Hot dipped galvanized horse stable panels and horse stall box

Hot dipped galvanized horse stable panels and horse stall box

The amount of forage a horse is given or has access to is extremely important as the equine digestive tract continuously produces acid, therefore the horse’s digestive tract must contain food most of time; if a horse is without forage for more that 3 hours, the acid in the digestive tract will build up which can cause ulcers, diarrhea, and potentially colic. Behavioral problems can also develop because the horse is in pain from the ulcers that are a result of the low quantities of forage. The process of chewing produces saliva, which the horse uses as a natural antacid; if the horse has no hay or pasture to chew on, the antacid will not be produced and the horse will find anything to chew on to try and produce saliva, which can be the start of an oral stereotype.

In most cases, reducing confinement and providing the animal a more natural setting reduces the incidence of stable vices. There are stopgap "cures" that can be provided in the stall to keep a horse busy or out of trouble, including increased exercise, feeding of larger quantities of lower-quality food (so the animal spends more time eating and less time being bored), feeding more frequently, or cutting back on grain or other high-energy concentrates. Toys such as a ball or empty one-gallon plastic milk jug can be hung in the stall. Sometimes simply giving the animal a companion in the next stall, or even a smaller animal placed in the same stall, also helps a bored or nervous horse.

In extreme cases, a short term fix may include various forms of restraint. However, none of these practices solve the underlying problem, some may raise animal welfare concerns, and the animal will resume its behavior as soon as the restraint is removed. The long-term solution that has the most success is to give the horse less time in the stall and more free turnout time.

Drug resistance is a growing concern for many horse owners. Resistance has been noted with ivermectin to ascarids, and with fenbendazole, oxibendazole, and pyrantel to small strongyles. Development of new drugs takes many years, leading to the concern that worms could out-evolve the drugs currently available to treat them. As a result, most veterinarians now recommend deworming for small strongyles based on fecal egg counts to minimize the development of resistant parasite populations.Fecal egg count reduction tests can also be performed to identify which dewormers are effective on a particular farm.

If a horse is heavily infested with parasites, dewormers must be given carefully. Small strongyles can form cysts embedded in the intestinal epithelium. A decrease in the active population of worms, as in the case of deworming, can cause larvae to emerge from the cysts (larval cyathostomiasis). Additionally, foals with a large load of ivermectin-susceptible ascarids in the small intestine may experience intestinal blockage or rupture after deworming. Thus, in heavily-infested animals, a veterinarian may recommend worming with a mild class of drugs, such as fenbendazole or a low-dose daily wormer for the first month or so, followed by periodic purge wormer treatments.

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