Thinking About Poop

Thinking about poop when owning a horse, donkey or mule is a full-time job.  Is the poop firm enough, too firm, or not enough poop?  Poop in the equine world is a big deal 🙂  When I was down from the semi truck accident I was constantly asking my husband How Does The Poop Look?  My poor husband was like “It’s poop Melody, lot’s of poop!  Thank GOD he has learned the importance of learning what each of our equine’s poop should look like or not look like. 🙂  Donkeys are very efficient with their food so if you are new to Donkeys you may be surprised how hard the poop of a donkey is.  On the positive side not much smell from a donkeys poop compared to my horses poop.  Donkeys use every single calorie and save it for a rainy day.

Natural equine ownership is the safest way for us horse, donkey and mule owners to care for our domesticated equine.   Here on the Donkey Whisperer Farm our equine poop is picked up twice a day and added to the compost pile, water buckets are cleaned and fresh water is added every other day.   All of our equine are fed out of a plastic slow feeder to prevent colic. Select Plastic Slow Feeder with the hay pillow attached inside.  You can make your own out of wood but donkeys are wood eaters.

Fecal Sampling

I started fecal sampling a few years ago as Over Worming can make our equine worms resistant to wormers just like antibiotics for people.  In addition when we over worm our equine we are destroying the immune system of our beloved equine.  Each farm needs to have a plan to keep the equine as healthy as possible so read, read, read to stay updated on equine ownership. Select Fecal Testing Journal.

Collecting a poop sample is easy; get a plastic zip lock bag, write the name and date, go to the barn pick up two fresh poop balls and place them in the bag.   Make sure to get the fresh poop sample to your vet right away.   When my vet comes to the farm I have three little zip lock bags waiting for him, please remember to ask your vet about hot and cold weather considerations of fecal samples as I am not a vet only sharing what we do to keep our equine healthy.

GOD bless you and your family two and four-legged!

Melody Johnson

Donkey Whisperer Farm ®

13 thoughts on “Thinking About Poop”

  1. Are donkeys normally very “tidy”? We have a mini donk that is VERY tidy! She only goes in 2, sometimes 3 areas that she’s designated as toilet spots in her paddock. Makes it so easy to clean up after her too! I was just wondering if others were like that too?

    1. Hi Gwen,

      I think the answer is: It depends on the living arangement? My horse, Mammoth and Mini Donkey all live in the same paddock and can walk into the two barns. Both of the donkeys like to poop in my horses hay so she cant eat it a kinda introverted passive agresive technique I would say. Both of my male donkeys poop and pee in the exact same place 🙂

      Did you find the fecal testing interesting? Please send me a photo of your donkeys love to see all the donkeys. Thank you for reading my blog and taking a moment to comment nice to meet you via WP.

  2. Horses and donkeys are a bit like dogs and cats. In both cases one the latter are adapted to arid environments and are very efficient at water re-absorption which means hard poop.
    Is donkey urine also more pungent that horse urine?

    1. All of our equine live on a dry paddock.

      I have only seen Rio do this once in 7 years. He did it after getting to go out in the early spring and eat too much green grass, brush etc., had diareaha and started eating the poop. Green spring grass is dangerous for donkeys as they can founder, get abscesses, colic on-and-on. I limit the amount of green grass after a long winter to short amount of hand feeding times. Look into the paradise paddock system. A dry paddock or a muzzle during dangerous green grass season, high in sugar. You can always ask your vet what his/her opinion is as I am not a vet.

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