Sand Content in Equine Feces within Santa Cruz County

Overview

Objectives/Goals I wanted to do a project about horses since they're my favorite animal. I talked with a few horse owners and they said I could do a project about Sand Colic. Sand Colic is when sand is stuck in the horses' large intestines. This can seriously hurt or possibly kill the horse. With my project I can help horse owners to see what type of treatment is best to prevent Sand Colic. Methods/Materials Method:30, 1 quart canning jars wiht lids; 1 cup stool; water; hose; gloves; poop picker upper; lables; stirrer; measuring cup. Procedure: 1. Place 1 cup stool in a 4 quart canning jar; 2. Add 3 cups of water in jar; 3. Stir for 50 seconds. Mixture should break apart; 4. Wait 5 minutes; 5. Turn hose on medium and place in jar. Allow contents to drain out. Turn off hose and slowly pour out extra water. Sand should have settled to the bottom. Let contents dry, then measure. Results I sent letters out to 15 barns however only 5 responded. Of those barns I collected 25 samples from the watsonville, Soquel, Aptos, and Scotts Valley area. I collected the stool samples and processed them in a two-week period of time. I evaluated the residual sand contents by using the measure of centerawl tendancy. The data was arranged in three catagories by the type of treament they recieved: Nothing, Psyllium and Other. Conclusions/Discussion There was a low responce from the barns. I wonder if they feared the results od theri horses and/or how the information was to be used. Before I started testing it rained. The grounds became wet and the sand became heavier. It was more difficault to collect the sand off the ground. If I were to do this project again I would do it at a different time of the year to see if the ground changes the final result. I would also like more barns in the Santa Cruz County to be involed to see if the locaton affects the outcome of the results.

Competition history

• CSEF 2006 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1033

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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