Summary: Many horse owners and vets are increasingly concerned about their horse’s digestion and colic related symptoms caused by poor nutrient absorption in the horses of all ages which is often combined with environmental stress.
So I thought you’d benefit from learning how horse’s digestive system works and what you can do to improve your horse’s health and mitigate the risk of these common digestive disorders.
When horses eat, the digestive process starts at the mouth, so one thing to consider is the age of your horse and the condition of his teeth. It is certainly worth having your horses teeth checked and floated by veterinarian because if the teeth wear unevenly the more fibers parts of the diet will not be broken down as efficiently. This is often the case with older horses.
Once the feed passes into the stomach, it’s mixed with various secretions including hydrochloric acid. The feed passes fairly quickly through the stomach but one of the areas we were concerned about were harmful microtoxins which can exist in hay and grain products. Horses do not have the ability like cows to prevent microtoxins from entering their digestive tract. When selecting a horse supplement it is best to use one that has a natural ingredient that binds microtoxins so that they pass harmlessly through the body.
Next step is the small intestine. This is where most of the protein, carbohydrates and fats along with most of the vitamins, minerals and amino acids are absorbed. Enzymes are released that digest the various elements then they’re absorbed through millions of little nodules called villi. You’ll want a supplement that enhances the enzyme action and that help the villi grow to improve nutrient absorption.
We then come to the large intestine, where the majority of bacterial digestion takes place. Most of the digestive products in the market tend to focus on the large intestine with various yeasts that act as probiotics to stimulate and provide nourishment to the bacterial population. In our research, we discovered two issues of which you should be aware. In many products the probiotics that are used are active dry or living yeasts. We discovered that these types of yeast are unstable and because of that they offer little digestive benefit. So you will want a horse supplement that uses shelf-stable, fully fermented yeast. Further, we discovered that it was not just the bacteria that were important but also fungi that are actually required for the bacteria to have multiple attachment sites to the fiber’s material that give the bacteria more places to attach to and thus improve the breakdown of fibers. So because of this, you should look for a supplement that includes fungi. I hope this piece has clarified a bit about how to prevent horse’s digestive problems for you. - Nick Hartog one of the National Animal Supplement Council founders and President of Grand Meadows
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