Can we talk about stinky poop?

[scrbear11]

Teenaged Warmblood gelding has the smelliest poop in the barn. It’s not normal manure smell. More of a dog poop type smell. He’s also extremely gassy.

He’s fat, beautiful coat with tons of dapples. His fecal has recently been negative. He never acts colicky. Always has a great appetite.

Ulcers? Too much protein? Missing something?

He doesn’t look like a typical ulcer horse.

He eats a lower protein, soy free, ration balancer (TC Balancer Gold 12.5% protein) with a pound of coolstance, and a cup of ground flax per feeding. He also eats about 3 pounds of alfalfa a day with free choice grass hay. Could the coolstance be causing the stinky poops? That doesn’t seem like an excessive amount of protein considering I have others who eat more alfalfa and grain with higher protein.

Thanks!

[Living_In_The_Sticks]

When I needed to put weight on my OTTB he was getting 2 pounds of coolstance a day along with crypto aero, alfalfa cubes, & hay. I never noticed smelly poop. He’s still getting coolstance but down to 3/4 of a pound a day.

I worked with Kentucky Equine Research on his diet & set up an account on Microsteed. They told me most of the protein in his diet came from the coolstance but as long as his kidneys were ok the excess would just be excreted in the urine.

There is flax in the crypto so I don’t supplement it. I don’t think he comes anywhere near 2 cups of flax even when he ate 6 pounds a day of crypto. I don’t know how much flax horses need but if he looks good it’s worth cutting it back a little & see how he does & if it helps the smelly poop.

[Scribbler]

Smelly poop indicates something in the hindgut. However if that’s the only symptom I wouldn’t be too worried. What’s coolstance, is it a solid fat? You could try an elimination diet. Drop him back to just grass hay for a week. See what happens then add on alfalfa for a week. Then add flax. Then add your grain and finally your coolstance.

If problem persists on plain grass hay then it’s not specific to his diet.

[JB]

Stinky poop like that, along with gassiness, has been a common factor in a lot of ulcer horses, I’ve noticed. I know the smell you mean, it’s awful, like decay

Something you could try is the start of an elimination diet - remove everything except the forage. Give it 2 weeks and see if anything changes. It’s not a “proper” elimination diet, as that’s usually removing everything but grass hay. But it’s a start. You could remove the alfalfa too if you wanted.

OR, you could start with Nexium - add 3-4 capsules on top of his feed, once a day, give it a week or so, see what happens. Or do this if the elimination diet doesn’t change anything.

No, you’re not feeding a lot of protein, as I highly doubt your grass hay is testing at 14%+ protein Possible? Yes. Just not probable.

High protein diets aren’t associated with smelly manure - it’s smelly urine from the excess ammonia production.

[JB]

@Living In The Sticks

When I needed to put weight on my OTTB he was getting 2 pounds of coolstance a day along with crypto aero, alfalfa cubes, & hay. I never noticed smelly poop. He’s still getting coolstance but down to 3/4 of a pound a day.

I worked with Kentucky Equine Research on his diet & set up an account on Microsteed. They told me most of the protein in his diet came from the coolstance

I’m sure you mis-understood them, as there’s no way the amount of Coolstance you were feeding provided more protein than his hay/hay cubes. It might be 20% protein, but at only 2lb, that’s only 181g protein. 10lb of 10% hay is 454gm, and I assume between the hay and hay cubes, you were feeding more pounds.

[Living_In_The_Sticks]

@JB

I’m sure you mis-understood them, as there’s no way the amount of Coolstance you were feeding provided more protein than his hay/hay cubes. It might be 20% protein, but at only 2lb, that’s only 181g protein. 10lb of 10% hay is 454gm, and I assume between the hay and hay cubes, you were feeding more pounds.

It was so long ago I had to find the email to see what it was. She said the majority of the protein & lysine in his diet were coming from the coolstance. If I lowered the amount of coolstance fed they would be in acceptable levels but he would be ok if kidneys were good & he drinks enough water. Maybe it’s not exactly what she meant but that’s what the email said.

At that time he was on 4 pounds of alfalfa cubes & free choice tifton 85. I upped him to 6 pounds of cubes since he needed more forage after they analyzed his diet. He’s very picky about hay & I don’t think he ate enough tifton so it could be possible I guess.

[Equkelly]

Can you add a probiotic?

[Kyrabee]

My mare (18y.o.) was on teff hay for most of the winter. She has been on teff before but with this batch, damned she was gassy and had oddly stinky poop. She was holding her weight and appropriately energetic. Just smelly poop. I put her on a probiotic/prebiotic. I started out with LMF 911 (got from Amazon) but switched to a locally sourced one…Equerry’s Choice large animal probiotic. Ingredients very similar and about $5/5 lb bag less.

It took about 3 weeks but the stinky poop did resolve. Of course, not long after that, the teff ran out and the hay switched to a mixed grass hay. However, I have left her on it. She loves the taste of the supp and she just sparkles…even through the dirt and she was fairly shiny to begin with. I think the prebiotic helps as much or more than the probiotic part. The barn owner has been pulling all the older hay from their hay shed so the hay they have been getting has changed a bit (different cuttings and ages), I figured I would leave her on it to help her get the most nutrients she can from that older hay (1-2 years old).

Susan

[stb]

One of my geldings gets awful stinky poop on TC Lite. Not TC Senior, not TC 30%, just the Lite. I have no idea why but it is pronounced.

[JB]

@Living In The Sticks

It was so long ago I had to find the email to see what it was. She said the majority of the protein & lysine in his diet were coming from the coolstance. If I lowered the amount of coolstance fed they would be in acceptable levels but he would be ok if kidneys were good & he drinks enough water. Maybe it’s not exactly what she meant but that’s what the email said.

At that time he was on 4 pounds of alfalfa cubes & free choice tifton 85. I upped him to 6 pounds of cubes since he needed more forage after they analyzed his diet. He’s very picky about hay & I don’t think he ate enough tifton so it could be possible I guess.

But see above - at 2lb, it wasn’t. 187gm in the context of 700gm for the average horse is not a majority. And especially not with 4lb of alf and free choice (so let’s estimate a conservative 10lb) grass hay. Even if that low amount of grass hay was a really really low 5% protein, 10lb would be 227gm - more than the Coolstance. If the alf was a conservative 12% protein, that’s 217gm - still more than the Coolstance alone.

The point is - 2lb of Coolstance can’t be the majority of protein in any diet. If it were, you’d either have a small mini, or a very deficient horse.

That’s the same as telling someone 2lb of a 30% ration balancer is the majority of protein in a diet. It’s not, at 227gm protein.