Re: can horses pick their ration?

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Robert Morris wrote:
> 
> Susan:
> 
> Re the "beavers" I do to some extent agree with you on the social aspects
> but still hold to the idea that diet changes also play a part in the habit
> of chewing buildings and power poles.

I do, too.  I'm just not sure that the horses were particularly choosing
feeds to correct a mineral insufficiency, rather than trying to
alleviate an acidic GI tract from a formerly imbalanced diet.  I don't
really know, but I imagine ulcers can take awhile to heal (mine sure
did), which is maybe why the chewing disappeared over time?  

This was in a totally different species, but I once saw a German
Shepherd dog, newly imported from Germany that as soon as he arrived,
started eating the newspaper and wool blankets, then would run into the
bathroom and try to wrap himself around the porcelain toilet.  After
alot of head-scratching, they found out the poor guy had gastric ulcers
from all the stress of changing homes and was presumably eating things
and seeking out cool tile to ease the pain.  Once the ulcers were taken
care of, the abberrant behavior went away, too.  You gotta wonder to
what extent horses will do the same sort of things if they're
uncomfortable, huh?



> I still hold to my observations that selenium supplementation decreased the
> browsing of Astragalus. The change occurred over a period of several months
> but was noticeable.

It would have been interesting to see before-and-after blood panels on
these horses to determine selenium status.

Thanks for the post, Bob.  Interesting stuff.

Susan G