Can you check around to see if there research on this. Seems to me, that
this ought to be an easy project. In fact, if any of you have horses which
have tested positive for fecal sand, have you retested after psyllium (or
any other treatment)?
Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net
----------
> From: Susan F. Evans <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
> To: Cheryl Newbanks <cnewbank@cybertrails.com>
> Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject: Re: Psyllium products
> Date: Tuesday, December 03, 1996 10:41 PM
>
> Hi Cheryl,
>
> I wanted to pass on what I was taught in my equine nutrition classes at
> Cal Poly on feeding psyllium. This is from Dr. Robert Bray, who did his
> Ph.D in equine nutrition, so please don't everyone yell at me, I'm just
> passing on what he told us---his opinion was (is) that psyllium in small
> amounts does extremely little to clear the gut of sand, given the small
> volume of psyllium you're feeding and the large capacity of the equine
> gut. Also, because sand is heavy, it tends to gravitate more towards
> the bottom of the gut, where it is passed over by much of the psyllium
> goo floating by overhead. He says the marketing hype about psyllium
> "encapsulating" sand particles is hooey, because psyllium can't tell the
> difference between a particle of sand and a particle of anything else.
>
> In his opinion, the majority of sand is going to be removed by feeding
> fiber. Yes, psyllium and Metamucil, etc are fiber, but so is hay, which
> is fed in much larger amounts. Although psyllium's gooeyness may pick
> up more sand per pound of it fed, overall it's not going to collect and
> move along nearly as much sand as the sixteen or so pounds of hay you're
> feeding every day anyway, just because you're feeding alot more hay than
> you are psyllium.
>
> He thinks that for psyllium to do any good, it should be fed in large
> amounts, once or twice rather than on a daily basis. What he calls
> large amounts, I don't know, from my notes I think he meant like a
> couple of pounds, but I don't know for sure. Personally, after hearing
> the stories about wads of psyllium being removed from equine guts, I'd
> be leery of feeding it much at all, although I know alot of vets
> recommend it and alot of people have good results, which is fine by me.
>
> Rather than spending the money on psyllium, one suggestion in sandy
> areas was to invest instead in buying several rubber trailer mats and
> bolting the feed tub to it so the horse can't kick it around, then
> feeding from that so the horse doesn't eat from the ground any more than
> absolutely necessary. I got there five minutes to late to snap them up,
> but I have seen used mats at the local auction going for five to ten
> bucks apiece.
>
> Anyway, just wanted to pass on another point of view.
>
> Susan Evans
>
> >
> > Also I wanted to let the group know that I have and excellent research
> > article on hay, grass vs alfalfa, a complete nutrient break down and
other
> > great info.
>
> Could you send it to me? Thanks.