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I honestly don't know. However, a fair amount of writing on enteroliths
has been done by Australian researchers and DVMs, so it probably can't
be all that rare if there's that much interest. On the other hand, in
looking at specific discussions regarding enteroliths from the
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society of Australia, they discuss
magnesium soil content as typical of SW U.S., don't mention Mg levels in
Australia, and suggest avoiding the oversupplementation of
magnesium---all of which leads me to think magnesium in soil content is
not a problem in Australia.
Dr. Dowling posted something last week pointing out that despite a high
proportion of (Northwest)("normal" levels of Mg) alfalfa being fed in
her area, enteroliths are very rare---I think she said only a few in
four years or so. So obviously, simply the fact that you feed alfalfa
doesn't mean enterolith formation. It's just a nasty coincidence that
SW hay is higher in Mg, which along with high nitrogen from alfalfa
and/or excess protein supplements and high phosphorus from cereal grains
predisposes the horse to enterolith formation.
Why your horse seems to have dessicated manure, I really don't know. The
only reference I could find in my library talked about horses that for
some reason don't like the taste of their water (ie high sulfur content
or whatever), only drank enough to stave off thirst but were always
borderline dehydrated. Other than that, I'm clueless. Maybe there are
some DVMs willing to delurk to comment.
Susan
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