Colic

Porta-Grazer Can Help Prevent Different Causes of Colic

How does using a Porta-Grazer to prevent sand colic? The pan is designed to lift and hold the bits of hay up to the horse. This allows the horse to size and tear off each bite. Which causes the dust, sand and dirt to be shaken loose and work its way to the bottom of the barrel. There it is collected in a trough out of the horses reach to be discarded later. Little to no feed is dropped to the ground to be contaminated with foreign materials and ingested.

When feeding on the ground sand and dirt particles can be ingested.

Horses do not eat naturally off of the ground, they eat the tops of plants that grow from the ground.

Digestive ailments

Porta-Grazer allows the horse to size and tear off each bite same as if they were in pasture. The patented rotating pan lifts and holds the bits of forage up to the horse. (They don't eat down thru the holes)

A horse’s food must be moist when leaving the stomach in order to flow smoothly and allow the nutrients to be absorbed by the digestive system. This moisture is obtained from the saliva created while chewing.

Pasture isn't always an option for some horses

When pasture is not an option many people just toss out some flakes of hay on the ground. When the horse cant size their bite they end up with a big mouthful that doesn't always get chewed properly. Less chewing means less saliva is getting mixed in. Low moisture in the chewed food  can lead to intestinal impaction colic. This is especially true for ration fed horses that stand for hours with no forage.

 

Horses do not have a gallbladder.

The stomach acid runs 24/7. When the horse is finally given hay after periods of not having anything, they try to eat as quickly as possible, in an effort to buffer the stomach acid. They don't spend as much time chewing. And will swallow a rather dry bolus of hay. This can lead to impaction colic.