As per title really!
I have never heard anyone feeding it except to prevent sand colic. I am sure it helps prevent colic due to ingesting sand but there is no way to prevent every kind of colic, as far as I am aware.
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After surgery (where the cause of my horse’s colic remained a mystery) part of my discharge instructions were to feed Metamucil as a supplement. This horse went on to colic again, so in his case it didn’t prevent further episodes, but it was recommended by the vet college.
The horse has such a high volume of feed, 20 lbs or more of dry matter hay roughage every day, that I am not sure how much effect any add on like husks will have.
That said I did get some when we were dealing with repeat constipation impaction colics in the hind gut. I thought it might help retain water in her poop.
I think though what really helped was getting her drinking enough water again.
Very wet mash, lots of salt, molasses flavored water, extra water bucket beside the hay, making sure water was always clean and fresh.
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Yes, it helped my prone-to-impaction horse. I now have some on hand for every snow fall when she is most likely to impact. That and snow pads and no impaction last winter. I start it when snow is forecast or falling and continue for 7 days unless the snow doesn’t stick on the ground. If snow lasted more than 1 week I might start again after a week off. 1 cup husks and about 1/2gal warmish water mixed seemed to work.
Psyllium acts to draw H2O into colon, and to create peristalsis of colon, at least for my mare.
Good to know. Do you feed alone or in a mash?
Horses are obviously not people, but I personally just got impacted by using psyllium. I’ve been colicky for the last 6 weeks. Something went wrong with my stomach and digestion. One of my symptoms was being a little constipated. I went to WF and psyllium was recommended to move things through. I took psyllium for over two weeks. Some days I only took 1/2 the dose, but I still took it every day. My constipation got worse. It never occurred to me that this was caused by psyllium until I submitted a stool sample. The lab could not test my sample because it was too viscus. Then the light bulb went off that maybe the psyllium had created too much mucus, so I stopped taking it. Sure enough, I stopped taking it and the results no longer reminded me of horse poop nuggets. It took me four days to be able to get a quality sample and lab was able to rerun the test.
I’m still sick. The only thing that’s helping is ibuprofen for the pain and digestive enzymes, so this might mean it’s a pancreatic problem. I am seeing a gastroenterologist today and I will ask about psyllium. I’ve used psyllium with horses without a problem, but I’ve only used it short term. I hope that psyllium never causes sticky, viscous stool in a horse like it did me.
Has anyone who uses psyllium regularly examined their horse’s poop and seen a difference in the consistency compared to before they used psyllium?
Definitely in a mash, mixed with her regularly soaked alfalfa cubes and soaked beet pulp! I try to get LOTS of H2O into her all the time, but especially in snowy weather. If necessary I also add a bit of mineral oil to ‘slide’ things along
In Australia we are told its no good feed wet, and that it must be fed dry. I dont know how to get a horse to eat that stuff dry, it tastes like sawdust.
I dont feed it for sand colic, im dubious about it too.
Worked for me (read:my mare) fed wet…
Yeah I dunno why its recommended dry, but I think the idea is because it gets that jelly texture and swells up, if you feed it dry, it swells in there and ‘sweeps’ the sand through. Though I personally would never feed anythng that absorbs that kind of water dry, thats just asking for colic I think.
Vets recommend it, but there are several other treatments available too.
We get sand colic here ALL the time. Its common, like an abscess
I’m curious how much psyllium you were taking to get this effect?
My guess is that the dose for horses is so small relative to the size of gut and diet, that we see no difference in the manure and perhaps the dose does nothing.
Would love follow-up when you ask the gastroenterologist.
I am also unsure whether psyllium really fixes sand colic. Is there research evidence?
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What I was told by my vet was, the psyllium acts as a bit of an irritant so the colon goes into a more active peristalsis, which, combined with the water, ‘flushes’ out the sand collecting in the gut. I have read here that people who use psyllium to prevent sand colic often see sand in the manure, so I guess it works? Anecdata at its best…
What I was told by my vet was, the psyllium acts as a bit of an irritant so the colon goes into a more active peristalsis, which, combined with the water, ‘flushes’ out the sand collecting in the gut. I have read here that people who use psyllium to prevent sand colic often see sand in the manure, so I guess it works? Anecdata at its best…
How much psyllium would you need to feed given that hay itself is up to 50% indigestible fibre? I mean would a cup more of indigestible fibre make a difference?
Found some research. Inconclusive.
https://ker.com/equinews/psyllium-prevention-sand-colic-horses/
More effective tubed by a vet:
A cup/day worked for my mare…
To prevent further impaction colics, not to treat one
I feed it to increase the peristalsis, as she has a naturally low rate and doesn’t always move around as much as she should (although that’s been addressed too). We don’t have a sand problem here
Psyllium is up to 77% insoluble fibre, though, and it expands on contact with water. I think it basically acts like a bulking laxative?
My vet says that lots of good, stemmy hay is the best thing for clearing out sand. He says that in his experience, the Sandclear and the like doesn’t work nearly as effective as good quality, stemmy hay. I do a sand test twice a year with my horses manure. I have yet to have a high sand content. I also want to add, I live in Florida. Sand state supreme!
