Horse Digestion

1
Horse Digestion and Nutrition
2
(No Transcript)
3
Mouth and Esophagus

• 36 to 42 teeth
• age determination
• 4-5 ft esophagus
• regurgitation?

4
Stomach

• 4 gallons
• Cow stomach 40-50 gallons

5
Small Intestine

• 70 feet
• 12 gallons
• 3 sections
• Duodenum
• Jejunum
• Ileum

6
Cecum

• 4 feet
• 10 gallons
• Microbes break
• down fibers
• Comparable to
• cows rumen

7
Colon or Large Intestine

• 12 feet
• 20 gallons

8
REVIEW digestive system

• How many stomach compartments?
• Large or small stomach?
• What digests hay? the rumen?

9
(No Transcript)
10
What do Horses Eat?

• Roughages
• Grass hay
• Legume hay
• Pasture

• Grains
• Oats
• Mixed feeds
• Concentrates
• WATER

11
How much?

• 2-3 body weight per day
• Nutrition needs depend on work
• 10-12 gallons of water per day
• Water needs depend on work and weather
• 50 lbs manure
• 37 lbs feces, 3 lbs urine

12
Water Snow?

• NO!
• A horse needs to eat 6 times as much snow to meet
  water requirements
• Eating snow cools the body, requiring use of more
  calories (feed) to warm it back up

13

• 2.5 body weight for a 1100 lb horse is 27.5 lb
  feed.12 L grocery bag demonstrates the horses
  stomach, which needs to digest the 27.5 lbs of
  hay each day

14
Review nutrition

• What do horses eat?
• A horse can eat snow to meet water requirements?
• How much feed does the average horse need per
  day?
• How much water?

15
(No Transcript)
16
Wild vs. Domestic

• Wild
• Graze 16 hrs/day
• Small frequent meals
• Domestic
• few large meals
• eat on human schedule

17
(No Transcript)
18
Colic
19
Laminitis Founder
20
Obesity
21
Malnourishment
22
Heaves
23
Review nutrition related illness

• Colic
• Laminitis and Founder
• Obesity
• Malnourishment
• Heaves