The Mountain Behind the Barn

Horse manure. You’ve shoveled, forked, lifted, pushed and pulled your share of

it. You might not want to read about it, but the condition of that manure can be a clue to

your horse’s health.

Have a horse long enough and you might start grumbling about the quantity of

that entire poop. A good size horse will produce somewhere around 50 pounds a day.

That adds up to nine tons a year! Unfortunately, this is just a fact of life that goes with

animals on a mostly roughage diet. We grumble about the amount, but if a horse hasn’t

made any for awhile it’s time to be concerned.

Impaction, or as the old horsemen used to say, “Stoppage”, is the most common

cause of lack of manure in a horse that is eating. An impaction is a tightly wedged mass

of food material in the large intestine. Impacted horses will show some signs of

colic. The pain is less severe than a gas colic or twisted intestine, but can last days

instead of hours.

I don’t feel like I have completely examined a horse until I have walked into the

stall and kicked some manure apart. The amount, form, color, consistency and smell can

all provide clues as to what is going on inside the horse.

Horse manure is formed in balls because of the anatomy of the last several feet of

the horse’s intestine. This section is not just a smooth flexible pipe. It looks more like a

long garter snake that has swallowed a string of tennis balls. Water is absorbed from the

fecal material on its way through, and toward the end it is easily molded, taking on that

ball shape. When the manure loses its form and become more like cow flops there may

be a problem. Some horses get loose when they are nervous, but if a watery diarrhea

persists its time for a vet visit.

There are other things to watch for. Long, obvious pieces of undigested feed in

the manure may be an indication of a dental problem causing improper chewing of

roughage. The next time your vet is out I’d have them examine the teeth.

Some horses graze very close and will pick up gravel or sand as they graze. This

grit in the horse’s intestine tends to collect in the colon and can cause sand colic. You

can check for this by taking a good handful of manure and putting it in a gallon zip loc

bag. Mix well with water and hang the container with one corner down. Within 15

minutes the heavy sand will settle down to the tip. Sand can be cleared out by using

feeding psyllium (the ingredient in Metamucil) on a regular basis.

Internal bleeding anywhere along the intestine also shows up in the manure. If

the bleeding occurs in the stomach or small intestine, the blood will be partially digested

and will darken the manure. If the bleeding is from the large intestine, the manure will

have streaks of red in it.

Internal intestinal parasites use the host’s manure as a vehicle to get their eggs

out. For this reason, it’s important to keep your horses away from the manure pile.

Letting horses graze around the manure pile multiplies worm problems. Manure

provides an easy way to check on your horses worm load. When your vet visit is

scheduled save some from the morning clean out to be analyzed. Put a sample (a

tablespoon) in a quart labeled zip lock bag for them to take back to the lab.

Some people are quite adept at noticing a difference in the smell of manure. I

had a technician years ago who could tell by that difference that a horse was about to get

sick. She would know a good 24 hours before there were any other signs.

All this boils down to knowing what normal manure is for your horse. You

handle it every day anyway. Get into the habit of tearing a ball or two apart with your

foot, shovel, or fork before it goes into the wheelbarrow. It soon becomes a habit and is

just another part of good horsemanship.

Helping MSSPA

I want to highlight the message below from the Maine State Society for the

Protection of Animals. I am on their Board of Directors, believe wholeheartedly

in their mission, actively support their programs and support their work

financially. I am asking you to help out as well.

Breezy, the colt born at MSSPA in February, is now a strapping 3-month-old with a big appetite! While he is still nursing for now, he already loves to eat hay and will need more and more as he grows. Horses take years to fully mature, and so Breezy will stay at the MSSPA shelter until he is grown and until his training has progressed far enough to ensure a successful adoption well into the future. During his time at MSSPA, Breezy will eat a lot of hay! An average horse eats a bale of hay every day, at a cost of nearly $2,000 per year. And that's in a year when hay is not as expensive as it is in Maine right now. This year, MSSPA needs to raise $80,000 to provide all the rescued horses the hay and grain they need to thrive. The Society's annual Buy-A-Bale campaign is almost over, and thanks to everyone's generosity the goal is within arm's reach! Since March 1st, an astounding $73,000 has been raised for the MSSPA horses. Can you support my campaign to buy a bale for Breezy and help raise the last $7,000 needed for hay this year?

Donate Here

Gravel

The following is a chapter from Dr J's first book, Maine Horse Doctor : On the Road with Dr J

Gravel is the unusual name for what is probably our most common cause of lameness. It would be rare for any equine vet not to be dealing with a case a week. A horse that is “graveled” might be three legged lame one day and completely sound the next. Many horses recover with no outside help. Even more remarkable is that usually, once a horse is over it, there are no after effects.

In order to understand this lameness and how to deal with it, we have to start with some basic knowledge of the horse’s foot. Pick up your horse’s foot and look at the bottom. The junction between the wall and the sole is called the white line. It’s just like the junction between the wall and the floor in a room. It’s not really a structure in itself; it’s just a place where the wall and the sole meet. In a healthy foot it’s a faint line which is lighter in color than the wall or the sole. Have your farrier point it out the next time he is trimming.

The culprit is usually a piece of gravel that penetrates at that wall/sole junction. The small stone gets wedged in the white line and allows bacteria to enter. An infection may follow. If it is unable to drain out the bottom of the foot, the horse is on his way to becoming “graveled.” Some people think the stone travels up the foot and causes the lameness. It doesn’t. What does travel up is the bacteria and the inflammation that they cause.

The abscess may just drain, or be drained, by your vet or farrier from the bottom of the foot. Often it works its way up the white line inside the hoof wall, following the path of least resistance. When the infection gets up to the sensitive areas of the foot, near the coronary band, the horse will become very lame, sometimes to the point of refusing to put the foot down. The lameness may not appear for days or even weeks after the original penetration. A graveled horse looks and acts like a horse with a broken leg. It hurts. The foot is often warm and there is almost always a very strong digital pulse at the back of the pastern and low ankle. Pressure with hoof testers may cause more pain. If there is some doubt as to the diagnosis, X-rays may have to be taken, and sometimes (but not always) show exactly where the abscess is.

If your farrier or vet cannot get a graveled foot to drain from the bottom, then there are two other ways that the issue is usually resolved. As the infection reaches the top of the wall at the coronary band, it may break open. The skin splits, and smelly watery pus will drain out. Relief comes quickly. To encourage this, soak the foot in a strong solution of Epsom salts. Place the foot in a corded black rubber feed tub and then slowly add water. Once you see that the horse will accept that, add the Epsom salts until you see a little bit undissolved on the bottom of the tub. There is nothing as soluble as Epsom salts, and the more concentrated the solution is, the more drawing power it has. Poultices can also help. Even with these aids, some graveled feet do not open up at the top, and then the third possibility will happen. In these stubborn cases the abscess will slowly be absorbed, and the horse gradually becomes less lame.

Even though gravel is an infection, we usually advise not giving antibiotics. No matter how high the dosage, it is hard to get a therapeutic level. Abscesses tend to get walled off with fibrous tissue, and the medicine is unable to penetrate them. If possible it’s best to avoid using anti- inflammatory medicines such as Bute or Banamine which may make the animal more comfortable. These drugs do decrease the pain, but they also tend to slow down the possible release of the infection from the bottom of the foot or at the coronary band. Although rare, there are cases where the infection becomes very entrenched and severe, and these horses often have to be hospitalized and more specialized procedures done to alleviate the problem. Graveled horses should be current on their tetanus vaccination.

If you have a lame horse for no apparent reason, always check the digital pulse of the foot. A strong pulse as compared to the normal foot is often the best indication that your horse may have gravel. It seems to be a more consistent finding than heat in the foot. If you don’t know how to find and assess the pulse, have your vet show you the next time he or she is in the barn. It is a skill that is easy to learn and one that every horse owner should master. I always ask owners who call about an acutely lame horse if there is a stronger pulse in that foot. If there is, the chances are good that the animal has that strange foot infection we call gravel.