Hay conundrum

[Marla_100]

I’ve used ProBios for quite a while. Also wanted to mention if you’ve wormed your horse lately, that can upset the tummy flora so I always give them a week of ProBios after worming.

[ParadoxFarm]

@PNWjumper

I would say that even stemmier timothy is better than soft orchard grass if the soft orchard grass is causing diarrhea. I had 3 mares this last year get terrible diarrhea from a batch of orchard grass. My other 5 had no issues with it at all and it took me a couple of months to figure out what was causing it because of that. The hay, for the record, was pretty and soft and nice looking/smelling in all other ways.

I switched the mares to mediocre timothy and they all immediately began putting weight back on (they didn’t get “skinny” but definitely were no longer “blooming”) and gained quite a bit more energy.

Another thought - I agree with those who have suggested pelleted feed. Maybe a senior feed (or more senior feed) would help with the issue a bit if teeth are an issue. I do notice that my older horses get a little wetter manure-wise when it’s time for me to up the amount of senior feed they’re getting a bit.

My situation is similar. I have three horses and the oldest (25) was having the really bad issue with diarrhea. The 7 year old, not a problem. The middle man, he was having a slight problem. So I knew it had to be something with the hay, as they didn’t all get the same feed. I just switched to a mixed grass this week and it’s clearing up already. I feel so bad that he suffered with this issue for a bit before I caught on and switched hay. No more orchard for my boys. Like PNWJumper, the hay itself looks great, smells great, but just isn’t working for my older two.

[TheJenners]

@LovieBird

I tried feeding him Timothy last winter and he simply didn’t eat it ☹.

I switched my barn to timothy hay a few years ago because orchard was giving one horrible cow patty diarrhea off and on, and getting to be more “on.”

My old fart was cranky about the switch but he got over it. Sometimes horses are like children, you do what you know is best no matter what tantrum they throw.

[PNWjumper]

@ParadoxFarm

My situation is similar. I have three horses and the oldest (25) was having the really bad issue with diarrhea. The 7 year old, not a problem. The middle man, he was having a slight problem. So I knew it had to be something with the hay, as they didn’t all get the same feed. I just switched to a mixed grass this week and it’s clearing up already. I feel so bad that he suffered with this issue for a bit before I caught on and switched hay. No more orchard for my boys. Like PNWJumper, the hay itself looks great, smells great, but just isn’t working for my older two.

I will add to what I said that I don’t think “Orchard Grass” as a hay was a problem, so I don’t want to give that impression if I did. In my case it was one particular batch of OG. All of the horses had always eaten orchard grass, and still do now. I don’t know if the farmer sprayed it with something or it had something odd in it, but oddly, all of my horses who came from Germany and were young mares were the ones who got diarrhea. My old and North American-born horses were all fine (I’m guessing the age had more to do with it than the origin, but it was an interesting maybe-coincidence?).