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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
   
Location: Pacific Northwest | Literally at a loss, I feel like I've tried everything.
Horse is a 22 year old gelding, we've had him since he was 14. The problem started probably 5 years ago, when I first tried putting him on senior feed. This was going from dry cob to equine senior. I thought the grain irritated him so I just took him off it. It didn't stop. Had a fecal count done and regular bloodwork. No worms and nothing out of the ordinary. Take him completely off grain and put onto dry lot, only thing he's being fed is grass hay. Doesn't make a difference. Take him to a different vet, scope for ulcers and do a test for hind gut ulcers. Tests "positive" for hindgut ulcers, so I have him on Succeed for a few months, plus I treat him with omeprazole product that a BB used to sell. Nothing.
So in the span of 5 years I have had 3 fecal counts done on him, he has always had his teeth done regularly, and I have tried Succeed, Forco, EquiShure, FastTrack, something that a vet suggested that I can't recall, and I'm sure other products that I can't remember. Sometimes if I give him Probios it will stop for like a week, but then it starts again.
Right now he's still on a dry lot and being fed 2 cups beet pulp + 2 cups alfalfa pellets (measured dry) with Horse Guard multivitamin and timothy hay. He's been getting fed this for about 3 years and recently the diarrhea has gone from cow pies to sometimes its straight liquid. This also is the first time his weight has deteriorated. He has no muscle across his topline and haunches.
Him and another horse go next Wednesday (the 18th) to get their teeth floated, and I'm also having him tested for cushings and IR. Is there ANY other test that can be done to see WHY this won't stop? Or another product I can try? Or something different I should be feeding him? Until I get the results back for cushings/IR I dont want to add anything else to his feed because my trimmer is fairly certain he's one or both. He had a stranger laminitic episode over the winter.
I've had multiple vets tell me "some horses just get digestive problems as they get older" but I just think it's bizarre. I've had plenty of senior horses. In fact right now my youngest horse is almost 18. No one else has these issues.... |
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  That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| Not much to add except... I was just surprised that this thread wasn't about Mighty Broke!! I know he has struggled with this for years and the embarrassment was always so heavy that he just couldn't bring it up in a public forum. I thought to myself, way to go friend, I'm glad you found the courage...so disappointed that he is yet to seek help. Maybe tomorrow.
Edited by Whiteboy 2017-10-11 5:51 PM
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Whiteboy - 2017-10-11 3:50 PM
Not much to add except... I was just surprised that this thread wasn't about Mighty Broke!! I know he has struggled with this for years and the embarrassment was always so heavy that he just couldn't bring it up in a public forum. I thought to myself, way to go friend, I'm glad you found the courage...so disappointed that he is yet to seek help. Maybe tomorrow.
Wow, what a good friend you are!!
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That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| livexlovexrodeo - 2017-10-11 5:57 PM
Whiteboy - 2017-10-11 3:50 PM
Not much to add except... I was just surprised that this thread wasn't about Mighty Broke!! I know he has struggled with this for years and the embarrassment was always so heavy that he just couldn't bring it up in a public forum. I thought to myself, way to go friend, I'm glad you found the courage...so disappointed that he is yet to seek help. Maybe tomorrow.
Wow, what a good friend you are!!
Oh he's going to love this...just wait! |
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That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| Plus everytime someone googles Chronic Diarrhea, his name will now pop up in the search results! haha
Edited by Whiteboy 2017-10-11 6:04 PM
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
Location: OH. IO | Whiteboy - 2017-10-11 7:03 PM
Plus everytime someone googles Chronic Diarrhea, his name will now pop up in the search results! haha
OMGOSH...HALARIOUS!!!!!!!!!JOHNNY ,YOU SHOULD HAVE TALKED ABOUT IT MY FRIEND,IVE HAD THE SAME ISSUE FOR A FEW YEARS NOW.DONT BE SHY,ITS OK:)OMGOSH WHITE BOY YOU MADE ME LOLOLOL AT HOME BY MYSELF RECOVERING FROM MY SURGERY JUST LAUGHING OUT LOUD. |
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
Location: OH. IO | OP,SORRY,GOT OFF TRACK, how long was he on the forco?I would eliminate alfalfa first for three weeks then illiminate beet pulp next.increase timothy.maybe if you don't want to try forco again try remission.my pony just recently diagnosed with cushings.hes on the med. For it and remission.he is not allowed beet pulp or alfalfa.and I soak his hay.Good luck,sounds so frustrating.
Edited by jake16 2017-10-11 6:20 PM
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Expert
Posts: 1280
Location: Texas | I know this is just another product to try, but I would not give until at least trying Bio-Sponge. |
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | I know he hasnt been on the beet pulp and alfalfa the whole time hes had it but alfalfa and wet beetpulp helps with the gut to work more actively therefore can cause the runs if to much although alot of horses adjust to it. I always use both to keep gut moving in winter in my normal horses. the other thing Ill mention is high fat grains can cause digestive to be more active and cause loose stools ..its twofold though because I use both and high fat in sr horses .. to keep wieght on but have to be careful..... I know that doesnt help you because hes had it for years.. my guess is you may not find a combo for him that works well..like crohns disease in humans or so on..
want to add.. Timothy here is stalky.. it could be his gut cant process it well and produces more fluids to help break it down or push it out.... it sounds odd but that is what happens when your gut cant break down food..
Edited by Bibliafarm 2017-10-11 8:40 PM
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Regular
Posts: 89
| I went through this a few years back, and my mare will sometimes still get kinda diarrhea, more cow pattie like. I do use the bio-sponge still from time to time. As far as feeding I feed strategy and triumph senior 1/2 and 1/2 about 2lbs 2xs a day. dac cool gut. and all the grass hay she will eat/clean up by morning, keep a round bale out in the winter. The only thing that we could figure out was that she is eating something in our pasture that affected her but not the other two as they were fine. pulled blood and her calcium was low ( an indicator of ulcers per vet) so I will give her soaked alfalfa cubes also once a day in the evenings. I can only imagine your frustration, I was frustrated and my ordeal was only 4 - 6 months. but do love the bio sponge. hope this helps. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1182
Location: Do I hear Banjos? | My 29 year old developed chronic diarrhea much like you describe and with similar loss of topline/condition. We tried all kinds of things. Much as you have. The forco did seem to help for a while as does a does of probios. But...he will break with diarrhea again sooner or later. he too tested positive for hindgut ulcers at some points.
We (vet and I) finally decided that for whatever reason his gut flora was being taken over by "bad" bacteria. His immune system isn't up to par. So we did a round of metronidazole ($$), and gave a compounded paste of omeprazole/carafate to soothe the GI tract. That worked so well he gained weight and didn't have diarrhea for over 6 months. I kept him on Forco during that time.
He just recently started having the diarrhea again. So we hit him with another round of metronidazole etc. He is back to normal, no diarrhea. I hope it lasts another 6 months as he needs to keep his weight on for winter.
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | jake16 - 2017-10-11 4:18 PM
OP,SORRY,GOT OFF TRACK, how long was he on the forco?I would eliminate alfalfa first for three weeks then illiminate beet pulp next.increase timothy.maybe if you don't want to try forco again try remission.my pony just recently diagnosed with cushings.hes on the med. For it and remission.he is not allowed beet pulp or alfalfa.and I soak his hay.Good luck,sounds so frustrating.
Thank you, I've thought about eliminating the alfalfa. I'm going to try that. I can't remember how long he was on Forco, I usually gave the products 2-3 months to show some signs of improvement before moving on to something else.
What do you feed your horse as a "grain"? I use the beet pulp and alfalfa pellets mainly as just something to mix his vitamins with. Would timothy or orchard pellets be okay for cushings or IR? I've been somewhat researching in preparation for if he's one or both, but I'm still rather clueless. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Bibliafarm - 2017-10-11 6:36 PM
I know he hasnt been on the beet pulp and alfalfa the whole time hes had it but alfalfa and wet beetpulp helps with the gut to work more actively therefore can cause the runs if to much although alot of horses adjust to it. I always use both to keep gut moving in winter in my normal horses. the other thing Ill mention is high fat grains can cause digestive to be more active and cause loose stools ..its twofold though because I use both and high fat in sr horses .. to keep wieght on but have to be careful..... I know that doesnt help you because hes had it for years.. my guess is you may not find a combo for him that works well..like crohns disease in humans or so on..
want to add.. Timothy here is stalky.. it could be his gut cant process it well and produces more fluids to help break it down or push it out.... it sounds odd but that is what happens when your gut cant break down food..
I've thought that maybe he has something like crohns disease. Like his GI tract is just so beyond irritated that everything bothers him. Every day when I clean his stall, there's piles that are varying degrees of runniness. It ranges from what appears normal and then to cow patty, and then to even wetter.
The timothy we have is typically pretty soft. Even when the hay texture varies it doesn't seem to bother him one or the other.
I wish he could talk and just tell me "hey dummy, this is whats hurting my stomach"
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | tracies - 2017-10-11 5:09 PM
I know this is just another product to try, but I would not give until at least trying Bio-Sponge.
This is the one product I haven't tried yet! I will definitely look into it, I've seen it talked about on here. Thank you. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2135
Location: Somewhere else | I had one that from the day I first saw him until the day we had to have him put down had a problem with chronic diarrhea. He was a bucking horse, pick-up horse, goat tie, rope, trails, you name it. Had an old timer suggest that I try yogurt. I did and after about 2 cups of it, he stopped for a while, but would always go back to having it. I'd just feed him more yogurt. He lived to be about 36 yrs old. |
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
Location: OH. IO | livexlovexrodeo - 2017-10-12 12:18 PM
jake16 - 2017-10-11 4:18 PM
OP,SORRY,GOT OFF TRACK, how long was he on the forco?I would eliminate alfalfa first for three weeks then illiminate beet pulp next.increase timothy.maybe if you don't want to try forco again try remission.my pony just recently diagnosed with cushings.hes on the med. For it and remission.he is not allowed beet pulp or alfalfa.and I soak his hay.Good luck,sounds so frustrating.
Thank you, I've thought about eliminating the alfalfa. I'm going to try that. I can't remember how long he was on Forco, I usually gave the products 2-3 months to show some signs of improvement before moving on to something else.
What do you feed your horse as a "grain"? I use the beet pulp and alfalfa pellets mainly as just something to mix his vitamins with. Would timothy or orchard pellets be okay for cushings or IR? I've been somewhat researching in preparation for if he's one or both, but I'm still rather clueless.
Buckeye gro n winMy pony only gets about a half cup once a day. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 672
| TrailGirl - 2017-10-12 8:50 AM
My 29 year old developed chronic diarrhea much like you describe and with similar loss of topline/condition. We tried all kinds of things. Much as you have. The forco did seem to help for a while as does a does of probios. But...he will break with diarrhea again sooner or later. he too tested positive for hindgut ulcers at some points.
We (vet and I) finally decided that for whatever reason his gut flora was being taken over by "bad" bacteria. His immune system isn't up to par. So we did a round of metronidazole ($$), and gave a compounded paste of omeprazole/carafate to soothe the GI tract. That worked so well he gained weight and didn't have diarrhea for over 6 months. I kept him on Forco during that time.
He just recently started having the diarrhea again. So we hit him with another round of metronidazole etc. He is back to normal, no diarrhea. I hope it lasts another 6 months as he needs to keep his weight on for winter.
We had a 30 yo pony that we did the same with. Really brought him back! I have a 20yo now that will get diarrhea when put in a dry lot with hay. As long as he is on pasture 24/7 with hay supplement he is ok. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 929
| something I learned from working for an exotic animal vet: CANNED PUMPKIN. Or if you can get them to eat it...just a whole pumpkin. Rabbits are unable to vomit and have the same type of digestive system as horses. It works wonders for keeping horses from colicking, as well as solidifying the stool of those with constant diarrhea.
Works as a natural de-wormer for chickens and other poultry
Also works the same way for rabbits and horses in the human digestive system (but tastes funky- add cinnamon or nutmeg.)
Not pumpkin pie filling...just the squash.
Hope this helps!  |
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