Digestive Upset

Horses thrive in a predictable, consistent environment. Anything that disrupts their routine causes stress, which in turn can lead to digestive upsets. These upsets happen because stress sets off increased production of stomach acids, while at the same time decreasing the amount of the protective mucus that normally coats the delicate tissues of a horse’s digestive tract.

When your horse is stressed, Natural Plan Stomach Soother™, with the naturally occurring papain enzyme, will calm and restore normal digestion, allowing your horse to feel better, eat adequately, and perform competitively.

Common stressors include:

• Aeparation from herd mates
• Traveling by trailer
• Increasing training demands
• Confinement to a stall
• Dietary changes
• Significant shifts in temperature

When your horse experiences any of these things, he may react by not eating.

• Horses normally consume roughage gradually throughout the day.
• When they are stressed, they often stop eating.
• With less food—or no food—in their stomachs, the excess acid attacks the stomach lining with great vigor.
• The pain this causes makes a horse even more reluctant to eat and sets up a vicious cycle.

Natural Plan Stomach Soother, given before and after a stressful event, can keep your horse healthy and happy.

• It helps by triggering an increase in the natural mucus lining of the mouth, esophagus and stomach.
• This protects sensitive tissues from excess acid, thereby decreasing pain.
• The mucus also makes a horse’s mouth water (literally), and stimulates appetite.
• With a large enough mass of food in the stomach, the acid returns to its intended purpose: digestion.

Stress can also cause increased peristalsis.

These wave-like contractions of the digestive tract send food through the cecum too quickly to adequately absorb moisture. This can lead to diarrhea.

• If the diarrhea continues, a horse could become dehydrated and predisposed to impaction colic.
• The papain enzyme in Stomach Soother helps break down large molecule carbohydrates, which have high levels of moisture.
• This allows the cecum to absorb needed liquids and firms the stool.