what harm will chicken feed do to my horse?

bellaxs

bellaxs

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May 23, 2007
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help! i discoverd my horse in my garden this morning:eek: and by the time i got out there he had his head in a bag of chicken feed and im not sure how much he ate. im nt sure what to do, what harm do you think it will do ?
please help
xxx
p.s ive moved him into a safer field where i can keep an eye him so he dosnt escape again, but if u have any tips on preventing horses opening gates they would be much apreciated.
 
at best: lay an egg!!!
at worst: start crock-a-doodling at 5 am!!! :D :D

hehehe I'm sorry I know it's a serious question... but it made me laugh!!! Little brat... they seem to zoom on things they shouldn't get into!!! Just like kids... :rolleyes: anyways, the worst I imagine that if he ate too much he could end up with a colic, but I'd make sure that he can't get near the stuff again... because they can be very smart for mischeif!!! Can you maybe attach a chain around the post with a clip to help him from opening it?
 
If it was layers pellets it can bring on all sort of problems like laminitis and even blindness, Fat Cob ate hen food and was really very ill for weeks.
 
Mine have broken into the chicken's enclosure and eaten their food from the ground before, and been fine (and stepped on a bantam and broke its leg :( ) but not out of the bag...
 
when i used to ride a pony at a farm the owner said chiken pellets will do no harm but what ever you do dont let them eat corn, it pops in their stomach and can cause really bad colic!
 
I had a goat pull a 1/4 of a bag of layer mash into the run in and my Halfinger gelding ate only a few bites (I heard it happening and ran in to get it out). He colicked that night at midnight, if our mare hadn't whinnied non-stop we never would have known.

Vet came and tubed him with mineral oil and medicated him and he was alright. But it was only a few mouthfuls! (although Haflingers can really snorf food down fast...)
 
There was a person who moved in not far away after the idilic life style of the country, hadn't the first idea on feeding anything and managed to kill a pony by allowing it access to hen food.

If they pick up a few grains or pellets off the floor, likely it will do not harm. Several big mouthfulls is enough to give them serious problems.
 
Wally and Frances are right, I had to do a short filler piece for a BHS newsletter about this issue a few years ago when there was a local horse death from eating poultry feed :(

Feed additives and growth promoters such as narasin, monensin, salinomycin etc are poisonous to horses. Also antibiotics such as tetracyclines etc. It's not just poultry feed you need to be careful of, cattle feed can contain these things as well.

They can cause really nasty symptoms ranging from severe diarrhoea and heart muscle damage up to heart failure (can be a few weeks afterwards).

If your horse has eaten any poultry feed or cattle feed, speak to your vet and tell them the brand of feed and quantity eaten. They should be able to tell you whether your horse has eaten enough to be at risk and suggest a course of action.
 
Romensin is another nasty one , that one kills hens as well as horses and dogs, but it's okay to feed it to beef cattle ready for humans!

I not only have to read my shopping lables but my animal feed lables too.
 
lol! :-D)

on a more serious note, chickens need eveything horses don't - calcium, phosphorus and energy in high dosages, designed to be fed ad-lib, like horses' forage in a way - and chicken feed and forage are sooooo different.
 
My Exchequer Leghorn Cockerel has just killed my Rhode Island red, who was 3 times his size. :( :( Blood, snot and feathers everywhere. :( :(
 
With most chicken feeds there is no immediate illness. But with long term feeding it will kill your horse. There is a chemical in chicken feed that horses can not digest (cant remember it's name) it is then stored in their system and when it reachs a certain level your horse will get very sick and die.
 
There might be urea in it, but a horse can become incredibly sick in the space of 30 minutes after eating hen food.

Fat Cob did, he got the most dreadful colic, explosive liquid squits for ages, had to go on a drip, the fluid he was losing in poo was scary. He got laminitis next day from it, then the blood vessels in his eyes went casuing temporary blindness, his entire eyeball was filled with blood stained fluid that he could not see through.

It took a while but he made a full recovery, but the vet needed to see him every day for 4 days, and he needed nursing and looking agter carefully for 4 months.
 
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