Foal eats sand!

[mvb]

My 2 week old filly has now decided she wants to eat sand. She picks sand over the grassy areas. Any advice? She now has the runs and her and mom are back in the stall for now. Any suggestions?

[Fire_fly]

last year we had a goup of us with dirt/sand eating foals (search this forum). most out grew this behavior. We all had free choice mineral out, salt, and fed properly. I would not worry too much if you have your nutritional bases covered and the foal is otherwise healthy.

[Oakstable]

Sorry, I lost a filly at 6 weeks due to sand colic because I didn't take the sand eating seriously enough. I figured I had the nutritional bases covered. Wrong. Very painful memory.

If you want info on minerals you can try that may satisfy her, send me a pm or e-mail directly.

[Hampton Bay]

I would not mess around with eating sand either. They can easily colic and die. At that young age, they are not eating enough coarse hay to help push the sand thru the digestive system from what I have read.

I have always believed that eating sand or dirt is generally a nutritional issue, but it certainly can be boredom. In any case, she should be removed from the sand completely. Better to be safe than risk a colic.

[mvb]

so should i not turn out at all? It's florida and it has barely rained in months.... or just supervised for a certain amount of time? I am not sure what to do. This is my first foal...

[dbaygirl]

Do you have any paddocks without sand? Fields with grass only? If you don't, can you find a pasture that is sand free to board your mare and foal at? Last year my filly was eating gravel with small rocks in it...can't remember the name...it's late.. It seemed to be a fascation with her. This went on for a few weeks and she doesn't do it anymore. I tried to keep her and mom out in the field as much as possible. There is no shelter there so they had to come in in bad weather as the run in shelter in on the gravel paddock. Every time I saw her doing it, I would yell and chase her. She eventually got sick of that annoying habit of mine and stopped doing it. I also had a mineral salt lick in their stall. I was quite worried about sand colic. I'm thankful she is fine and will turn one next week. Good luck, but I would definitely remove mom and foal from sandy area if at all possible.

[Hampton Bay]

Just for info, there is nowhere in FL that does not have sand, especially with the lack of rain we have been having. We live on a giant sand bar where grass barely grows when it does rain a lot, and the soft sand doesn't exactly give much of a hold for roots. Thus pastures get turned into sand pits fairly easily, at least in spots.

I would call the vet on this one. I'm sure he can pull blood to check for deficiency in the diet. Getting them off sand down here is hard, but for now, I would stall her until the vet can come out unless you have somewhere to put her where there are no bald spots in the grass. Tough down here.

Since she does have the habit of eating sand, make sure to keep her away from oak trees as well. On the off chance she develops a taste for oak leaves, they are quite toxic to all species. We just lost the boyfriend's daughter's rabbit to 3 oak leaves last weekend. I'm sure a horse can eat more than that with no ill effects, but it was bad enough burying a rabbit. :no:

[allanglos]

I also came very close to losing a foal due to sand ingestion. I had to put a muzzle (I think that is the term. A mesh net over his mouth. Allows grazing but not sand eating...or nursing) on him whenever I turned him out for a week or so. Then he got over it.

[dbaygirl]

Just for info, there is nowhere in FL that does not have sand, especially with the lack of rain we have been having. We live on a giant sand bar where grass barely grows when it does rain a lot, and the soft sand doesn't exactly give much of a hold for roots. Thus pastures get turned into sand pits fairly easily, at least in spots.

I would call the vet on this one. I'm sure he can pull blood to check for deficiency in the diet. Getting them off sand down here is hard, but for now, I would stall her until the vet can come out unless you have somewhere to put her where there are no bald spots in the grass. Tough down here.

Since she does have the habit of eating sand, make sure to keep her away from oak trees as well. On the off chance she develops a taste for oak leaves, they are quite toxic to all species. We just lost the boyfriend's daughter's rabbit to 3 oak leaves last weekend. I'm sure a horse can eat more than that with no ill effects, but it was bad enough burying a rabbit. :no:

You have the exact opposite to what we have here in BC. It's so wet the pastures turn to mush in winter and even now they are very wet due to the extreme amount of rain and cold we have had this year. Would be nice to live somewhere that is in between the two extremes...

[Oakstable]

Well, my filly is eating dirt now. I have minerals out in buckets and she eats those too.

I am thinking about pouring hot pepper sauce around.

What think?

[Foxtrot's]

I met a rider who swore by bentonite clay for her dirt eater. I have a young horse who would dig down to the clay base and lick the clay, like a saltlick. I know there is a difference between sand and clay - just a thought.

[Fire_fly]

I felt my filly's thing was more behavioral and was in line with tasting stuff , and was on pasture full time, mineral out in buckets, salt seperate, plus an appropriate concentrate. She tasted many other things as well, trees, leaves etc. I am also on sandy soil and did not have any health problems. I guess it depends on the ammount. I have seen horses lick the clay ground as well.