Eating droppings

[haffyfan]

I know foals sometimes do this but i caught murph a day or two ago eating Harry's...or at least he showed interest in them and did some lip curling after poking about. So i'm thinking he's lacking something?

He has got a runny bum again...i don't what it is with him and winter, i thought it was the haylage last winter but we've got hay this year. Maybe because he has fresh grass in the day and then hay and very bare grass paddock at night?

He has access to a pink salt lick and a mineral lick and i bought him a general purpose vits supplement today (mole's own brand)...I wanted to get him some yea sacc, as this has sorted the bum previously, but Mole didn't have any so this will have to wait till i can get elsewhere.

Any thoughts/commenst/ideas?

[racaille]

I don't think eating droppings is necessarily a sign of a deficiency, I've seen horses who were on generous rations of hard feed do it. It can be because not enough bulk is going through the digestive tract - the aforementioned hard-feed horses could (I thought) have done with more hay (they were competition horses and their owner was always dashing off to somewhere so wanted them to eat up quickly). And often club horses do it if they are on short rations of hay.

But that doesn't sound like your case obviously. Sometimes horses just develop a taste for the poo (yeauuuw). Or it can be boredom: in the old days I would have tossed a slice of straw at a poo-eater to keep it busy but that is a double-edged sword - straw can cause impaction colic in some horses.

But I don't think Murph should have a runny bum. My lot who very rarely see grass can be 'loose' after a day on the green stuff, but not runny and Murph should be used to grass anyway.

If it were me Haff, I'd have a chat with my vet.

[haffyfan]

Thanks rac- excellent suggestion which never occured to me. Will give them a ring tomorrow. Cheers

[racaille]

What did he say Haff?

[haffyfan]

He suggested loads of possibilities...most of which i've forgotten off top of my head. Did make some notes somewhere but as i've been looking/applying for jobs too theres notes everywhere at min!

He's fine again...just needs his tail washing but it's a bit chilly!

I've no idea what did it as i tried several of the suggestions all at once. Firstly wormed him as i tend to count instead and that was suggestion no1. He's on a general purpose supplement incase something was lacking in his diet, i had already done that but it was suggested/a probiotic supplement. Another suggestion was, was the hay too rich. Well they've been on it a while and it's literally off our own fields but we did find a couple of last years small bales so they have been having a mixture but thats run out tonight so we shall see with that one. Also as the fence is done he's in the big field full time again now rather than in there during the day and bare paddock with hay at night as sufficent fibre came up too. Will be opening a new big bale again tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if that makes a difference as it did sort of co-incide with opening current bale that he went loose.