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Chronic SEASONAL Loose Stools - NOTHING is WORKING!

Their human Drs may not instruct them to do that, but they do anyway LOL And they do it in droves, the human supplement industry is enoooorrrrrmous.

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@JB
LOL. I am married to an otherwise intelligent, thoughtful, successful man who seems to believe the cure for most ailments as well as the secret to not aging can be found in the vitamin aisle at the local CVS. He gets this fabulous ā€œmedical adviceā€ from the trainers at his gym. Sigh.

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Mine get loose poop when the weather changes as well. I have had good luck with BioSponge from Platinum Performance.

@silversnaffle well, your hubby is in good company, as itā€™s a pretty reasonable guess that most people whoā€™d rather pop a pill than make changes arenā€™t exactly lacking intelligence.

Recently purchased a big bag from Bulk Barn of Psyllium Husk. This is the fix for my guy! I am so stoked. 50g/dayā€¦ will back off after a week and see how it looks.

The equine version was around $60 for a 10 day supply, bought this for $36 which will last me months at 50g.

Worth trying!

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Everyone, thank you so much for the suggestions and I apologize for not following through (I had an accident in early November very shortly after my first post, and it was one of the worst things Iā€™ve ever experienced in life to date; so following up on a message board post when I could barely get thru the day was not possible.

Not as much progress with my geldings FWS as I had hoped due to dealing with my injuries, but I have slogged onward in hopes of finding my poor guy a solution, as he continues to suffer greatly (no colic signs or other discomfort, but Iā€™m surprised that he still has fur on his poor hind legs which are caked from heels to upper butt in about 2 inches of fecal matter and also almost the entire insides of his back legs). :frowning: Given the remote / rural area I live in, I was LUCKY to just find help feeding my horses after my accident, let alone someone willing to clean his legs.

Anyhow, below is a list of products that I have tried that did not work; however, everything on the list is very solid and based on the reviews and/or talking with the company staff directly, is worth a try in my opinion, especially in cases where ā€˜dietary/lifestyleā€™ factors have been ruled out. For some of these products, reviewers have noted, having ā€œtried everything under the sunā€ or ā€œ20+ productsā€ only to have this one be the holy grail for FWS. Finally, in terms of the products I have tried, I gave them all AT LEAST a 2 week run, sometimes 3-4 weeks (in talking to a few companies, it seems that IF a given product has a chance of working, then there would at least be SOME improvement within 2 weeks):

***Made FWS slightly WORSE; all others resulted in no improvements:

Probios (in powder form, which was recommended by my Vet); gave this a full month run and it made NO difference.

***Whole Pastures (a Whole Food ā€˜Multi-Vitaminā€™ product designed for horses by Equine Science Solutions)

Gastric Ulcers Solution (by For Love of the Horse); while this formula did not do jack sh!t for the FWS, this company deserves a special shout out, as 2 of their other formulas proved to be the HOLY FREAKING GRAIL with regard to ERU, curing BOTH of my HORSES of ERU (no JOKE, ~4-5 yrs back, my gelding could barely open one of his eyes for 3 STRAIGHT MONTHS (as I lost time with the vet / Western medicine which just made him worse); the vet had even started talking SURGERY to remove the eye if my gelding continued to worsen or even remain the way he wasā€¦ then he developed an aqueous flare and I took matters in to my own hands and I gave him this companyā€™s herbs (general Immune Formula + ERU formula) and he cleared up in just weeks, with the aqueous flare resolving IN FULL by about 6-9 months). If ONLY this company could develop the equivalent CURE for FWSā€¦

***Hedgerow GI (a GI formula, by BioStar)

Optimum EQ 2.0 Senior (a Whole Food ā€˜Multi-Vitaminā€™ product designed for SENIOR horses by BioStar) TOP QUALITY product that I have kept my gelding on. Did nothing for the FWS but I figured Iā€™d keep him on it to make sure he has proper nutrients.

WaterWerks (by HorseTech); I had such high hopes and my horse had no issues with the palatability but it just did not work for him (2 week trial).

Optimum Digestive Health (by MadBarn) this is the most recent product Iā€™ve tried and when I was back to the drawing board, I was kind of out of it still from my accident and missed the fact that this is NOT their ā€˜flagshipā€™ product for FWS, (though given the miraculous results MANY reported, I felt it was worth it to fire off an order). Ending week three and although NO issues with palatability, there has been ZERO improvement. That said, I was VERY impressed with this company and the quality of their support, their product guarantee, etc.; thus, if the Slippery Elm does not work, I will definitely be trying their Visceral+ (which is their top FWS remedy and has a different ingredient line-up than the product I tried).

Slippery Elm (TBD) ā€“ I have a HUGE thing of it in my (human) nutraceutical cabinet from a TOP NOTCH herbalist, and after it came up in an article I read on FWS as a possible remedy, I decided to research it a bit more and was very impressed. There are also a few equine products (containing JUST slippery elm) on the market, so it was easy to obtain dosage information. JUST started this, so keeping fingers and toes crossed.

Other Products on my back-up list (from reading this forum and/or general searching/researching on FWS) are:

  1. Visceral+ (by MadBarn)
  2. Psyllium (many on here seem to have had great results with it for FWS)
  3. For Love of Horse ā€“ overall Immune Formula (in thinking back to the year my gelding battled the Uveitis, during which Iā€™d given him their Immune Formula along with their ERU Formula) I donā€™t seem to recall him struggling THIS FREAKING BADLY with the FWS); thus, I may order, at the very least, their Immune Formula to see if that makes any difference)
  4. BioSponge (some incredible reviews but there are also a fair number where it failed to help with FWS)
  5. BPC-157 (oral form) - a buddy of mine in the fitness/bodybuilding industry told me about this and it seems to be the HOLY GRAIL for injuries, vascular (clot) prevention, AND ulcer/GI inflammation. While there are a few companies from where one can readily purchase in oral form (which is, from what I researched, the PREFERRED form when taking it with intent to reduce GI inflammation), it would cost on the order of like $50-100 PER DAY (if an equine dose is based off a human dose by weightā€¦). NO research that I could find in equines but LOTS in rats & humans and it looks very safe. Closest compound with similar effects that I could come across in horses is Thymosin Beta-4 Fragment (appears to be banned in competition circles which isnā€™t surprising if this compound has the efficacy that the bodybuilding community claims!). But as for BPC-157, if ALL ELSE FAILS at least I have it as a ā€˜last ditchā€™ effort.

I wouldnā€™t let the failure of this one turn you off biotics in general. This one doesnā€™t have a lot of much of anything in it.

Consider also trying either Assure Guard or Assure Guard Gold, as each of those have helped other FFWS horses. The Gold is the regular AG with added psyllium, and itā€™s probably cheaper to do AG with your own psyllium, so you could try AG, or psyllium first, and if not much/any improvement, add the other one.

FWS is a tricky thing. Iā€™m not sure how/when it started for your horse, but for my gelding, I noticed it first when he was about 16. This would consist of occasional loose stool. Or, occasional formed stool with free fecal water somewhere during the process. As he aged, I noticed it got worse over the years. Iā€™ve tried a lot of supplements, and researched a lot on hindgut issues, ulcers, and digestion in general (from another issue he had recently). Iā€™m not a vet, nor an expert in the slightest, but this is what Iā€™ve found from trial of different things with him.

Grass turnout seems to help. His FWS reduced a lot when he was on mostly grass turnout instead of mostly on hay.

I tried a LOT of supplements, some expensive some more affordable. They all had one thing in common: they would work for awhile, and then FWS would slowly return. My local vet supports the use of probiotics, even if they do not ā€œhelpā€ the FWS.

When he developed colitis and had repeat colic episodes, we scoped him and found ulcers. We treated for 28 days with Gastroguard and Sucralfate. Once we were about two weeks into that regimen, I noticed a huge difference in his poops, they were normal for the first time in years. I also used Equi-Sure for a month after ulcer treatment. Some have luck with Succeed. Both are not cheap. Gut X is a supplement Iā€™ve noticed advertised recently. Their ads are a bit ā€œcheapā€ but the reviews on the product are glowing, and itā€™s inexpensive, maybe worth a try? I also started an Omega 3 oil which is supposed to help with overall inflammation. But I give half the regular dose per day and worked him up to that from a small amount at first, to avoid digestive upset.

I have started to look at digestive issues from the standpoint of mental health, feed/forage, and physical health all combined. Such as soft hay vs. stemmy hay, how long does he go between hay meals, feed vs forage ratio, and how he looks physically. All of these things seem to play a role in FWS, at least for my guy. I hope you can find something that works for your horse, I know itā€™s frustrating!

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