Digestive Health
Horse Digestive Supplements
At KAUFFMAN’S®, a division of Daniel Baum Company, we’re committed to helping horses stay healthy with our product line of horse digestion supplements. With authorization from the American Feed Industry Association’s Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program and 35 years of experience, we make products that are packed with nutrients and can support your horse’s digestion health.
Supplements for Maintaining Digestive Health
It’s important to keep a horse’s digestive system running smoothly. Eating and producing normal waste allows your horses to graze, run and stay active. Certain dietary additions can support equine digestion and hindgut health. Supplements can assist in maintaining the digestive health of your horse.
Supplement Benefits
Your horse is looking and feeling great — and you want to keep it that way. Horse digestion supplements offer many types of vitamins and nutrients that promote normal gastrointestinal functions.
For example, many horse digestive supplements contain ingredients such as yeast culture, which maintains productivity in the digestive system. This ingredient promotes health in the small intestine and the hindgut, supporting the absorption of vitamins and minerals into the body.
Other supplements and ingredients that can work to preserve normal digestive functions include:
- Digestive enzymes: Many types of digestive enzymes help promote horse health, especially in the hindgut. Most of these are dried fermentation products such as Aspergillus oryzae, Bifidobacterium thermophilum and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Enzymes help break down food in the digestive system so it can be easily absorbed into the small and large intestines.
- Probiotics: We carry probiotic supplements for horses as part of our line of digestive wellness products. Probiotics contain good bacteria that help keep the hindgut functioning at its best each day. Probiotics are useful supplements to maintain health in horses.
- Fiber grain complexes: Effective digestion contributes to overall horse health. We have supplements such as fiber grain complexes to support smooth digestion and healthy bowels. Fiber materials help keep a horse’s digestive system in normal working order.
We design all our horse digestion supplements with ingredients of the highest quality.
Healthy Horse Digestion
The digestive system of a horse is important to support and maintain, whether with horse digestion supplements or other methods. The body goes through multiple processes to break down food and absorb nutrients. Continue reading to find out how a healthy, normal horse digestive system functions.
Chewing and Swallowing
Just like humans, digestion in horses begins with the use of the mouth and esophagus to ingest food. These animals chew differently than humans, mashing up their food in a slanted direction. Chewing leads to the production of saliva, which also helps break down food, making it easier to swallow and digest once it reaches the stomach.
When the horse finishes chewing and swallows, the food travels down the esophagus to the stomach. Chewing and grinding food thoroughly makes it easier for horses to swallow and send food through the esophagus.
A Healthy Stomach
The stomach is one of the horse’s smaller digestive organs. The purpose of the stomach is to further break down food after it has been chewed and swallowed. Hydrochloric acid disintegrates extra solid particles in the stomach, preparing the food for absorption when it reaches the small intestine.
The stomach also has enzymes, known as pepsin, that help the body digest proteins in food and break them down into amino acids. Proteins help maintain muscle, hormone and immune system health.
A Healthy Small Intestine
The small intestine is where the majority of digestion occurs. In a healthy small intestine, equine digestive enzymes and carbohydrates help digest food along with proteins and sugars from the food. Then the absorption process begins.
The body absorbs the digested food and sends nutrients into the bloodstream. These nutrients include substances such as vitamins and calcium, which are necessary for healthy functioning.
A Healthy Large Intestine
A horse’s large intestine, also known as the hindgut, is made up of three main components — the cecum, the colon and the rectum. This is where the body digests and absorbs fiber and begins to ferment what is left of the food.
The large intestine continues to absorb nutrients from the food as it passes through the cecum, large colon and small colon until it has been completely digested. The small colon then expels anything leftover or unnecessary through the rectum.
