Yes. In addition to it’s antibiotic properties, metronidazole has a calming effect on the gut. That’s why the diarrhea clears up when he’s on metronidazole and then recurs when it’s out of his system. Something is causing irritation or inflammation in your horse’s gut, but probably not bacteria, parasites, or worms. Like others have said, he may be sensitive to something in his diet. If the nutritionist’s suggestions don’t help try to find a good internal medicine vet that specializes in gastroenterology, maybe at a vet school if there’s one near you.
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Maybe this adds nothing- but I did have a older dog (greyhound, so a lot of diarrhea to clean up, and an elevator or 3 flights of stairs to get to outside) with the exact same presentation. Only metro worked, eventually my vet said since the dog was old to just leave him on it forever, bc the pros outweighed the cons. So I did, and he lived another 2 years or so, and died from something completely unrelated to the long-term metro usage.
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Hello again, friends!
We made the move this weekend. The grass is sparse and sad from summer drought and now winter, that I ended up just throwing him on pasture. He is doing well with this so far. He was previously on coastal hay, but is now getting timothy. I was not able to take a bale from his barn to slowly transition him, unfortunately. It doesn’t seem to matter because he hates the timothy. It is very stemmy and rough—like scratched up my arms when I was breaking it up for him. He gets big stems and immediately spits it out before chewing, or just tosses it away. I don’t think this timothy is going to be appropriate for him in the long run, but I am trying not to be too demanding since we just got here and it is not a big boarding barn. It is a perfect set up for him, but it is someone’s home , and I don’t want to cause a lot of problems after just moving out there. The BO is so helpful and willing, but I really don’t want to over complicate things.
I know he will get diarrhea again if long stem forage is the issue, especially because this timothy seems even tougher than the coastal. My gut reaction would be to put him on a super soft orchard grass type hay, or even a chopped hay, and see how he does before trying the pellet diet, but I think the nutritionist will recommend pelleted first. I just didn’t realize the timothy would be so stemmy. it seems like good quality hay otherwise. It smells amazing. Looks great. But the stemmy parts are…stemmy. Poor old man.
He is thrilled about the switch from his ration balancer to triple crown though, and so am I! We’re transitioning slowly over the next 2 weeks @WNT good to know about those supplements. I’ll look into it.
As far as the metro goes, @Amberley he has been tested for all possible bugs/protozoa/cooties under the sun. All clear. @Simkie and @OzarksRider that definitely checks out. I don’t want to stop the Metronidazole, but he will be on it for 10 days as of Wednesday, and he can’t stay on it forever. He’s already done a 2 week course 2 months ago along with multiple 2-3 day stints since. Not ready for the runny poops to return. It sucks. @Alterrain I wish that long term metro would be the magic cure for me… I’m glad it helped your dog. I suppose if absolutely nothing else helps, it would be worth a shot as a last ditch effort since it works so well.
Thanks again, all!
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I know you’ve tried many of these but thought I’d weigh in on my routine What’s working for my horse w fecal water syndrome which became diarrhea:
1-sucralfate at least 30 mins before eating each meal
2-180 cc pepto bismol for horses (bismusol) after each meal
3- Two scoops biosponge AM and PM. SERVED w beetpulp so he will eat it
4- one scoop platinum balance AM and PM
5-one cup sand clear AM and PM
6-Loading dose assure guard gold (just started and seems to help a lot)
Vet suggested fecal transplant as next step.
Good luck.
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Update! He is settling into his new home. He isn’t touching the timothy hay still… He’s eating 3-4 flakes of alfalfa a day (is this an issue?). There isn’t much grass for him to graze on. He is now transitioned from the obscene amount of ration balancer he was eating per day to 10 pounds of Triple Crown Senior per day. He definitely likes the TC senior more. He was never wanting to eat his ration balancer at his old barn, and it clearly wasn’t doing him any favors given the amount they had to feed to attempt to keep weight on him. I think even in the short time I see some differences in his body condition. He was a 4 before moving, and I think he’s gained a little weight.
The other day, he had to spend the night inside due to rain (BO wants them off the pastures when it rains) and got cow patty poops from that. He went back to normal after being able to go back out. We are on day 5 of no metronidazole… I will be holding my breath. Usually we can go 7-10 days before the diarrhea returns. Hoping to avoid the switch to pelleted hay, but only time will tell. It’s going to rain Thursday and I am dreading the stall + diarrhea that will come with it. I don’t know what it is about being stalled that immediately gives him the runs the last decade. Something with not being able to move around enough I guess? Might try giving him biosponge paste on Thursday to see if we can combat the cow patties. Fingers crossed.
I’m so happy for him to be out and moving around, and to have better control over what he’s eating. I waited a long time to find a set up like this for him— a lot of stress and heartache went into finding a senior friendly place for him close to me. Even at 27, I continue to ride him daily. His gut does better with that, and he is now in his ~nature era~ as he lives next to a trail head. It’s been fun to let him canter and stretch his legs out there… we seem to have lost our brakes since leaving arena life, but he seems to be having a great time on the trails.
Thank you for the regimen @EmilyM. Are you worried about using Sand Clear and Assure Guard Gold combined? Both are psyllium… I was so worried about keeping my horse on the loading dose of Assure Guard Gold during the summer. I didn’t want to cause an impaction because I constipated him… He was OK, but I would be nervous about combining Sand Clear and the Assure Guard Gold… The fecal transplant has been suggested to us as well.
For those who come across this thread due to horses with diarrhea issues. Here is what has worked temporarily for his diarrhea:
Assure Guard Gold: 2 scoops AM, 2 scoops PM. This beautifully worked for 8 months. It is scary expensive at that dose… essentially $450 every 30 days.
Biosponge Paste: This worked for his cow patty poop stage. This does nothing for his firehose liquid blowout diarrhea phases. It would work for a few days and then stop working.
Metronidazole: This works within 1-2 days of having cow patty diarrhea. It works within 3-4 days of having firehose blowout diarrhea. We would stop it as soon as the diarrhea is resolved as we were not treating a “bug” for him—he’d been on longer term metro with similar results. The metro gives us 7-10 days diarrhea free after stopping the meds.
Stay tuned for what the next week brings in the land of horses with poop problems. Will 24/7 turnout be the answer? Was it the switch to Triple Crown Senior that solved his issues? Is it something in the water? Will he need to be transitioned to hay pellets? I guess we will find out soon. Thanks for all the insight.
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Not really since it doesn’t seem to bind him up that much. His diarrhea panel came back as caused by sand last year Also my horse is metabolic so his hay is soaked. Therefore he is always being hydrated. I tried to back off the sand clear as I was trying to eliminate some of the items one by one and that seemed logical given he also got assureguard. Well he had liquid within 2 days.
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I’d buy new water buckets too, to ensure nothing (bacteria, mold spores) has clung to the plastic buckets insides. It’s cheap and I’m a bit overly cautious, having seen those baby sippy cups and the mold that grew on the inside material.
Chiming in with my mare’s diarrhea story: she would get “liquid poops” in the winter only when she was younger, as she got older would get it more and more all seasons and the when changed barns and turnout was essentially a dry lot it got very bad. Tried biosponge and other supplements which only mildly improved situation. Otherwise excellent health, good teeth, checked /done every 6 months.
On advice of friend of a friend took her off hay and put her on cubes (triple crown Timothy balance cubes) and tc safe starch chopped hay/forage. Miracle! Within 3 days completely normal poops. It was the long stem hay her hind gut struggled to digest. I was unable to transition back to full hay as the diarrhea came back so now we are about at 50/50 safe starch/hay (soft orchard grass-second or third cutting only- anything stemmier she absolutely cannot tolerate.
She does get looser poops when stalled and trailering which I attribute to stress
I suspect that is the same issue for my mare, and why she’s fine in the summer when on grass, but has FFWS in the winter when she’s eating more hay.
I’ve had excellent lucky with my gelding putting him on Purina Outlast AM & PM. He hasn’t had any liquid poo in 2 years.
I’ve also had good luck with hay stretcher pellets (I know not the best quality stuff out there, but…) it was recommended by a nutritionist for clearing up FWS. Works great too.
Your journaling of what you’ve been going through with your horse has been so helpful for me and my AQHA 12 yro gelding. All the same issues. Extremely frustrating! But I haven’t tried the things you and comments have mentioned here-I’ve been taking notes! I just want to thank you-and the commenters-for the advice. My Vet seems at a loss at what to do after blood tests turned up nothing unusual. I am so happy your horse is doing good at the new location and hope it continues!
@Mustang_Levi Good luck to you! It is such a frustrating thing to deal with. It really made me (and my horse!) miserable. I dreaded going to the barn every day because “ignorance is bliss” sounded better than facing the explosive diarrhea that would be waiting for me daily.
It has been 7 weeks since he moved to his new home. He has been off Metronidazole for 6.5 weeks. He has had absolutely zero diarrhea. It is pretty remarkable to be honest. My vet is perplexed as am I. It will be difficult to pinpoint what exactly was causing his issues since I changed a lot of variables all at one. At the end of the day, I didn’t care about pinpointing the culprit. I needed to get control of his diarrhea fast and get him healthier.
Here is his current regimen
AM:
5 Pounds Triple Crown Senior
1 Scoop Rite Trac
2 Scoops Platinum Balance
10g Sucralfate (He is on daily equioxx)
2-3 Pounds of Triple Crown Chopped Grass Forage. (He hates the stress free and safe starch versions.) I give him as much as he’ll eat. I wish he’d eat more, but he leaves a bit of this behind.
Lunch:
5 Pounds Triple Crown Timothy Balance Cubes
1/2 cup of Triple Crown Golden Ground Flax
2.5 Pounds Triple Crown Senior
**If he has eaten the majority of his Chopped Forage from the AM, I will give him ~3 pounds of Standlee Chopped Alfalfa. He leaves a bit of this behind too. He doesn’t really eat stems.
Dinner:
5 Pounds Triple Crown Senior
1 Scoop Rite Trac
2 Scoops Platinum Balance
10g Sucralfate
7 pounds soaked Alfalfa cubes
2-3 Pounds Triple Crown Chopped Grass Forage
We had some weather a few weeks ago that required the horses to be stalled for 4 days straight. Before his move, this would have led to explosive diarrhea. He was perfect. Zero diarrhea. Nothing. Nada. Perfect poop. I was shocked. I still have some PTSD from all this firehose poop, and I get nervous any time he has to be in the stall, but I was so glad he had no issues whatsoever. I don’t know what has helped his poop problems, but I am not going to ask too many questions. I’ll take what I can get and hope it lasts!
I know he’s older but what about a fecal transplant?
This study done in older horses was very positive with fecal transplants: https://thehorse.com/198562/study-fecal-transplants-improve-old-horse-gut-health/
Just wanted to say, since I started my quarter horse on alfalfa pellets and beet pulp, and reduced his grass hay to 2 pds. twice a day, his diarrhea completely cleared up!! I can put him on turn again, but with a grazing muzzle. I’m so happy to not have dripply poop drip running down his legs! I do soak the pellets too. I add a scoop of this probiotic. So he’s getting about a total of 6 pds. pellets each feeding blended with some beet pulp. Seems to be good for now. I’m so happy it’s over and best of luck with your guy!
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