Panacur 5 Day Purge -- Safe for 8wk Old Foal

[barnbum]

Oh jeepers! Not Trooper trouble, again!

There's so much advice here. I'm very glad to hear he's happy and active.

I'm not any help. I send some prayers for an answer though!

 

[Jill]

Thanks, folks! I appreciate the advice and if my vet's round table offers any other suggestions, I'll let you know what they say.

I just got back home and gave him some lactaid and probios (before reading here and maybe probios aren't good for foals). He's his same old self except ticked off that he's closed out of his play area that's big and grassy. Also gave him more milk pellet & PEJ mixture (following the Lactaid).

Will plan to give him a second dose of SMZ tonight since that's a 2x a day thing and will look into these other suggestions, too. So hard because so many variables and different things to add or take away. Honestly, I don't know if I'm smart enough to keep track of what combinations we have and haven't tried and won't know how long to wait before trying another direction.

At least he is not "sick" in terms of him becoming dehydrated or bad things in his blood through this. It's just very, very frustrating but that beats frustrating and scary.

Thanks for the help and good wishes -- I appreciate it!!!

 

[Jill]

Small update --

Trooper is a little firmer tonight. Nowhere near where he needs to be. Assuming he continues to improve, I may not ever know what made a difference...

• Continues to be on BioSponge, Probios, Yogurt and Pepto Bismol
• Began the 5-day Pancur course (per the vet, said it might help)
• Starting giving Lactaid when I take out a fresh mix of Purina Equine Junior and Milk Pellets but the box says to take more if you continue to eat more than 45 minutes and he comes and goes -- only giving it when I take out a fresh mix
• Started on SMZ this morning and will continue 2x a day for 5-6 days (unless my vet gets wind of it and freaks out tomorrow)
• Confined to a dry pen / stall (in case he's been eating some disagreeable weeds in his grassy turnout area -- we are letting him out to play a few times a day since the pen is only about 20x30 w/ an 8x8 stall)

If the vet's come up with any suggestions not shared here, I will let you all know in case it may come in handy in the future...

Assuming he progresses and gets over this, will gradually start eliminating / re-allowing things (like stopping lactaid, re-allowing into his grassy area, etc.).

Thanks again -- the advice and time is very much appreciated!!!

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

I am not an expert, but I don't think your foal has even lived long enough to need a 5 day purge for worms.

Was your foal ever on antibiotics even early on? If so, I would ask your vet about starting 7-10 days of Metronidazole. It is an "antibiotic of sorts, rather like an anti fungal" But what it does, is kill off bad bacteria that takes over and kills off normal flora when a person, dog, horse has had antibiotics. The lack of normal bacteria, taken over by the bad causes diarrhea. A lovely side effect of Metronidazole is that the diarrhea stops.

I would continue Biosponge, Probiotics and a nice yogurt along with some pepto paste or liquid.

I might even consider 6 weeks of sucralfate(carafate) to heal and put a protective coating over any ulcer,and a month of omeprazole to decrease stomach acid. The Sucralfate also has a lovely side effect of stopping diarrhea.... watch for constipation.

You have done a great job!

Robin

 

[mdegner]

Jill,

I don't know if this will help or not, just a suggestion. We raise whitetail deer along with our minis and we usually end up bottle feeding a couple every year for customers. We've found that if the fawns start to get loose, we mix a couple of tablespoons of canned pumpkin with a couple ounces of milk and feed that to them between feedings or along with their normal feedings. It helps to firm things up quickly without stopping things completely.

Now our fawns are not as heavy as your little one would be so you could probably give him more than a couple of tablespoons. We try not to use alot of meds on our deer.... they're pretty touchy that way, so the pumpkin remains natural and they REALLY like it....

Just a thought.....

 

[disneyhorse]

I would second RobinR's advice about Metronidazole versus the Sulfamethazaxole as antibiotic for diarrhea. However, I would only give antibiotics to a foal under vet orders... my vet does not like to give such drugs to young horses if at all possible.

Be careful about switching up the diet, and remember that diarrhea often accompanies feed changes. It can take a LONG time for the gut flora to build up to handle the type of feed(s) the horse is getting.

If your little guy seems otherwise normal, just rinse his butt and slather it with Desitin and try to wait it out. Diarrhea is very frustrating in young horses, I've been there done that multiple times, but sometimes you just can't force the issue with their little digestive systems.

Keep on a regular worming program and let his body grow and adjust.

Good luck,

Andrea

 

[bevann]

No additional suggestions for feeding and meds, but one for the poopy butt.We have coated the butt with vaseline or diaper creme to avoid scalding and burning.The poop goes right over it and saves baby's hide.It can always be washed off later with soap and water.Good luck with your baby.He is beautiful.

 

[Jill]

Thanks, everyone.

Things seem somewhat improved this morning. A friend from here called last night also suggesting pumpkin and metimucil (sp?), which we will try today, too.

As for the Metronidazole, that is also what I thought he'd need and the vet said she'd need to come do bloodwork before prescribing, which is part of why she came out last Thursday, did the exam and bloodwork and told me he doesn't need Metronidazole.

He had never been on antibiotics before I gave him the SMZ's yesterday. His history is that at 16hrs old and 6wks old, he had hyper immune plasma transfusions. Not because his IgG was insufficient, but because last fall, I got to sick / dying colts in from another farm. Now we do this for all our babies to be sure they stay healthy (it's actually not uncommon for high dollar TB foals to get this as a precaution and after what happened with the colts I bought last year -- not taking chances with our babies). The plasma has "protection" for just about anything a horse could get. Trooper got about 1/4 bag at 6wks old because he had an anyphelactic (sp?) reaction (as did one of our fillies at the second transfusion) but it still was enough to boost him like we wanted.

He had loose stool 2 days prior to the 6wk transfusion, but during the reaction, he had liquid diarrhea which the vet said was nerves (probably so). However, this was the start of his weekend of projectile diarrhea (last weekend). Started BioSponge on Monday (20cc 3x day) for things to firm up significantly but with continued BioSponge, returned to liquid on Thursday prompting our call to the vets requesting Metronidazole to be told they needed to examine him and draw blood, which happened Thursday afternoon.

He did have a mild "foal heat" diarrhea which of course wasn't connected to his dam's heat as he was't nursing from her, but nothing that required treatment. His poop used to stink more than I think it maybe should (going back to when he was a week or two old) but I attibuted that to him being on formula vs. mare's milk.

If the practice has any new revalations this morning, I'll let you all know. For now, though, he had somewhat firmer stools last night and didn't have a gross butt this morning (phew). Planning to continue all of the changes / additions we've done and add in the pumpkin and metamucil this afternoon (H will pick it up on his way home, I'm planning to be here all day).

The brightside (other than how much we love Trooper) is that when we're all done with raising him, I'm going to know way more than I ever did before about raising an "orphan" (mom rejected, but w/ circumstances) foal and about diarrhea in horses. We've never dealt with either in all the years of having horses.

 

[MountainMeadows]

I am with those that are recommending metrodiazonal and metimucil - a lot of times there is sand in the gut that causes diareha and the metimucil will help pull that out, e-coli or coxcidia(sp) are also fairly common in youngsters of any species and the metro.... really works wonders. I have heard that pumpkin is a great "firmer" and I have used it on my puppies along with metro.... when they get a little lose.

Young foals seem to eat just about anything and I would not be surprised if he is licking at dirt and getting sand in his gut - hence metimucil can really help.

Good luck with your little guy Jill,

Stac

 

[Jill]

Haven't heard from my vets, which may mean they have no further advice about the situation (they think it's something he is eating not agreeing with him though he's been exposed to no "new" foods, only different ratios).

For those that use metimucil, can you tell me how much you'd give a foal? And is it good to plan and do it 3x a day?

Thanks!