Description
NEW! Scroll down for spring pasture tips!
Gut health for horses
Digest-Easi is a digestive aid to maintain great gut health and encourage better utilization of nutrients and fibre so your horse gets all the goodness out of their feed.
With a proven prebiotic to keep the hind gut microbes happy and healthy, a proven digestive enzyme to help break down sugars and starches and gut conditioners to soothe and restore a healthy foregut. The ingredients in Digest-Easi PLUS will also calm a grumpy gut, soothe the digestive system and provide assistance to the small intestine aiding digestion.
Horses benefit from Digest-Easi PLUS added daily to their food! by supporting the gut, hindgut and digestive function your horse will feel calmer with less girth issues and stomach upsets.
Digest-Easi PLUS contains in addition Mycofix, a proven and effective MYCO-TOXIN binder to lessen the impact of mycotoxins. Mycofix is registered for use in horses and does not bind to nutrients or affect the diet in any way.
Digest-Easi PLUS adds comfort to the gut and improves gastric function. It also helps control SPOOKY behaviour with an effective mycotoxin binder profile whilst assisting gut health and digestion. Add daily to your horse's meal, even fussy eaters with enjoy the highly palatable natural (100 %) liquorice taste of Digest-Easi PLUS!
When Digest-Easi PLUS is fed with a high quality, fibre diet, see hoof health improve, coats shine, manure becomes better formed (no more loose manure) and your horse is much happier, healthier and calmer! This is because Digest-Easi PLUS enhances your horse's gut and digestive process so feeding becomes efficient, nutrients are better absorbed and your feed bill can be reduced.
HORSES feel GOOD on DIGEST-EASI PLUS!!! Try our fortified total gut health blend! We pack a lot of active ingredient into our 50 gram low dose scoop! Offering excellent value!
SPRING PASTURE TIPS FOR SUCCESS
While your horse may have enjoyed large paddocks over winter, come spring with rapidly growing grass, management is key. These are some of the problems owners often encounter.
Problem: Sudden unmanageable fizzy behaviour
Problem: Grumpy gut and runny manure
HOW TO FIX:
- Reduce grass intake with strip grazing or feed in moderation
- Feed hay daily to buffer gut in-between grazing
- Feed Mag-Eze for extra magnesium to manage behaviour
- Include Digest-Easi PLUS to settle a grumpy gut and restore gut and digestive balance
Spring dangers – overeating!
Never underestimate how quickly and how much grass your horse can consume!
Overeating can cause a fatal colic, laminitis and obesity so is very important to manage ALL equines come spring! TIP Management is key!
IMPORTANT If removing your horse or pony from grass, never yard without hay. NO feed through the gut will slow metabolism, encourage stomach ulcers and also colic. Then when allowed back to grass they will gorge causing digestive issues or may even bring on a fatal colic.
A study showed removing ponies from pasture for 24 hours (with no other food source), once allowed back they consumed a whopping 24 hours-worth of grass- in just 3 hours!
HOW TO MANAGE
- Use cattle where possible to graze lush paddocks before horses! or strip graze safely behind tape for horses.
- Offer a little fresh pasture daily (with strip grazing) and the remainder as hay to avoid overeating
- Susceptible ponies- if in doubt feed to avoid overeating hay can be offered in place of grass
TIP where the horse or pony is rapidly gaining weight – soak hay for 1 hour prior to feeding to reduce sugar levels.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Digest-Easi PLUS and Mag Eze as supplementary care and part of a safe management plan to meet nutritional demands and balance the gut.
TOP TIPS for laminitis and or obese prone
TOP TIP weight gain is hard to shift! Get in early with management before the weight goes ON!!!
HOW TO MANAGE
- If in doubt – safe policy is to reduce pasture (or omit) and replace with hay.
- Graze behind tape in an oblong shape which encourages more movement.
- Never starve a laminitis or obese horse, reduce pasture and add hay in its place
- Hay may be soaked in water for 1-2 hours, drained then added to hay nets. This will reduce the sugar content. But careful in warm weather as soaking can cause fermentation and molds to develop if not eaten immediately
- Mag Eze is recommended. This has a nutritional role in metabolic function and therefore the assimilation of fat in the body helping to shift those fatty deposits!
SPRING TIPS TO AVOID GUT DISCOMFORT
***A pain in the hind gut ***
The focus is often on the horses stomach which produces acid and also common place for ulcers.
However, don’t forget the hindgut! This is the large colon where highly specialized fibre microbes live and they don’t take kindly to sugars being dumped here!
Infact, these microbes are so specialized they are only equip to break down fibre. In the event of a horse eagerly grazing fresh grass, or stressed (fructan) pastures – a source of indigestible sugar. This sugar content flows into the hindgut and spells danger for microbes – causing a pH shift and death to microbes. This will equal a bout of gut pain for your horse.
This stomach ache (digestive upset) causes grumpy behaviour, pain and discomfort. When large numbers of microbes die off, the hind gut (colon) becomes acidic, causing sensitivity, acidosis (acid conditions), or worse laminitis or colic.
This acidity comes from the dying microbes. This acidity in-turn causes runny manure, pain, and if severe can lead to diarrhoea, hindgut acidosis. When prolonged this condition can cause ulceration of the colon.
FAST REMEDY – feed plenty of fibre! Feed hay!
Couple this with Digest-Easi PLUS -, which is packed full of proven ingredients and goodness to slow the rush of feed, aid the breakdown of sugars and starch and settle the digestive tract.
***A pain in the hindgut *** points to remember
- The stomach produces acid to break down food (potential area for ulcers)
- The hind gut doesn’t produce acid, but turns acid from sugar arriving here (potential area for ulcers)
- Help the stomach and the hindgut to keep your horse happy and healthy
- Always start with fibre! – This will buffer the stomach and feed the hind gut microbes.
Hay, chaff or ensiled forage is the easiest way to soak up that acidity! Make it the base to your feeds and feed before riding or travel also! Feed in conjunction with Digest-Easi PLUS.
***A pain in the hindgut***
Management tips to help out THE HIND GUT
- Feed rapid growing spring grass in moderation.
- Always ensure access to hay. This will buffer and slow the rush of feed through the digestive system.
- Digest-Easi PLUS slows the rush of feed, has digestive enzymes, and a proven prebiotic to maintain hindgut health. In addition, a proven mycotoxin binder complex to capture ingested molds.
- A hind gut buffer such as Equi-shure that survives the stomach acid and that is released in the hindgut that also helps to keep conditions neutral
