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Posted on Monday, Oct 9, 2000 - 6:28 pm:

I live in a very sandy area. I feed Psyillium two times a week as a regular practice. I feed in containers on the ground. The horses always throw the hay out on the dirt. Even when there is not hay on the ground, the horses still forage most of the day in the dirt. I had two horses sand colic this year. The vet tube oiled them both, and prescribed psyillium two times a day for two weeks. They both got better. So I asked the vet if I could treat the rest of the horses with the 2x/2weeks treatment of psyillium . The vet said "sure". I had one more mare pass massive amounts of sand. I thought that I had the problem under control. Well, I was wrong. The same horse that had the sand colic before, was vet checked today and is still full of sand. I am now stressed beyond belief. I do have a barn but I can not fit all of the horses in it, so taking them all off the dirt isn't an option. Now, my question would be is 1: how effective is tube oiling for sand colic 2: any ideas on feed containers that work 3: anything else that might help me help my horses with this problem. Thank you so much for your time.

Posted on Monday, Oct 9, 2000 - 11:00 pm:

Brenda: We moved to a very sandy area 2 yrs. ago. After a few bouts with sand colic, here's what we did. We purchased rubber stall mats and placed 9 to 12 of them together in each paddock and then put the hay mangers on top of them ( it is wise to attach the mats to each other so they don't separate ). Every morning and evening when we pick up manure in the paddocks, we sweep the mats before placing new hay in the mangers. The horses go in the barn twice a day for grain ( while we clean the paddocks and set up hay ), however, we do have two boarders who remain outside. There are rubber flat - backed feeding buckets that will hook over the fence. We place their feed in these and have covered the ground underneath the areas where we hang the buckets with two more rubber mats. The mats are an initial expense - but they are worth their weight in vet bills. We feed psyllium for the first week of each month and check regularly for sand in the manure. This has been working very well for us....no more sand colics.....knock on wood and check back with me in few years. Just remember to cover a large enough area with the rubber mats so the horses can spread their hay around some. Also, remember to sweep those mats clean twice a day.

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2000 - 7:33 am:

Brenda,
Elizabeth gives an excellent suggestion. To answer question one: oiling is probably not effective at moving sand and the psyllium is questionable, for details read the article on Sand Colic.
DrO

Posted on Friday, Nov 17, 2000 - 9:31 am:

Dr O,
What about bran for sand? I have a rescue horse that is full of sand, and insists on eating the roots of the grass in his paddock. He's had one bout with sand colic already.
Thanks.

Posted on Saturday, Nov 18, 2000 - 7:37 am:

Bran has questionable efficacy at increasing the rate that sand is normally removed from the bowel.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 22, 2000 - 2:44 am:

Dr. O; I had a boarder that fed plain old cooking oil with her feed, was she correct in doing so? I had never heard of that b4 but she was from Florida and I'm from Texas. I have always fed a handful of bran at night time. I have sandy loam and the horses run out on it during the day and are put up at night in their stalls. I have never had a problem that I know of, but, I was not aware of the sand test. So, from this day forward I will periodically give the test(thanks for the info).

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 22, 2000 - 6:43 am:

It is almost certain that corn oil will not help move sand.
DrO
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