This is very helpful to have a specific test to ask for. It certainly seems like a good idea to utilize that as a diagnostic tool. If he’s got some kind of bug in his tummy we need to know! Thanks!
I’m working remotely today so just popped him in a stall with a serving of outlast and some alfalfa to snack on. Big horse is jellie. I need to find a better routine of stalling him for short periods to monitor his manure more closely.
My new mantra is “If you hear hoofbeats, look for horses, not zebras”. You changed hay to a new coarse timothy hay and the pony is having digestive upsets. I understand about hay availability, because I too live in the SE. And I have any older pony with declining dentition that is having diarrhea issues. Not colicky, but he is having problems eating hay. He doesn’t quid hay but he just can’t masticate it well enough to digest it well. I don’t know the mechanics well, but I think Beowulf hit the nail on the head. I too am struggling with the best way to feed him. I am increasing soaked hay cubes in his diet but it is pretty warm here most of the time and soaked feed sours pretty quickly.
I have noticed that TSC has Teff pellets here - I think maybe Standlee? I know pellets are not long stem fiber but maybe he needs less of that at this point to get his gut less irritated. The bagged chopped hay is pretty much useless. My horses do not like it and it is just regular coarse hay that is cut into smaller pieces.Maybe the Dengi products are more useful.
Well crap. I wasn’t through writing! I would ditch the timothy for the pony. But the bad thing is that I have not found OG hay to be less irritating. I am not sure what you are supposed to feed 
. But maybe try a combination of beet pulp and Teff pellets and separate the pony from his buddy when he is eating. It is probably the wrong time of the year to try and find Teff hay and you will just have to make do with what is available.
Hay is such a pain in the neck! I ordered some OA should come next week.
I’ve gotten eastern grown O and what I’ve had isn’t much finer than T. I find the Standlee compressed hays to be of varying quality, prone to excessive shattering and over priced. The western O I’ve gotten is significantly finer than T. Of course this is just what’s available for me to purchase via dealers near me as none of its grown locally. This year my dealer claims she’s unable to get more Teff due to a fire wiping out her supplier.
Replacing long stem forage with pellets and such would be a big undertaking but perhaps a possibility if other measures fail.
He scarfed down his lunch Outlast and alfalfa hay and had a normal manure pile so it seems that it’s an intermittent issue.
I got some northern Tenn grown OG/Tim mix this summer that was as fine as bermuda and worked pretty well. But it is almost gone and there will not be any until next year. I have gotten western timothy that was pretty fine but it is a crap shoot buying from a dealer. I also am not as impressed with the Standlee compressed bales either. I think their quality has slipped. I did find some $$$ OG from Idaho last year but it seemed to not help with the pony’s loose manure. Old horses are hard to deal with and hay in the Southeast is limited in quality. Luckily bagged products seem to be increasing in availability and variety. Maybe they will come out with Teff cubes or Alf/Teff cubes.
I’m fairly sure that the dealer that has eastern hay gets his from NY / Canada.
I lot of my hay comes from Idaho (Ratzlaff)
I should buy a truckload of Teff next year for sure lol
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