Description
Description
Feed Setback Salts whenever soil eating, and wood chewing is observed for a period of 10 days or longer. Setback Salts are a rich source of quickly assimilated natural potassium as found in plants made up of a whole range of potassium forms that the horse is most used to.
Dung eating, wood chewing and licking and consuming patches of soil can sometimes be due to ration change and this due to horses and ponies adjusting potassium levels. Horses must excrete K everyday not only is the main substance inside the cells and involved in countless metabolic functions it is involved with all the elimination processes, you could say it is the water in the toilet. Horses regulate elimination of K according to their diet the desert horse will eliminate the minimum it has to as there is no green vegetation, on the other hand the horse on lush pasture will eliminate a lot more. This is nature working well the only problem is that adjustment is not instant and horses that have been eliminating a lot of K may carry on doing so for some time. There is no pool of K in the horse as the horse has evolved as a mobile herbivore and because it is eating for most of the time it does not need to store K. The balance between the inside of the cells and the outside, potassium – negative on the inside and Sodium – positive on the outside, is also constantly being adjusted to help maintain maximum electrical flow for life itself, so if suddenly K is in short supply the horse will try to do something about it including eating dung or eating dirt and wood in which there may be K.
Feed Setback Salts when necessary for a period, usually 10 days then switch to H29 for longer term support of cellular balance.
Alex (verified owner) –
My Mare (5) had undergone some significant environmental changes in recent months, and I noticed she was starting to become a little over-aware of things, her bowl moments were what I’d call “nervous” – she had become over sensitive, whilst almost becoming more bratty, IE not wanting to be caught (despite it being the middle of winter), and throwing her toys out the pram when being worked and getting herself into a right muddle unnecessarily. Other then a change in attitude (which could have been put down to her just being “mare-ish”) what was fascinating is she had started eating wood, as well as licking & eating soil for the first 10 mins every time she was turned out (daily). This was not normal behaviour for her.
After speaking with Simon we concluded we were potentially looking at a Potassium deficiency and a dose of Set Back Salts should help her. I double dosed her, with one scoop both AM & PM and within 4 days swore I noticed a change. She seems calmer, less agitated, more reasonable, and her bowl movements are back to normal. I am very impressed with the results and could not recommend enough! Amazing to experience how a deficiency can affect the behaviour of a horse, but also how you can help reverse that. 10/10!!!