Hi all, I’m trying my mare on KER’s Equishure to see if it helps with loose manure. Long story short, she was hospitalized with colitis last year, no gastric ulcers this year (confirmed by scope in the last month), and loose manure continuing on for ~ 1 year at this point. Assure Guard Gold seemed to help return it to almost normal, then she had a little colic episode this winter (undetermined etiology) and it went back to loose, and has been that way ever since. She’s mostly on hay and (overgrazed) pasture, and gets a ration balancer, Gut-X, probiotics, and the Assure Guard Gold. Assuming the problem is hindgut, how long might I expect before seeing an improvement in the manure? Or would it even address this problem? Debating whether I should buy another bag as we’re almost a week in and if anything, it’s gotten worse (but maybe I started with too much at 3 scoops a day?).
It took 2 weeks or more for it to work for my horse. I feel like I underestimated how much he needed at the outset. When I increased his dose to the maximum recommended for his diet and weight, I noticed changes with in the week.
Also, random thought…You didn’t mention anything about sand or abdominal xrays. Even if you don’t live in an area where sand colic is common, if your horse is grazing on over grazed land, it might be worth considering.
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EquiShure never helped my horse with hind gut issues but Succeed did.
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Metronidazole is a serious antibiotic that is used against anaerobic bacteria in the gut, when nothing else will stop the diarrhea.
It is sort of a last resort because of the side effects.
- One of my other horses developed Fecal Water Syndrome last summer from eating plants he shouldn’t have been eating. He’s on 19 acres so he’s far from hungry but the plant taste changed as Fall was coming on and he thought that garbage was pretty good.
No colics but the FCW was becoming worse. I have never had to use metronidazole but I am forum acquainted with someone who did, and I knew I didn’t want the digestive issue escalating. At the recommendation of the holistic vet, I put him on 60CC’s of people Mylanta twice daily. I syringed it down him and he loved the stuff. Cleared him up in a week.
FWIW, I’m sorry to say the regular vet was no help, which was why I turned to the holistic vet who is also my horses’ chiropractor.
Just some things to consider and talk to the vet about:)
Not a bad a idea, certainly something to consider. How much did you end up feeding as an effective dose?
Yeah my normal vet, when asked about why she might have loose manure said “who knows,” so I don’t get the impression she’s brimming with ideas for how to solve it.
Are you saying you tried the Mylanta instead of metronidazole? I’ve been hesitant to ask my vet about metronidazole due to the side effects, as you say (although horses don’t seem to have the same degree of side effects as humans, I’ve taken it myself and it can be rough for some folks). Mylanta would be a much more friendly option, I would imagine!
4 scoops (2 twice a day) for about a month. Then, tapered the dose over the next several weeks.
- I fed Succeed according to the instructions on the label. I THINK there is a loading dose on the label, which I fed for a couple of weeks after speaking with the Succeed rep.
This was back in 2012, so memory is a bit rusty:) The vet was sure this particular horse (gelding) was also dealing with strangulating lipomas. I know that he had never colicked a day in his entire life and all of a sudden he colicked nine times in almost as many months.
The clinic recommended the Equishure. When it didn’t do anything, the other vet at that clinic recommended Succeed. It stopped the colics immediately. The senior vet gave my horse six months but I kept the horse on Succeed for 2-1/2 years before he finally had one giant/ horrendous colic and I lost him. He was 27 and had been with me 24 years.
- The horse on the mylanta is now 27. He has always had digestive issues of some sort that the traditional vets shrug their shoulders at.
I am thankful my vet/chiropractor took the holistic route and has also studied Chinese medicine/herbs for the last 20 years. Plus she has some pretty good livestock savvy, lol
She is the one who suggested the Mylanta first, before trying herbs.
2.1 Rusty had Fecal Water Syndrome, not flat out diarrhea. The mylanta sure won’t hurt to try with your horse but I would watch carefully for any changes to the bad.
2.2 The holistic vet also told me to buy the human pre-probiotic “Galactin” if the mylanta didn’t work and to give the horse one tablespoon daily.
I couldn’t find it in the health food stores around here, so I ordered it. By the time it came in, the mylanta had started doing its job, so I gave it to my husband who had been having some bowel issues from his prostate cancer surgery and the meds he has to have.
He is a medical doctor groupie, bar none, but nothing they gave him helped him. I asked him what he had to lose by trying the Galactin, it’s a human product. That was three months ago - the Galactin worked immediately on his issues and he still takes it.
So that is something else to consider that I forgot about in my first post:)
If nothing works, then my thought is the bacteria have really taken hold in your horses intestines.
The lady who put her horse on metronidazole lives in Canada and is a savvy/responsible horse person. She tried everything under the sun for her 20-something Arab and nothing worked.
She told the circuit vet she wanted to try the metronidazole, fully aware of the side affects - which her Arab did go off his feed and became somewhat depressed. The antibiotic did work and the Arab got back to his happy-wanting-to-work self, after the meds ran their course in him.
I can’t remember for sure, but again I THINK she had to crush something like 20? pills a couple of times daily? This has been a few years back on a different forum, so I may not be correct.
I hope this is helpful and I sure hope you get your horse’s issue resolved. Seeing him sick is bad enough, but then there is the washing of the butt a few times daily; even during the winter that has to be done or they will gald:(
This is all great info, thank you!
My mare did have a modest run with (admittedly very mild) fecal water syndrome, and I think the initial run of Assure Guard Gold helped clear it up, as it’s not been an issue for several months. But the loose manure remains.
Thanks again for the ideas - lots to think about!
Ok good to know - I just ordered more but will give it a solid month-long run to give it a chance.
Thanks!
My vet suggested we give it 4-6 weeks.
My guy is on Assure Guard Gold for a maldigestion diagnosis, along with mild IBD. He has been on the supplements since 2018. The vets recently told me that sometimes an added probiotic on a temporary basis is helpful. They suggested either Platinum Balance, or Full Bucket probiotics. I went with Full Bucket brand because it is the highest strength made and microencapsulated.
Ah ok, maybe I should have gotten the big bag 
What dose were you using during that time? Did 4-6 weeks seem to do the trick?
I don’t remember the dose. No, it didn’t. We went with misoprostol and sucralfate after that and it did help eventually.
One thing that helped my horse with a months long stint of diarrhea earlier this year was platinum performance bio sponge! I also had to switch her grain which I think helped as well. What ration balancer is yours on?? My horse and two others in my barn were all getting nutrena empower top line balancer and all having bad diarrhea problems until we switched them off of it! However just switching the grain didnt immediately fix it, but a few days of bio sponge did the trick.
I don’t hve a lot of insight into why both of these things worked… my vet was the same way, basically kinda like “it’s super common in the winter around here” and just telling me random probiotics to try.
I have also had my horse on equishure for the past 4 or 5 months and I’ve just been afraid to take her off of it because I wasn’t sure if that contributed as well. However I didn’t notice a difference at all with her just on equishure before I tried the other stuff.
Thank you! I had tried biosponge with no improvement, but maybe I should give it another go-round.
My horse is on the Purnia Enrich (it’s what the barn feeds). I’m considering trying their new limited-ingredient ration balancer, but it’s $$$, and I’m not convinced that’s the issue. What ration balancer did you switch to that helped?
Oooh okay yeah then you might be fine. I like board at a barn where I don’t get to choose the grain so the barn owner decided to switch EVERYONE to the Purina ultium competition which is a very high calorie grain that my pony is definitely too chunky to get very much of 
but thanks to feed xl I’ve been able to give her enough supplements to make up for the tiny amount of grain she’s getting.
If bio sponge didn’t work before then that’s probably just not what your issue is. My impression of the hindgut and digestive issues in horses is that it’s a very delicate balance of microbes and we just have to play a guessing game to figure out how to keep them balanced 
I’m sure I’ll be facing the same issues next winter.
Not sure where you’re located but I do remember reading somewhere that overgrazed / winter pasture can also contribute Bc of “fructans” in the short grass?? So that could’ve also contributed to my horse’s issues going away, we’re in the south so our spring grass came in like March.
