Oh my, that’s a tough one. I guess it depends on the quantity of the fecal water. If it’s not copious amounts I’d probably leave it. If it’s soaking the legs like washing it would, I’d wash it.
That’s weird that Secure Guard is not working but psyllium is because Assure Guard Gold (I think the product you’re using) is pretty much just psyllium and a probiotic from what I understand. That was the product next on my list to try . . .
I have a horse who has suffered from fecal water syndrome. Tried a bunch of stuff, nothing really worked. I moved her home at the beginning of November and in an attempt to address it, I took her off of everything except for hay, SmartDigest Ultra, and SmartCalm Ultra (the first one she’s been on forever even before the FWS started and the latter I put her on for the move). And as for hay, she is now getting free choice hay (mostly first cut) through slow feed nets (before she was getting about 18 lbs a day in nets, so she hoovered it down and spent a lot of time without any in front of her).
I am happy to report that the fecal water appears to have disappeared! She did have a little episode when I had to switch hay without enough to do a good transition, but that quickly went away.
I have given her pysllium for a monthly purge since we have sandy soil where we are now.
And I have been SLOWLY adding in Vermont Blend to give her a v/m supplement.
My tentative conclusions are (1) the free-choice hay is making her system happier; OR (2) something in her other supplements (Vit E, MSM, biotin) was triggering it.
Once I get her up to the full dose of Vermont Blend, I’m going to add her other supplements back in one at a time, and slowly, to see if I can identify if one of those triggers it.
But if you haven’t tried it and it’s a possibility for you where your horse lives, maybe try free-choice hay?
@Pico_Banana thanks for the thoughts! Your correct, Secure Guard and Assure Guard are the same thing, just the Canadian name for approvals in Canada.
I’m not writing it off yet, but I would think I would be seeing some more improvement by now. Will give it a nice long course though to see. I wonder if it’s just not enough psyllium in the secure guard for him?
That’s an interesting point, while I’ve experimented with feeds, it might be worth while pulling all other supplements for now.
I don’t have a whole lot of say over hay as I board. He is at a new facility since I posted this originally, where he has more consistent access to hay although it’s also higher quality so I don’t know if it’s too rich for him. He absolutely scarfs his hay, so a net would be better but he’s also a pawer and gets into trouble on everything in his stall, so BM doesn’t want to take a chance on something else he could hurt himself on. Haha he’s got pretty consistent hay in front of him, but I wouldn’t say free choice. They don’t feed rounds outside so sometimes there are short durations of low hay (we are snow covered right now).
On the unfortunate Fecal Water Train with a newer mare on the property. What was originally thought to be stress induced, we now believe she does suffer from FWS.
After reading this thread, among other things, we have switched the mare over to a low carb feed, Teff hay, and low carb treats. I don’t want to get too excited yet, but we have been liquid free for about 3 weeks now. The Teff hay was difficult to find, but now that we have a good distributor and have started feeding it, all of the horses much prefer it. So much less waste, was absolutely worth the switch.
(insert happy face here)
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Assure Guard Gold, I think you mean. It is what I was going to suggest. I have used it for 2 years. Great entire-GI track supplement.
@Mulligan314 that’s great to hear! I might start looking into sourcing other hay too and buying for my guy. It would be an extra expense on board but I’m willing to give it a go.
@cnd8 I’m in Canada so it’s brought into the country as Secure Guard Gold. It’s the same thing though and I imagine it is just for approvals. Just FYI for any Canadians that may think of trying it, as I think access to it is newer here. 
By way of update, he’s been on it for about 5 weeks now or so. It’s certainly made an improvement but some fecal water is still present. Improved though. He is still on psyllium as the amount of psyllium in the Secure Guard is low. I might continue with it for now as at least it’s giving us some improvement.
Thanks all for following the fecal water saga with me.
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Ah, I didn’t realize they had to do that for Canadian import. You can very safely double the dose of it. Maybe doing this would get him back on the right track?
I’m still following your saga and I feel your pain. The biosponge is working for us however any change in hay means a breakthrough of fecal water. He got some stemmier stuff and there was poop all down his legs last night.
When the vet comes out for spring shots I’m going to schedule a fecal transplant and cross my fingers that it works for him. I’ve spent and am spending a fortune on supplements. Not to mention the struggle to add all the powder to an easy keepers diet. Thank goodness he likes anise and fennel seeds!
Hope your guy clears up soon!
Have you tried switching out 50% of the hay by weight for hay pellets?
Works wonders for some horses.
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Just an FYI, as I didn’t see it mentioned (might have missed it), there’s a Facebook group for FWS in case it’s helpful to anyone. Lots of ideas in there, too.
We are now a few months into our hay/feed change over. Other than short term, stress induced issues when the mare has to stay up for multiple days due to weather (she is VERY unsettled in a stall), she is still mostly clear. She had a few issues coming into spring with the new grass. We don’t have much grass, but she took advantage of the stuff we got and it took advantage of her…in the liquid-y kind of way.
She is still VERY gassy, but at least, for the most part, the gas doesn’t come with liquid anymore. I don’t think I’ve met another horse with such gas. goodness.
Anyways, all that said, we are still seeing moderate success with Teff Hay, Low starch feed, and low starch treats…essentially treating her like a IR horse.
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I thought I would give a little update, as others have too.
We currently have my guy on in the Secure Guard Gold (Assure Guard in US) and as someone suggested here, we upped him to the loading dose again for maintenance. He has been on it several months and is finally doing REALLY well. Some fecal water occasionally, but its not remotely like it used to be.
We have also noticed that he doesn’t do well at all on any premixed grain. We bounced around trying a bunch of different grains/brands, but none seem to really work for him, as the fecal water gets worse again. My vet feels he has an allergy/sensitivity, but we haven’t been able to nail down the specifics. We tried beet pulp, but he wouldn’t eat it, so he currently eats hay cubes and his supplements. He is also still on 1 cup a day of psyllium husk.
I have been supplementing vitamins/minerals separately, but hoping I can get him onto a more all in one type top-dress that he will tolerate.
Also hoping to get him off the Secure Guard as it is freaking expensive and onto another type of maintenance stomach aid like Viseral+ by Mad Barn. It previously didn’t do much for him, but my vet did wonder if the couple months on Secure Guard might allow me to try that again with more success.
So FINALLY getting somewhere! I also joined the FWS group on Facebook. Thanks for the suggestion.
Edit to add: We also started him on CBD as he can be an anxious horse (maybe contributing?), I don’t know if it is coincidental to everything else stoamch-wise being better but he has been a much more chill, happy horse. Still girthy though. He’s on a pretty low does but seems to be working for him.
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I’ll add my update.
I thought I had beaten the FWS with free-choice hay. That worked for a while, but not it’s not at all any longer. Let’s just say I can’t wait until I can wash her tail - it’s gross.
I talked to my new vet about it. She suggested 3 approaches. First, a different probiotic. Second, feeding something to absorb the excess water, like pysillium. Third, a fecal transplant.
Honestly, I’d just go straight to the fecal transplant except I can’t leave my other horse at home alone while I transport my FWS horse to the hospital. So that remains an option for the future but not until I have a solution to my horse that can’t be left alone.
We have somewhat sandy soil around here so I do a monthly pysillium purge already. The vet said that that would no longer clear sand if I gave her physillium on a daily basis. So I don’t want to go down that route, or at least not yet. I did switch her from flax to chia seeds about a week or so ago to see if the mucilage effect might help. Too soon to know if that’s working.
I did decide to try her on a different probiotic. She’s been on SmartDigest Ultra for the entire time I’ve had her (4 years although the FWS didn’t start until about 3 years ago). The vet recommended either Full Bucket or Platinum Performance. Full Bucket has LOTS of reviews by people about how it resolved their horse’s diarrhea, so I decided to go with them. Should arrive in the next couple of days. I did reach out to the company to talk about dosage as they leave it open-ended on their website. They suggested 2 scoops a day to start and if I don’t see much of a change in a couple of weeks in, to up it to 2 scoops twice a day. If/when she settles, they think I should be able to maintain her on 1 scoop a day. Note that 2 scoops twice a day, the cost is a ridiculous $320 a month, so even more than Assure Guard Gold. One scoop a day is already $80 a month, so definitely not cheap.
I’ll try to report back with another update.
I call it “Brown Butt Syndrome.” I have a grey (OF COURSE) mare who’s had it for several years now. What seems to help the most to reduce it is a daily tablet of Merrick’s Blue Ribbon Anti-Diarrheal Bolus in the 20 gram version. It’s inexpensive, and my vet has looked at the label and sees no problem with keeping the mare on a daily dose. It dissolves easily in water, so I give it to her in a daily alfalfa cube soak.
interestingly, her “BBS” clears up when she gets access to grass again in the spring. Possibly because she’s eating less first cutting hay? my source of hay tends to cut late, so the hay is on the coarse side, and I think that is part of the cause of the problem.
Interesting. What are the ingredients? I just looked at the Merrick website but couldn’t find them.
this is from Jeffers; I don’t know if this ingredient list pertains to the 10 gram or 20 gram dosage, but the ingredients would be the same: Contains 12.4% magnesium oxide, 8.4% sodium bicarbonate, 5% kaolin, 4% citric acid, 3.4% carob powder and 2.2% apple fiber.
Just out of curiosity, did the vet give you a cost estimate for a fecal transplant
I would have to go to Tufts to get it done, but my vet thought it was about $150 for the procedure, not including any sedatives or stall costs.
Considering how much I’ve spent on various supplements, Nexium, etc. trying to address this, seems like an easy decision to do it.
If you give it a shot would be able tell us how it goes?
