runny poo

[Charlene]

red has gone months without a single episode. for whatever reason, his runny poo simply cleared up. now, for the past 3 days or so, it's back. i'm talkin' poo down the legs and caked into his tail.

i use continuex daily dewormer, have used it for almost a year. i also deworm with Zimecterin Gold although i only use this 2 or 3 times a year, as per my vet.

the ONLY change i have made was a miniscule amount of BOSS because my grain was beginning to mold and i discovered this early this week and had NOTHING to give them for a couple of feedings. now, when i say miniscule, i mean TINY. red got maybe 1/8 of a cup 2 times. could that alone have brought this on?

since my horses are on dry lot, pure sand, i also use "sanblast" on a regular basis. he seems totally unaffected by this. he eats well, drinks plenty and is as playful as a colt.

i have talked to a couple of biggie owners and they have told me that they think the oppressive heat has brought on bouts of this in their big horses. it's well into the 90's every day here. bleh!

i'm scratching me head. OH! what am i missing???

 

[Connie Ballard]

Hi Charlene!

Friend of ours gelding KO Punch, has had periodic bouts of the same. She has him on daily wormer, drylot with good hay..just 2 horses, plenty of room and attention, clean place...etc, vet couldnt find anything wrong, did blood workup and checked the manure. She put him on beet pulp, year round, no problems.

We owned this horse for 5 yrs, showed him to the national level even never had any issues ...only thing I could think of was he wasent drinking enough (but that didnt make sense with diharea...thats usually too much fluid in the bowel).

My friend did the beet pulp, he was fine...then stopped cause he looked little chubby....had another bout of it. Put him back on soaked beet pulp and is fine. I told her cut the hay back just a tad to balance his intake and he's been doing good, said he looks great and no diharea.

Only thing I wonder is both of these horses are on daily wormer....could they be sensitive to it? Not saying it isnt a good thing to use...just your horse has that in common with KO Punch.

I've had good luck with Probias...know many people use yogurt to balance the gut, but the question is why does he keep coming up with it now and then is the puzzle. Thinking about excess heat...KO even had this in colder temps here in Ohio. Years ago my old riding horse...would have founder flare ups when the temps changed in September...from hot to cooler nights..weird...vet called it stress founder. I asked...what the heck does Buddy have to be stressed about...he's got the life of Riley so to speak! Vet laughed...said thats for sure...but stress founder equates to changes that stress the system...not 'stress' as we think of it.

Good luck girl!

 

[whitney]

Did you catch the moldy grain before you fed him any?

When was the last time you gave him zimecterin?

 

[StellaLenoir]

Oh No!

I was thinking about Red the other day when I was cleaning up after mine. So sorry to hear he is having a problem again.

I know with my horses, when I change or add something new, they do get runny.

I think it is possible that the boss caused some change in him. Maybe the combo of feed going bad, and the addition of boss made him a bit off.

I also wonder if loose stool on occasion is a horses way of flushing the system? This is just me thinking.

I would give him probios and if you have the Bio sponge, I would give him that. Good luck!!!

 

[Charlene]

i've tried beet pulp. red turns his nose up at it. he will walk away from the bucket every time. the other 2 horses love it. the ONLY way i could get red to eat it was to mix in a little molasses, which (to me) totally defeats the purpose plus the fact that he stays fat on water and sure doesn't need anything else "sugary". i tried reducing the amount of molasses i mixed in. when it got to a certain point, away he would go, indignant that i would even THINK about cutting out the good stuff!

connie, i keep my place much the same. the ONLY time you will see manure in the dry lot is when i am not home. days i am home, i am almost obsessive about keeping it picked up. i look out the window, see a pile, and off i go. how sad is that?? LOL! hay is strictly grass hay, fed on rubber mats inside a big hay ring (flakes from small bales, not a big bale). that's something else i'm compulsive about, i keep the mats swept as clean as i can to prevent as much ingestion of sand as possible.

all 3 of my horses get probios every day, once a day along with supplements of glucosomine/msm.

same here, this was a problem last winter also, during bitter cold weather. and it was NOT fun having to wash his tail and hind legs when the temps were sub-freezing!

i don't think the daily dewormer is the culprit since he, as well as the others, have been on it continuously since september 1, last year. so, almost a year.

lemme tell ya, my horses give "life of riley" a whole new meaning. heck, the horses and mules down the road have filed petitions for adoption so they can come and live with me. OH!

whitney, IF they got any of the moldy grain (and i'm not even positive it WAS mold, it was getting down to about the last 1/3 of the can and seemed more "dusty" than actually moldy but i wasn't taking any chances), he would have had only about 1/4 cup because that's the amount he gets normally. IF it was actually moldy, that would have been the ONLY time they got any. what happened was this...i put the feed in their buckets, went back to the feed can to fill containers for the evening feed and when i scooped it out of the can, i noticed the "dust" clinging to the containers. by the time i realized it and ran back out to empty buckets, they had already inhaled it. we're talking a matter of maybe 30 seconds to one minute.

the last deworming with paste dewormer was july 1.

thanks for the responses. do i dare hope this just spontaeously clears up like it did before?

because, i don't know what else i could DO!

 

[Bonny]

Does he have a mineral block? Just curious as Bonny has bouts with the runnier than normal poo sometimes and I was told if they ingest a lot of it will get loose stools. Just a thought.

 

[li'l bit]

I couldn't find what kind of feed you are using in your post. An aquaintance of mine had the same problem and after trying many things, started giving her horse Triple Crown Lite and it cleared up the problem. Don't know if this will be of any help or not, but might be worth a try unless that is what you are already using.

 

[whitney]

To clear up the squirts 35cc MAXIMUM strength pepto bismal every 6 hours. It took my mare 2 days to firm back up. The regular strength does not work.

This dose worked on 32" mare under 250 pounds.

 

[mizbeth]

Hi

Yes on the moldy feed. I hope you did not feed him that as it could cause the diareaha or worse.

I have a filly that has had bouts of diareaha too for nearly four weeks. We have had her on probios, bio sponge, PCN for three days. Pulled the alfalfa hay and mineral block and so far nothing is working. I have her on Naxel now and she cleared up for a couple of days and now it is back again. I have been feeding the new purina "all stock" feed in the orange bag. I pulled her and momma up today and will change them over to strategy again and get different coastal hay from another field/dealer and see if that helps. She is also on electrolytes and Micro ? another type of probios. Gosh, I'm at a loss on her too! She is not losing weight but at times does not have a lot of energy either. Vet is out today so have to wait until he returns to question him. I will not give her naxel today either as she was supposed to be on it for five days. Could be antibiotics?????????? I have wormed her and wormed her dam again.............this started when she was 28 days old so not related to foal heat either. Sorry, did not mean to take up your post/question, but will be following this one to get ideas for my girl.

B

 

[Hosscrazy]

Sounds like you have gotten some good advice, especially the referral to biosponge. It's a wonderful product and works very well. If the episodes continue, you should ask your vet to do a blood test and also a colon biopsy. The ONLY reason I'm bringing this up is because several years ago I had a mare who had diarrhea off and on for quite some time - it would clear up for a while, then come back again. We tried yogurt, biosponge, antibiotics, pepto, etc. At the end, it turned out she had intestinal lymphoma. So hopefully (and most likely) you'll be able to find something that can clear it up, but just keep that in the back of your mind that if it continues, you may want to have your vet out.

Best wishes,

Liz R.

 

[Charlene]

i feed Dynasty Pro, made by Kent. it is the only pelleted feed i can find around here. the only other feeds available to me are cheap sweet feeds from the farm supply store that to me, are pretty much junk.

yes, bonny, my horses have free access to a mineral block. one big one will last them a very long time. with one biggie and two minis, i don't have to replace it very often. i don't really think that's contributing to this problem.

whitney, i gave him some pepto before i left home this morning, will give him another dose when i get home.

mizbeth, i am well aware of the problems caused by moldy feed. i did not feed it intentionally and as i have said, IF it was moldy, he got a very little bit although i realize ANY is bad.

thanks, liz, i'll sure keep that in mind. if this is still a problem after a couple of days of pepto, i will contact my vet again. he was working on this last winter, doing some research, when the problem just cleared up on its own. we talked about it recently and he asked if it had occurred again. when i said no, maybe i jinxed myself. OH!

thanks for all the responses. i will keep everything handy for reference.

charlene

 

[whitney]

Charlene make sure it is MAXIMUM strength pepto as regular pepto did not help my mare AT ALL. And you need to give it every 6 hours without fail.

 

[Charlene]

it's maximum strength, yep. every 6 hours, however, is a problem. i leave at 7 a.m., i am not home until 5 a.m. and no, there is not another person around who could give a dose, unless i can figure out a way to train my corgis to do so.

 

[Brandi*]

Charlene...did you mean 5"p.m"? Just checking. That is a long long day OH!

it's maximum strength, yep. every 6 hours, however, is a problem. i leave at 7 a.m., i am not home until 5 a.m. and no, there is not another person around who could give a dose, unless i can figure out a way to train my corgis to do so.

 

[Charlene]

oh Lordy! yes, i meant 5 P.M. although, ya know, there are times when it feels like i've been gone almost 24 hours! OH!

things like this were always so much easier to deal with when gary was here to help me. he would have gladly gone out every 6 MINUTES and done what needed to be done.