Manure Quality Matters

Horse manure. Yes, we are all likely familiar with it. Whether we shovel it, pick it, or drag it, dealing with manure is part and parcel of having horses. Most horse owners deal with horse manure every day and likely give it little more notice than as a necessary evil to be avoided and removed. However, a horse’s manure can be a clue to its health, particularly the function or dysfunction of its digestive tract.

When things go awry, noting and accurately describing the frequency and appearance of a horse’s manure to a veterinarian may be important. Being able to accurately describe your horse’s manure may aid your veterinarian in determining the scope or severity of a problem. Additionally, as an owner or manager of horses, simply noting changes in manure can provide you with advance notice of potential health changes.

Manure is manure, right? How many kinds can there be? While the variation from neatly formed fecal balls to projectile diarrhea may be infinite, we’ll try and provide a few options for use in describing a variety of equine outputs.

You may describe an equine bowel movement as:

• Firm, dry, formed fecal balls
• Firm, moist, formed fecal balls
• Mealy, moist, partially formed fecal balls
• Unformed, relatively firm cow pie
• Unformed, loose cow pie
• Loose, pudding-like diarrhea
• Watery diarrhea
• Projectile, watery diarrhea

Diarrhea can be a serious health risk to foals. Depending on a foal’s age, its digestive tract may not be acclimated to fiber digestion. Descriptors for foal bowel movements are often slightly different than for older juveniles and mature horses.

Caretakers of foals often describe foal manure based on viscosity and texture. Some examples include cream cheese, pudding, mustard, and cottage cheese.

Other qualitative descriptions include meconium (a foal’s first bowel movement), fecal log, soft formed, fecal balls, pasty, gelatinous, mucous, and slimy.

Regardless of the equine subject, knowing what is normal and expected in terms of the individual and situation and noting deviations will help you provide valuable information to veterinarians and other health care professionals.