Re: pulses and gut sounds

[Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

>Some the thoughts on the 'immediate' benefit of probiotics. How long does it
>take probiotics to reach the hind gut? That is where they are needed to go
>to work. I am going to guess a minimum of 4 hours to work their way through
>the stomach and small intestine for a healthy horse with good movement -
>someone else may have a better number. Longer if movement is compromised.
>
>And they are only of benefit if the horse doesn't have enough of his own. In
>addition, the horse's own are going to be balanced for the food the he has
>been consuming and are superior in that regard to a somewhat arbritrary mix
>off a shelf. Perhaps things like the stress of a trailer ride can cause
>reduction that makes their use beneficial.
>
>Duncan Fletcher
>dfletche@gte.net
>
>
We started giving normal sized doses of the probiotic with the electrolytes
on Thursday evening and then repeated the dosage on Fri. morning, Fri.
evening, Sat. morning, and Sat. at the vet check.  Along with this they got
as much hay as they could eat (from Wednesday on with the instructions to
George that I wanted so much hay in their mangers, that they couldn't
finish it by morning...they're out on pasture during the day) and sloppy
beet pulp soup in the mornings as well as the evenings, which they (the
harder working ones) get on a regular basis.  They love their beet pulp and
will keep their noses in it for quite a while...especially if we've buried
carrot chunks. ;-)

Anyway, my point is (since I digressed <g>)...it wasn't just one dose at
the ride.  It probably had time to get near the hindgut and the amount of
food they were eating was really packing them full of fibrous matter and
water.  Thank you Susan Garlinghouse for your wisdom in this department!
This (the eating program) had been in effect for the last several rides,
the probiotics were the only change.  The eating program, I might add, took
a time or two to get the amounts down and the feeding personnel accustomed
to tossing down that much hay (since I bellyache more about their tendency
to overfeed due to my having been "blessed" with a couple of friggin' Air
Ferns!!) so it had only recently been up to speed to the satisfaction of my
marginally educated brain! Blaze was still getting Bs on gut sounds while
Story (on the same diet) was getting all As.  Being a good student for most
of my life, I was not happy with Bs on my report cards (...except when they
were from Gene Nance, <g> but that's a whole 'nother ballgame. (Love that
guy!)) so I went looking for something else I could try -- especially since
Blaze's diet and poop regime seemed to be doing okay.

Oh, and by the way, Duncan is the one that steered my (unknowingly) towards
endurance by sending me the specs for ridecamp so that I could learn more
about trail training (at my request.)  Thanks Duncan...you're a great guy
and I'm glad to have you in my neighborhood.

Sue
-------
Sue Brown
Tyee Farm
ARICP Certified Riding Instructor
Recreational Riding and Dressage
Marysville, Wa. 
sbrown@wamedes.com