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We feed our horses the occasional corn husk when I'm preparing the corn for our dinner.  They love it and we haven't seen any problems yet.

 

Barbara

----- Original Message -----

From: Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.

To: 'Laura' ; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Monday, July 18, 2005 6:25 PM

Subject: RE: [RC] watermelon rinds, corn silk, and plum pits

JMO, but I don?t see any reason why watermelon rinds would not be okay.  I?d probably cut or break them up into chunks, as opposed to an entire giant half circle.  One of my horses is such a pig for rinds, she would probably try to scarf down the whole thing all at once and choke on the darn thing.

 

Corn silk I might be a little cautious about, but probably wouldn?t lose any sleep over it.  Plain old hay has a lot more fiber to it than corn silk.  Husks I would probably avoid though I also wouldn?t leap to snatch them out of my horses mouth if he grabbed a mouthful.

 

Stone fruit pits contain some cyanide, which isn?t an issue munching a few off the tree.  I suppose swallowing a whole pit could conceivably be a choking hazard (specifically, an esophageal obstruction) and I could see the rough, pointy edges causing some abrasions to the esophagus.  Keep in mind the esophagus is a soft, collapsed tube where food doesn?t just fall down via gravity---it?s pushed down via peristaltic waves just like ingesta/poop is pushed through the bowel.  So rough edges might be a little too scratchy for my taste.

 

I figure a decent rule of thumb for ?odd? food items is that if you wouldn?t put it down your garbage disposal, you probably shouldn?t feed it to your horse.  Nothing that would break a blade, nothing that behaves like string.

 

JMO,

Susan Garlinghouse, DVM, MS