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The digestive system Print

00-10-foal

The horse is a single stomached animal which shares with the ruminants (cattle, sheep and deer) the ability to digest fibrous plant materials. The stomach is small, and the fermentation chamber is in the hind guts. The horse is thus classified as a hind gut fermenter. Some basic information on the physiology of the equine digestive system is given in  the table below.

Length, volume and passage time through different parts of the digestive tract of a 500 kg horse

Length in meters

Maximal capacity in litres

Passage-time

Pharynyx

Upp till 1.5

10 - 15 sec

Stomach

-----

18*

1 - 5 hours

Small intestine

16 - 24

64

1.5 hours

Caecum

1

34

7 - 15 hours

Colon

6 - 8

96

8 - 16 hours

Rectum

0.2 - 0.3

---

1 - 2 hours

TOTAL

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20 - 30 hours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Normal volume about 1/3 of maximal capacity