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Charlene

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tuffy turned 28 in may. for the last few weeks, he has had diarrhea off and on. i have tried everything from sand clear to metamucil. his diet has not changed at all. he lost a lot of weight over the winter and continues to lose. he will have normal manure one day and then for the next several days, he will have watery diarrhea.

i ordered bio sponge today and it should be here friday.

he had his teeth floated about 2 months ago.

i am at my wit's end with this. he is eating and drinking fine. he is not dehydrated. he doesn't act the least bit sick.

has anybody dealt with this? this is a first for me other than when one of my mini boys suffered with runny poo but when i stopped giving him daily dewormer over a year ago, he's been just fine. i used it on tuffy but stopped several months ago and have been deworming with just paste.

my vet doesn't know what else to try and hasn't really suggested any testing other than a fecal float which was clear.

is there anything else i should be trying??
 
We had a quarter horse mare that experienced similar problems as yours except her poo was explosive. Vet did all kinds of things, checked for everything under the sun. We'd get it cleared up, for it to just come back again. We put her on EquiLix & she never gave us another problem. Lived out the rest of her life, fat & happy.

Has your vet checked for ulcers?
 
Charlene, What IS his diet? He may be trying to tell you something.....or his 28 year old body is.
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no, my vet hasn't checked for ulcers. i'll mention that to him this week. i've never dealt with ulcers in a horse...would they be caused by stress? if that's the case, i doubt that's what it is. there isn't a horse on the planet that lives as stress-free a life as tuffy does!

miniv, all 3 of my horses get senior sweet feed (tuffy, a small coffee can 2x/day, the mini boys a small butter tub 2x/day). they get only good grass hay (timothy/brome grass) and of course, marshmallows for treats.
 
Personally, I'd start him on some probiotics and see how he's doing in a week on them. I know they sell bigger containers of powdered probiotics at Tractor supply or maybe at the feed store... Around here I get them at Feet Farm. If you get the powder you can put it on his grain instead of having to give him paste.
 
Personally, I'd start him on some probiotics and see how he's doing in a week on them. I know they sell bigger containers of powdered probiotics at Tractor supply or maybe at the feed store... Around here I get them at Feet Farm. If you get the powder you can put it on his grain instead of having to give him paste.
I'd start with the paste to be sure he's getting it. I tried the powder and only 2 out of 11 horses would readily eat it in their feed, out of the rest 3 would eat part of it, and the rest wouldn't eat any of their feed with the powder in it. [in this case, it was Probios brand that they disliked. I bought a powder probiotic from SmartPak and they all really like it.]
 
My Sonny lost a lot of weight in the winter so he ended up mostly in the barn covered with blankets and being served three meals a day, all the hay he could eat and a hot beet pulp mash for lunch and burried him above his ankles in deep fluffy bedding. I ordered mare strippers and HBO as well.
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But as usual, he popped right back come spring.

Ok, next time he has a normal stool, record information on that day to try to do a process of elimation. Document exactly what he ate, how much he drank, hours of turn out, and the weather, and yes I mean record what the weather was that day and if the ground was wet or dry. Then compare that information on the next day he has runny poop and document that same information and compare it also. Try to find that common denomonator. It could be there.

Usually you have to do a process of elmination to narrow down the possibilites causing the problem. I'd be getting him off the sweet feed right away. If you have Purina around, try some pelleted low percent 10% Horse Chow for him and knock off the marshmellows already. If he's HOT and in this weather we are having, my old QH is drinking like crazy and it is causing him to be a little loose too. If you have new hay that has recently been baled, that would also be a possible offender as well. Your grass may be causing this also if its been wet especially. I'd do a thingy of Probios, and a five day in a row thingy of Safe Guard and see what happens.
 
We have an older gelding that was having this problem very bad, during the summer he drinks alot of water. We put him on Blue Seal Sentinel LS and the problem is gone.

I think that the beet pulp in it helps out alot...... It is high in fat also so good for horses that need some weight . I love this grain and feed it to all of my horses, large and small. Good Luck!
 
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Hey Charlene - just checking back. How is he doing this week?

Liz R.
 
thanks for asking, liz. he's doing a little better. i started the bio sponge on friday and while his manure is no longer watery, it still isn't real firm. i'll give it a week and then see if my vet can suggest anything else, perhaps an x-ray of his abdomen. he seems to still be losing weight so i'm really beginning to think there is something going on inside that isn't a good thing.
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Charlene - I'm hoping this is not the case, but if it continues, ask your vet to do an intestinal biopsy. I had a mare years ago who had diarrhea off and on, with loose stools inbetween. We tried everything and as it turned out (through biopsy), she had intestinal lymphoma. I really hope this is not the case with your guy but it might be worth it to do a biopsy.

Keep us posted.

Liz R.
 
liz, i asked my vet about this and he said at tuffy's age, even if it was found to be something like that, treatment wouldn't be an option and i agreed with him. i just can't see putting him through any more testing and/or treatments.

i used bio sponge for 8 days now and there has been little to no improvement. he continues to lose weight.
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