Microorganisms are essential for your horse to maintain a healthy lifestyle. These microbes can be found in a horse’s gastrointestinal tract and play a vital role in the digestion of fibre, which is the reliant source of energy that your horse requires. There are billions of microbes continuously breaking down the food your horse consumes, but these microbes need to stay balanced in order to maintain a healthy equine gut.
Why are microbes important?
Billions of bacteria can be found in the hindgut, but in general, there are normally 5 main types of microbes present, cellulolytic bacteria, proteolytic bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and lactic acid. This microbial community favours an environment with a neutral pH, so ensuring the microbial population remains balanced in your horse's gut ensures that the pH is not changed, and work can continue.
As horses have evolved over the years, they have been able to adapt their digestive system to consume an ongoing supply of fibre, which as you know is digested in the hindgut. The presence of these microbes allows the horse to break down the fibre in a process called microbial fermentation and is used as a source of energy. If these microbes were not available, horses would not be able to retrieve the essential nutrients from the fibre as the present enzymes in the gut cannot complete the fermentation process.
Read more: The good gut guide
How can feeding maintain microbial health?
The impact of what your horse consumes on the health of the microbes in their gut can be more significant than you may think. Particular microbes will be dependent on the contents of a forage or feedstuff, if there is a sudden increase in a certain substrate, this can cause one population of microbes to increase and create a less favourable environment for the remaining microbes. The balance should be maintained to allow the microbes an environment for them all to work together to successfully break down the fibre your horse is consuming. The reason why owners are advised to ‘gradually change your horse’s diet’ is to ensure the gut can adjust and complete the fermentation process with all the microbes in balance.
When the gut has become unbalanced, and there has been a change to the normal functioning of the gut, many will refer to this as dysbiosis. This condition can cause many additional problems such as colic and laminitis.
Read more: The importance of feeding your horse fibre
Top tips:
- When making a change to your horse's diet, whether that be the type of forage or a concentrate feed, do this gradually to allow the microbes time to adapt.
- Feed your horse concentrates little and often rather than one large meal a day. This will allow the microbes time to break down the fibre.
- Ensure a good supply of forage is available for your horse during the day and night-time to maintain a reasonably full gut for the microbes to digest.
Precision Microbes
The contents of Precision microbes have been designed to help stabilise your horse or foal’s digestive systems. Live probiotic bacteria are kept in a dormant state within the liquid and contain the postbiotics needed to rapidly stabilise and support the gut on the offset of dysbiosis or diarrhoea. The product has been used by vets across Europe during the recovery of many horses and foals with dietary problems but can also be used long-term in addition with your horse’s feed.
Visit Precision Microbes for more information.
