The Importance of Gut Health

Is the way we feed and manage our horses making them sick?

As a horse owner, you may come up against problems like anxious behaviour, girthiness, laminitis, poor performance and weight challenges and accept them as ‘normal’ for your horses. But are they? And if they aren’t, what causes them?

The fact is that for most horses, these problems are not normal! And it’s only now that we’re really beginning to understand the role poor gut health plays in these issues.

Learning about the gut and the trillions of microbes it holds, and understanding its incredible potential to enhance or impede our horses’ behaviour, health, appearance and performance, is an exciting way forward for us as horse owners.

What is gut health?

Your horse’s gut has many roles, including:

The digestion and absorption of feed;

• Providing a barrier that will protect your horse from disease-causing pathogens, bacteria and toxins; and • Housing the trillions of bacteria that play a vital part in good digestion, immune function and behaviour. • And as we now know from human research, with its strong connection to the brain, the gut may play an even bigger role still.

Your horse’s gut consists of the foregut (oesophagus, stomach and small intestine) and the hindgut (cecum, large colon and small colon), and the term ‘gut health’ simply refers to how well the gut is working.

What happens when gut health goes wrong?

Stress, incorrect diet or poor feeding can cause problems such as:

• Gastric ulcers - open wounds in the stomach • Hindgut acidosis – too much acid and a low pH in the hindgut • Bacterial imbalance – not enough good fibre-loving bacteria • Weight loss – without good fibre fermenting bacteria your horse can’t digest properly and will lose weight • Behavioural changes – B-vitamin deficiency and hormone imbalance can cause hyperactive or anxious behaviour • Leaky gut – the gut wall becomes damaged and allows bacteria, pathogens and toxins to enter your horse’s body

This a big deal because the gut is a horse’s ‘engine’. If you want your horse to ‘work well’, you have to look after his gut!

How do I know if my horse has poor gut health?

Symptoms of poor gut health can be subtle, even when the problem is quite severe. Plus, each horse may show different signs for the same problem, making it difficult to pinpoint. However, some common symptoms include:

• Picky eating or loss of appetite • Excessive girthiness • Uncharacteristically anxious or excitable behaviour, or changes in behaviour including cribbing • Weight loss or can’t gain weight • Recurrent, mild colic • Manure that smells acidic (vomit like) or is softer than normal • Scouring • Free fecal water (a discharge of watery manure) • Dull coat and/or poor hoof quality; and • Difficulty working to the right

What causes poor gut health?

There are many factors that contribute to poor gut health:

• A low forage diet starves the good fibrefermenting bacteria and increases the risk of gastric ulcers • Feeding uncooked grains like barley or corn sends a lot of starch into the hindgut where it feeds the bad bacteria causing acid build up, hindgut acidosis, gut wall damage and when severe enough, laminitis. • Sudden changes in diet don’t allow your horse’s gut time to adapt, which can result in colic, and shifts in hindgut pH and bacterial populations. • Changed living arrangements often lead to stress, increasing the risk of gastric ulcers. • Stabling or long hours of stressful travel without feed disturbs normal gut health, increasing the risk of gastric ulcers and negatively impacting the hindgut bacteria. • Feeding big meals (particularly starch) causes the feed to travel through the small intestine too quickly, resulting in a starch overload in the hindgut where it feeds bad bacteria that then kill off good, fibre-fermenting bacteria. • Excess use of non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs can increase the risk

of gastric ulcers in the lower section of your horse’s stomach. • Overuse of oral antibiotics destroys good gut bacteria.

Look at your horse’s management and routine. If one or more of these risk factors are present your horse may be struggling with gut health.

Keeping your horse’s gut healthy

Given that the gut is the foundation for almost every aspect of your horse’s health and wellbeing, it’s good to know that feeding for good gut health is simple:

Forage: Horses should have 1.5 – 2 % of their body weight a day in forage (grass, hay and chaff). For a 500 kg horse that’s 7.5 to 10 kg/day. Feeding a variety of forage increases good gut bacteria diversity; fills the stomach, preventing the acidic burns that cause ulcers; and helps to increase saliva production.

Take care with grain: Grains contain a lot of starch - and too much starch is a problem for the hindgut. When feeding grains, include them in small meals (no more than 1 kg for a 500 kg horse), and make sure, with the exception of oats, that they are cooked (extruded, boiled, micronized, or steam flaked) to increase starch digestibility. Oats can be safely fed whole or cracked, but must also be fed in small meals.

Feed a balanced diet: For good gut health, your horse needs a variety of nutrients and should be fed a diet that meets all their protein, mineral and vitamin requirements.

When a little digestive help is needed

Poseidon Digestive EQ was formulated to give your horse a helping hand when it’s needed. With digestive enzymes, essential amino acids, mycotoxin binders, acid buffers and a yeast prebiotic, Digestive EQ is designed to help your horse’s gut recover and repair from past damage, to resume and maintain normal function, and to help maintain good digestion through particularly stressful periods.