I recently brought a new pony into my herd. As I didn't know much about her care before she came to me, I took every opportunity to learn from her about her health and well-being. Consequently, one of the things I paid attention to was her manure. In my experience, a healthy pony has well-formed "apples" with a pleasant aroma. This pony had manure on the edge of runny but its aroma wasn't acrid. These characteristics indicated to me that she was stressed from her change in environment but she hadn't been fed a steady diet of grain or concentrated feed. I immediately began giving her probiotics to help balance her intestinal flora.
The Mar/Apr 2006 issue of the newsletter of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy contained an article entitled, "A Primer on Probiotics." The article states: "The concept of maintaining or restoring the balance of bowel bacteria by introducing live organisms into the gut was first introduced in 1905 by Élie Metchnikoff. The bacteria favorably alter the balance of intestinal microflora, inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria, promoting good digestion, boosting immune function, and increasing resistance to infection. Animals, including humans, with healthy populations of beneficial intestinal bacteria compete more successfully with disease-causing bacteria (sic). Probiotics promote a balance of intestinal flora that produce such organic compounds as lactic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and acetic acid. These increase the acidity of the intestine, which inhibits the reproduction of many harmful bacteria. Probiotic bacteria also produce bacteriocins, natural antibiotics that kill undesirable microorganisms."
The article defines probiotics as the introduction of live bacteria. I have been told that the introduction of live bacteria is of limited effectiveness, which the article addresses: "Strong acidity in the stomach and high bile concentrations in the small intestine can injure and kill many probiotics." The article also defines pre-biotics and synbiotics. "Prebiotics are dietary carbohydrates that escape digestion in the upper gastrointestinal tract and thus form the predominant substrates for bacterial growth in the colon. Synbiotics is a combination of pro- and prebiotics. (sic)" The article concludes with "All livestock producers should consider using probiotics preventatively, since this represents organic agriculture's tenet of sustainability."
Dyna-Pro, made by Dynamite Specialty Products, is essentially a prebiotic which avoids the problem with live organisms. "Dyna-Pro uses a proprietary ferment extract, including Lactobacillus Acidophilus, which nourishes the natural bacteria and encourages them to multiply." Dyna-Pro also contains vitamins and chelated minerals. After four days using Dyna-Pro, my new pony's manure had the look and smell that I have come to associate with health. She now gets Dyna-Pro weekly along with the rest of my pony herd.
This page last updated: 22 January 2008
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