RE: [RC] beet pulp - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.
In a message dated 7/9/05 2:55:15 PM
US Mountain Standard Time, suendavid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Not everyone, but some
horses develop some gassiness (since BP is a highly fermentable fiber) and
better to be cautious than have to call a vet for a crampy horse.
Is this something that the horse
will become accustomed to or will certain horses just not tolerate the beet
pulp ?
Lee
Both. 99% of horses adjust very well
if started slowly, and a hefty percentage of horses do fine anyway, even if
started out with an enormous bucket. I’ve only come across a very few
horses that just stayed intermittently gassy, and were taken off the BP, more
due to the owners nervousness than IMO a true inability on the part of the
horse to adjust. Not that I blame the owner. One of those horses
was sold to another owner who wasn’t aware of the former problem,
promptly put the horse onto BP and the horse has been on it since without a
problem. The other two continued to have gas cramp issues, but they also
were on straight alfalfa rations and I’ve always wondered if possible enteroliths
in the hindgut were contributing to a blockage of gas moving through normally.
One of those two did eventually go for colic surgery and did have some
enteroliths removed, but was not subsequently returned to a beet pulp ration.
So there might be a small minority of
horses that for one reason or another might not tolerate beet pulp, but most
will.
