Hi everyone, I've been trying to better understand the horse's digestive system. I am a little confused on how the horse's cecum works and was wondering if anyone could explain it better/give me insight on how to help keep my horse healthy. Anything is welcome, thank you!
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Hi there!
Great question! The cecum is a part of the horse's hindgut, which consists of the small colon, large colon, cecum and the rectum. This is where a lot of microbial digestion happens, meaning this is where all the undigested food from the foregut (stomach and small intestine) goes to get digested by microbes. It's important to understand that these microbes are very sensitive to changes and that is why it is important to keep your horse's diet consistent and make changes slowly over time. Back to the cecum, the microbes in this part of the horse's gut break down and eat the undigested food in a fermentation process and then those microbes excrete VFA's, or volatile fatty acids, amino acids and B vitamins back into the horse's blood stream. The horse's body then absorbs these excrements back into the bloodstream to use in the horse's body for energy, building proteins and important vitamins. Hope this helps!
Sydney
Site Director
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