. We have been buried in snow for the better part of four months. We're also severely lacking in selenium in our soils so they get salt with selenium from the feed store. A few weeks ago he ate the bark off of every red alder he could reach over the fence, so I was thinking he may be lacking something.
 
#5 ·
It’s gross, but not uncommon behavior for horses to eat feces. Foals actually will do it to start establishing gut flora they’ll need to digest plants later on.

It does sound like some sort of salt/electrolyte imbalance if he’s both drinking excessively and eating poop, or a vitamin/mineral deficiency. A lot of horses lack Vitamin E when they have no fresh forage. If he’s not on some sort of general vitamin/mineral supplement, now might be a good time to start. As well, if you can get him some loose livestock salt to top-dress his feed with, rather than the salt blocks, that may also help.



So, it's gross, but it's not necessarily harmful - more indicative of something that needs to be adjusted in his feed intake.
 
#6 ·
I thought I saw my gelding doing the same thing the other day. He is on a high-quality multi-vitamin/ multi-mineral; so I don't think that is the problem for him. However, he has been acting like his belly has been bothering him off and on. I wondered if he was trying to reestablish healthy gut flora.
 
#7 ·
My gelding also used to be a "poop eater". Like you, I was disgusted! (Although it helped keep a cleaner stall...) I also looked in to it and talked to people. The end result is what all the others here have said. It's caused by a lack of some vitamin/mineral in the diet and is reasonably common behavior. However, it absolutely is not something that you want to ignore. It's a wake-up call that your horse needs an adjustment in diet.

In my case I did two things -- first I did a Sand Cleanse; then I added a good multivitamin supplement. My horse had been rescued from a kill auction, and so his history was unknown. The poop eating occurred shortly after his rescue. I only did the Sand Cleanse, because the BO recommended it. At that time it was hard to keep weight on my gelding, although he was deemed parasite free (via fecal analysis). The BO had had horses come in in the past who were unable to hold weight and who benefited from a Sand Cleanse. So I did it. I have zero idea if it helped. (The BO firmly believes that it was a game changer. I'm a scientist, so I'm not as easily convinced without more data).

If your horse has been with you for a long time (even since birth), and so you doubt that he has a layer of dirt/sand in this gut, you may not need to do the Sand Cleanse. However, if that is not the case, you may want to look in to it. It's just some product called "Sand Cleanse". You add it to the feed for a period of time. I think that it's some fiber product that just helps flush bad grit out of the gut.

Finally, regardless of a Sand Cleanse, I would highly recommend that you get your horse a multivitamin supplement. I very much like SmartVite Thrive from Smartpak.

Best of luck!
 
#8 ·
Thanks guys! They were dewormed today with a broad based ivermectin wormer that covered bots, as we've been seeing some eggs on them, so it must be warm enough for the flies to be out.

I also bought Trouble a vitamin balancer in powder form. I'll link it in a bit! We'll see if he gets any better with his... problem :lol:
 
#10 ·
Hopefully someone will come in who knows more about amino acids than I do.

I know there ten "essential" amino acids that horses need and don't produce. There aren't any in the GrandVite but that doesn't mean it isn't right for your horse.

The three that are found in the Horse Tech, High Point Grass supplement I feed are Lysine, Methionine, Threonine.

I'm not sure if lack of sufficient amino acids in the diet causes horses to eat manure or dirt.

Again I say, I hope someone comes in that knows more than me about amino acids:)
 
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