>(seems it more common in Arabs and part- arabs than any other breed-- maybe
>because they are more curious and may injest something they shouldn't?)
My Appaloosa Warpaint had successful colic surgery for stones in June 1994.
I have heard that it happens more often in Arabs. There is a higher
incidence of enteroliths in Northern California than in the rest of the
west. There was another Appaloosa at our barn that had stones and there are
two thoroughbreds that had surgery for stones. I think there was one Arab
that had them too.
It's not clear what exactly causes stones, but they do have something in the
center called the nidus. This is usually something that the horse has
ingested (a piece of wire, a stone, etc) and the rest of the stone builds up
around it. Feeding straight alfalfa is suspected as a contributing factor.
(There are some comments from Nick about enteroliths on the home page)
>have seen people suggest giving horses 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar a day
>as a preventative. Also, one suggested using the apple cider vinegar from
>the health food stores that have the "mother" in it. Any advice on this?
I give my horse 1 cup of apple cider vinegar mixed in pellets. The vinegar
is given with the idea of changing the PH of the gut so that it is less
hospitable to the formation of stones. His regular feed is 1 flake of
alfalfa and 2 flakes of oat (although I'd probably prefer even less
alfalfa). He also gets psyllium husk which is a Metamucil type product.
The idea here is to try to keep stuff that might become a nidus to move out
of the gut instead of stick around. Another suggestion from Davis was to
increase the percentage of grain fed to increase gut motility. I don't feed
much grain and what I do feed is plain oats, no corn.
By the way, does anybody else feed psyllium? I'd like to hear what everyone
else does. At our barn some people feed a giant pan full of the stuff wet
and other people use small amounts dry.
Judy Long
Hayward, California