HELP. This little girl is a total HOOOOOOVER. She inhales EVERYTHING. Except, she can literally pick out the tiny sand clear nuggets and will not eat them. She is on a sacrifice area she eats dirt off all day long. :no: No matter the amount of hay, she wants the tiny left over stubs and is ingesting a lot of soft sandy dirt. I HAVE to have a monthly product she’ll happily eat. Can anyone share with me a different brand that you’ve had good luck with? thanks so much.
The only psyllium product I have ever gotten my boys to eat is the one from Equerry (Sand Master). I’ve tried several different ones, and that is the only one I don’t have to force feed. And mine are not at all picky about most things, but psyllium stuff makes every one of them say “ew!” They used to carry it at a local farm store, but when they stopped, I did find it online.
pelleted psyllium fed with a handful of Calf Manna - both are the same pelleted size and texture (can’t sort) and the Calf Manna has a flavor / sent that I have found even the pickiest of eaters can’t resist.
I can get a horse to eat pretty much anything if I mix it with a little honey. YMMV.
well,tonight, I re scooped up the sand clear tiny pellets. added a bit of steaming hot water and let it sit. added some honey…brought it re mixed and warm…and NOPE. nada.
left it on the stall floor and went without any dinner. I think I’ll be checking with a vet, I guess. I need a force paste is all I can think of. 
thanks you guys!
I use Metamucil, for humans, it is orange flavored powder that dissolves in water. I just sprinkle it over their normal food and they gobble it up. I do feed a textured feed, so it sticks well.
How much Metamucil?
I put stall mats on the ground where my girl gets her hay.
Have you tried feeding her flax instead? It has a similar effect as psyllium in that it gels up and “catches” the sand allowing it to pass through. At least that is what my vet in AZ told me.
It also has the added benefits of omega 3s for a nice shiny coat. My full sized horses get about 1/4 cup per day in their feed for the omegas. Ideally you grind it just before you feed (or keep ground flax stored in the fridge/freezer). I just feed it whole and I haven’t seen a difference. I DO see a difference in their coats when I don’t feed the flax.
[QUOTE=ayrabz;7884807]
HELP. This little girl is a total HOOOOOOVER. She inhales EVERYTHING. Except, she can literally pick out the tiny sand clear nuggets and will not eat them. She is on a sacrifice area she eats dirt off all day long. :no: No matter the amount of hay, she wants the tiny left over stubs and is ingesting a lot of soft sandy dirt. I HAVE to have a monthly product she’ll happily eat. Can anyone share with me a different brand that you’ve had good luck with? thanks so much.[/QUOTE]
I haven’t yet seen enough evidence that sandclear makes a difference, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
If you pull up any of the studies done on feeding psyllium, they are usually feeding 1-2 POUNDS of psyllium, with about 8-9 cups of mineral oil.
Thanks everyone! Well, I DO worry about the sand/soil consumption with this one. Our soil is so soft, its like baby powder. She will eat any 1/8th inch growth of something she likes…and leave the grass (as in clover, etc) and she’s pulling in a lot of dirt. Even with her muzzle on, she is stripping it to dirt easily . But the sacrifice area is where she’s going to end up for the most part…and that will be total soft sand soon. She ignores hay, unless its the real lovely stuff and I can’t let her hoover on that all day, either. So, she’s back out nibbling dirt a lot of the time. Metamucil: I had ? read of that before, but again (!) I’m talking a mini that does not get enough ‘grain’ to mix a large amount of anything in…I was SO HOPING to find a yummie nugget? type supplement that she’d want to eat and look forward too (!) vs. something I have to ‘hide’ in a larger amount of feed. I did take the sand clear nuggets and put steaming hot water on them, enough to make a ‘mash’ of sorts and add some honey last night…NOPE. she wouldn’t touch it. Oh, and loriloo? My stalls, my aisle, my outdoor washrack and my entire 12 x 24 run in are entirely wall to wall matted with interlocking mats. This is where she gets the ‘hay’. She doesn’t want it. she wants to eat the dirt in the sacrifice area. I have no hay out there.
[QUOTE=Therese;7886233]
Have you tried feeding her flax instead? It has a similar effect as psyllium in that it gels up and “catches” the sand allowing it to pass through. At least that is what my vet in AZ told me.
It also has the added benefits of omega 3s for a nice shiny coat. My full sized horses get about 1/4 cup per day in their feed for the omegas. Ideally you grind it just before you feed (or keep ground flax stored in the fridge/freezer). I just feed it whole and I haven’t seen a difference. I DO see a difference in their coats when I don’t feed the flax.[/QUOTE]
This. I have fed a lot of Sand Clear to my horses. I have a gelding that has periodic juicy poo and Sand Clear would help some.
I have fed whole flax which gives lovely dapples and shiny coats. Ground flax is even better, plus no more looser poo. I feed it daily.
ok…so, on the ‘flax’ method. Do they eat it ‘plain’? Again, this is a mini and I don’t have a grain ration to ‘hide’ things in. And if this is used for sand clearing…do you use it once a day for 7 days at a certain weight ratio?
thanks!
We always used Sandblast and it was eaten readily. Try putting a little Vick’s in her nose before you offer the feed with the sand med. It is the smell she objects to…not the taste.
I feed a cup of flax daily, and I still worry about sand. I had never heard anything about it helping with sand?
Chia seeds have a similar property to psyllium. They get very gooey when wet.
I have used metamucil as well. For my 900lb large pony it’s about 3/4 of a cup a day. I add it to his alfalfa pellets and add water. He loves slurping down the orange stuff.
[QUOTE=ayrabz;7887010]
ok…so, on the ‘flax’ method. Do they eat it ‘plain’? Again, this is a mini and I don’t have a grain ration to ‘hide’ things in. And if this is used for sand clearing…do you use it once a day for 7 days at a certain weight ratio?
thanks![/QUOTE]
My girls will eat it straight from my hand. Fair warning, if you feed it whole vice ground, the seeds stick to everything! They get that gooey.
As for effectiveness, I feed it daily. It’s cheap ($35 or less for a 50 lb bag around here) any you’re only feeding ounces per day. 50lbs lasts me months which is why I buy it whole. The ground goes rancid, and I’ve been told the “stabilized” is not as effective. I haven’t tried it, so can’t tell you if that’s true.
Another vote for orange-flavored Metamucil. One cup a day for a 1100 pound horse. You can get a large canister of it at Walmart, etc.
I didn’t know about the Metamucil. Great thread.
[QUOTE=clarzoo;7886098]
I use Metamucil, for humans, it is orange flavored powder that dissolves in water. I just sprinkle it over their normal food and they gobble it up. I do feed a textured feed, so it sticks well.[/QUOTE]
I use both Metamucil and the Wal-Mart generic version with my horses here in sandy SC. The gelding will eat just about anything and enjoys the orange flavor. The mare won’t eat anything “odd”, BUT she loves beer:D. So I dampen the feed with beer and add water to dissolve and/or make the Metamucil adhere to the feed.
Both of them lick their buckets clean.
