Too much sand in the ground

[iluveventin]

Hi,

Can anyone offer any advice ? my horse has just been very poorly, he came down with sand colic - eating too much sand out of the ground and accumulating in his tummy causing gastric ulcers. He was in hospital and is now back to our ground, the problem i have is while he was poorly i had to move him to a yard with stabling as he needed stabling of an evening to reduce him eating the ground at night maybe if bored or ferriting himself etc and we had to monitor the amount of sand in his poo with the fecal floatation test, i have been doing this continually since he was discharged from hospital as the vet wanted updating on the amounts coming out etc. While we were at that yard i was getting roughly 5 - 10 grains of sand in each finger of the glove which showed that it was coming through fine. I have now moved him back to our land and on doing the test here, there is more and more sand coming out i am now getting around 15 - 25 grains of sand in each finger which shows he is getting more sand intake from our ground. On inspection of the ground it is very sandy you can actually see the grains in the dirt, what i'm asking is basically does anyone know how or what i can do to my paddocks to reduce the sand content, i know that farmers spray their fields with certain products, lime, etc and wondered if anyone had any ideas or advice they can offer.
I understand the easiest solution is to move to better ground, but i really like where i am and didn't want to move unless absolutley essential.

Many thanks

iluveventin

[Jessey]

Hey its a royal pain in the a** isn't it :o my mare got it really badly last october and spent a week in hospital before she was allowed home :( our soil here is just sand - there isn't any soil to it :(

Keep up with the flotation tests, and feed psyllium or Isogel on a regular basis to flush the gut of sand - this should prevent anymore problems.

Also feeding a high fibre diet is meant to help ensure what goes in comes out - the problem occurrs when the sand that goes in doesn't come out :p

There is nothing you can do to get the sand out of the soil - however you can stop the horse ingesting the sand to some extent :p ensure she is never on short grass, so she doesn't feel the need to graze it too the roots - if she does have to be, in winter for eg then put out as much hay as she will eat and don't feed off the floor at all, if she is overweight stable her - even tidying up round a bucket after a feed can mean they ingest sand, even on the yard (it gets walked and blown everywhere) - also ensure they have a mineral lick or add vitamins and minerals to their feeds as horses will eat soil if they are lacking in certain minerals.

Here is a pic of our paddocks - I moved to this sand only yard (no grass grows so they don't graze at all - they get ad lib hay out of a hay ring so off the floor) after Jess sand colic as my other horse got lami I had them on restricted grazing which is when Jess got the colic - as the grass was too short and they were eating down to the roots :(
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y291/Jessey129/DSC01335_edited.jpg

[Wally]

Goodness, there's ponies here living on the beach, eating from the sand dunes and I have never heard any of them getting sand colic.

[nutkin]

try doing a google search for the stuff you give to horses that are grazing in a sandy area.It is designed to prevent them getting sand colic so should help prevent your horse getting it again.

[iluveventin]

Thanks guys,

I was really panicing as on speaking with the vet yesterday as her advice was to move. I've managaed to get a harrow and i'm just in the process of getting something to pull it so at least once i've got that set up i can get to work on improving the quality of grass etc. We're on Sand-out at the minute, i think i'm going to keep him on this so at least that will be helping to remove sand out of his gut as its going in and he was on isogel at the hospital, i'm looking into buying this myself and administering occaisionally to make sure that there's no building up going on in his tummy but not reasearched that enough yet!
I dont have access to a stable, i'm in the process of having a mobile shelter / stable built so that i can stable him during the nightime which will hopefully eliminate him scavaging the ground, it wouldn't be so bad but he has hay, mineral licks and he does have grass but you can guarantee he'll go for the blooming dirt patches. Until i'm 100% sure that i'm not going to be moving i dont want to start putting up buildings to then have to take down as the grounds not suitable - your input has made me think that staying put is an option, thank you.
I am feeding him on rubber matting and making sure his bucket stays upright - he's cheeky and tries to keep tipping it up, i should have a tyre by the weekend so that'll make life a little easier putting his bucket in there, i am also poo picking his paddock daily, keeping on top of it also raking it to try and encourage some good growth underneath.
I contacted a like gardeners world site yesterday and they've offered to come and out and take samples of the ground and evaluate it for me, to find out exactly whats in it etc in different parts of my paddocks, i'm going to get this arranged at least i'll know whats is going on then and can go from there, i'll keep posting on here as to whats happens etc and the results.
I've had horses and ponies since i was 4 and i've never encountered a problem like this before, its very scary when you've owned your horse for years and you think he is perfectly ok out grazing in his paddock and then you find that his stomach was so full of sand you could've built a wall with it, the vets said he should've been a case study as they have never seen so much sand come out of one animal! :eek:
Thanks for all your advise it really is most appriciated :)

[Jessey]

It is a worry but is manageable, so long as you keep right on top of it.

Isogel is easy enough to get hold of normally but it appears there has been some problem with manufacture and it won't be available again until later in the year :eek: My mare is a pain and will not eat SandOut any more :mad: I might have to see if the hospital can sell me some isogel.

Jess had tonne in her gut too, when they did the needle in the belly thing where normally they get some fluid off they found her gut was so full of sand it was sat right on the bottom of her abdomom and the needle was just digging in sand and they couldn't get the fluid :( poor lass had to be stomach tubed 3 times a day with 500g of isogel :eek:

[Rhein]

Sadly I lost my beautiful horse to sand colic last year.................

Yes, the best advice is to move the grazing. However, just because you are getting even more sand out now, doesn't necessarily mean that he is picking it up from your land. Sand and dust can accumulate over along time and what you're collecting now could possibly be in his gut from previously :confused:

Did they have to operate, or just scope him to flush the sand out?

There is a product called "Sand Out", which everyone on my last yard started to use on a regular basis after my horse died.

If it is very dry and dusty, I'm not sure what you can do to change the soil to be honest. Other than giving it a good hosing down daily and not feeding on the floor....................

[iluveventin]

I'm feeling much more optomistic, thanks.
Jessey - thanks for your advice, when he went down with colic and the vet was called out they did a rectal and they couldn't find his gut :eek: because there was so much sand it had pulled all of his gut forwards and was basically just using the very top part to digest the food it, the bottom was completely full up with the sand, on admission to hospital he was being stomach tubed 3 times a day with 500g Isogel n liquid parafin and continued for 3 days solid, his back end was litterally dripping constantly with the stuff to try n get it moved, it wasn't until the 5th day that he actaully eat anything and that was after he'd had all the gastro-guard as he was in pain with the ulcers, its just been a complete nightmare, fortunately he did start to pick up so an operation wasn't needed but it was getting very close. How is Jess now ? How long did you leave for recovering etc before you started working her again ? i'm just trying to get a plan of action together.

Rhein - i'm really sorry to hear you lost your horse last year to this, it must have been a very hard time for you. William is on Sand-Out and has been since he was admitted to the vets, When he was discharged i moved him to a stables where we monitored the Fecal Floatation Test along with the vet and she was happy things were moving in the right direction, he was there for 3 weeks and i was getting the same amount almost daily just 5-15 grains of sand, we moved back to our land a week and a half ago and again monitoring daily alongside the vet and after about the 3rd day i started to get more sand in the tests, roughly enough to fill the end of the fingers in the glove, i was getting concerned as this was a significant rise compared to how it had all seemed to settle down, when i spoke to the vet yesterday she just basically told me "he's getting it out of your ground and you must move him or i'll be there in a few weeks going through it all over again" which fair enough i agree where she's coming from but if i move whats to say that where i go to he doesn't get the same, We have a quarry within a few miles where we are and it blows across the whole area so i'm not really too sure that moving is the best answer, at the moment i have nice paddocks that i am able to do something with, whereas if i move the yard owners would be responsible and may not be happy with maintaining, harrowing it myself - do you get what i mean, sorry :confused: hence why i'm looking into all options.
Hosing down - i hadn't thought of that - thanks, thats a really good idea - it would be fantastic if we had running water, oh this is all just such a nightmare.

Wally - i know, i didn't even know what it was until the vet explained, i was just like "well where the hell is he eating sand from" and she very abruptly said "out of your ground, look at it you can see sand in it" All the years of owning horses and i'd never come across this before. Horses - a constant learning curve...

Nutkin - thanks i've found some info of different products available

Thank you to everyone

[entreat]

Oil in the feed every day, and phsyllium husks (70-100g/100kg body weight) for three days once a month.

I live in kalgoorlie, we have nothing *but* sand 365 days a year!
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/Hoffopotamus/Xmas02.jpg