Posted 2016-08-12 11:43 AM Subject: Sand Colic Prevention
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 302
I just recently moved to a place in Ohio that the ground is pretty much all sand and gravel. I need to start my horses on something to prevent sand colic. Everything I have found is an "add" to the horses grain. This is fine from my younger horse but my 24 yr old had cushings and is on medication and isn't really a grain eater anymore and basically just gets good hay and pasture. Are there any products out that there that are paste or liquid based that I could just syring him with? Any suggestions would be great.
I've always used Sand Clear. It's not a daily thing, but given for 7 days 2-3 times a year. For the young horse you can just follow the instructions and put it over their feed. For the older horse, you can put it in a syringe with some apple sauce or anything of that nature and administer that way. As long as it gets in them it should work.
I use psyllium....sand clear is what I normally use (7 days straight 1x a month). Although I did read something where you need 2 lbs of psyllium to be effective and the thing that worked better than that was more forage (hay).
We've lived in sugar sand for 30 years and have never had a problem with sand colic. You just need to be sure your horses are fed where they can't drop their grain into the sand and then pick it out. Also if you feed alfalfa make sure you use a hay mount instead of throwing it on the ground, but these things are a good idea even if you live in dirt. I like sandy soil. It's easy on their feet and horses like to sleep and roll in it. They're never mud-caked or very dirty.
It also grows horrible stickers and burrs.....now that is a drawback. Ouch!
We had a horse colic from sand colic and now everything we have is on equate daily fiber that you can buy from Walmart/etc. They get a cap full a week.
Posted 2016-08-16 7:15 AM Subject: RE: Sand Colic Prevention
I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3310 Location: Jersey Girl
I kept my horses on sand for years. I did not feed them on the ground. I used the Walmart brand metamucil. I gave 6x the human dose, 2 feedings in a row, once a week.
If your horses are getting adequate fiber (hay) you won't need to worry about feeding psyllium.
Sand Colic Prevention
Ouch!