It does stink. Holly eats it but there has to be enough carrier food to get it down.
No taste complaints, breakfast and dinner platters were licked clean like normal!
I imagine it’s just coincidence, but it was 80 today. We had a lesson and I fully expected him to be a bit pokey because of the heat, but he had great energy today.
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We will see how things look after work today going on day 3 of warmer temps. This was yesterday, just a little drippy. He did poop and there was definitely some water with, but didn’t go down his legs at least.
I do think the One AC is doing something. I also just finished a full body clip yesterday and boy, even a fjords summer coat is still pretty darn dense/heavy. Hopefully that will be like taking a sweater off for him. You can even see some dapples!
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Clean Fjordie butt!! 
Leifs is pretty clean too but it comes at a high cost. Platinum performance gi and sucralfate.
And he’s scheduled for Osphos in a couple of weeks. I tell him frequently we may both be living in boxes and eating ramen soon. 
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Maybe ramen is the unknown FWS cure 
Glad to hear Leif is doing well too!
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This is a way late response, but in case it’s helpful –
I have been buying pure psyllium husk fiber from Uckele. I would give my mare 1 of the enclosed scoops AM and PM. The scoop is about 1/4 cup, maybe more like a slightly rounded 1/4 cup.
With SP’s purchase of Uckele’s product line, this may no longer be available, however. 
The thread about Uckele’s product line has some suggestions for alternatives.
Dr. Kellon has an article stating that you could go up to 2 cups a day of pure psyllium, which seems crazy to me, but I don’t think there’s any harm in trying it. I think there’s merit in starting with a fairly high dose and stay there for a week or so once you see results, and then start reducing the dose until you hit the minimum dose you need to see results.
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Thanks, but that is almost twice as expensive as the Uckele!
Be careful about what’s “too much”. There’s evidence that enough of it, fed long enough, may cause blockage
No, week or even 2 of that is highly unlikely to cause issues, and 2-3 weeks may be needed to affect improvements to the hind gut bacterial colony which may help, and if it does, then definitely back down to “normal” doses.
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I know, but I haven’t seen anything that looks legit that is cheaper.
(Most of what is out there is being pitched to the human market.)
Today we had very slight leakage, similar to the photo upthread. It’s interesting because the past few days were downright unseasonably cool. Today was warmer but nothing worse than we’ve had.
I wonder if the air quality is stressing his system. It’s been very bad here since Tuesday evening. He had some leaking, worse than this but not terrible, a few weeks back it was when the air quality was bad too.
I don’t know that we will ever know.
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Has anyone tried baking soda for FWS? I’ve seen more people on the FB group mention it. Are there any additional considerations to take into account?
KER makes this product which is basically just $$$ sodium bicarbonate
I think if you search in here for “homemade equishure” you can see how some have tried to make their own. You have to fat-encapsulate the BS so it doesn’t disassociate in the stomach, so it can make it to the hind gut. I think it’s a reasonable try, and large bags of BS can be had pretty cheaply, and of course corn or canola oil are cheap too
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Ahhhh got it. I was wondering about the monoglycerides! BO is a retired chemist so I was going to ask her the difference but you beat me to it!
I’ll ask if she has any recommendations to make it!
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I started reading this thread last Spring when one of our horses (12 yo Haflinger gelding) started showing signs of FWS. At the time he was getting grass hay (1st cutting), PP GI and CoCo Omega. His roommate (a 7 yo Quarter horse gelding) was getting the same except his PP was just the regular, not GI… The Qtr horse has never shown any FWS issues.
Based on what I read here last Spring, I contacted Horsetech and switched both horses from PP to Glazen Lite and High Point, plus the Haflinger was also started on Water Works (First the TD for two weeks, then the standard WW).
The Haflinger quickly started to show improvement. After a month or so, he would occasionally show a small streak down his hind leg perhaps once a month at most.
I have continued this feeding routine except I did switch to 2nd cutting grass in September for
three months and in December had to switch to a new 2nd cutting since my normal supplier was out. I transitioned the switch over to new hay over 2 weeks’ time.
Around the time that I switched hay, I started to notice some softer poops from the Haflinger and my notes show that on 20 Dec I started washing his legs off again. That has continued to today.
Today at noon, I washed his butt and legs off, the best I can in cold weather and one poop later, they were stained again. I am noticing a difference from what I experienced last Spring when this first started and that is that I think the fecal water is coming out with the poop and not leaking out on its own like before. The poop is formed normally but you can see that there is a moisture spot around it.
I am starting to suspect that the switch in hay may be part of the problem, and I wonder if he will be OK with the new hay in time? I hope so because I have a barn full of the hay. I have had hay (1st cutting) from this farm before and don’t remember this sort of problem.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. I have Horsetech sending me another 2-week dose of WW TD, and should get that next week.
Also, are there any good protocols for cleaning up his butt and legs in the cold weather? I am using Cowboy Magic Green Spot Remover followed with warm water and a sponge. It gets most of it, but not all.
You might try smearing his legs with the Cowboy Magic detangler after you clean him up to make next cleanup easier.
I’ll try that. Thanks.
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The Horse magazine has a very good article on FFWS in the current issue. There hasn’t been much information available until the last couple of years. The causes are not readily apparent and solutions can be elusive. My Paint gelding had a significant case in the summer of 2021. It appears to be associated with stress. It started several months after I moved him to a new barn. It ran down his crack, legs and over the inside of his thighs. He was 27 at the time and I had to put him down the following summer at 28.
I talked to Rod at HorseTech and started using Selen, which is selenium and vitamin E in milled flaxseed which worked well. We were in on the develoopment and testing of WaterWerks which cleared it up totally. I gave him a smaller serving daily until I put him down. He liked his daily clean up. Started separating his hind legs to get ready when I went for the hose. He kept it up. I groomed him one day and I guess I wasn’t paying attention. When I started walking back toward his head he separated those legs and stomped one leg.
UNDERSTANDING FREE FECAL WATER SYNDROME - The Horse (zinioapps.com)
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I’m taking a couple courses through University of Minnesota, one being on growing and feeding hay. One of the lectures this week touched on hay steaming and made my brain gears go.
@JB would steaming or soaking hay be of any help for those FWS horses that get aggravated by more hay come winter? It seems like it would make it softer if nothing else but I’ve never seen it recommended or shared as something anyone tried.
