messy butt/keeping weight on without grain

[dungrulla]

I have a 20 something year old gelding that has always had a tendency toward the poops with new food, usually resolved by good management and a stable diet along with some probiotics. Lately though it’s been exceptionally bad, probably combined with a barn move and some pasture seed he got into and ate (only a few mouthfuls, untreated thank god!) on Sunday.

It’s never liquid diarrhea, more liquid squirts that run down his butt and/or paint the barn wall, and some mostly-solid-sort-of-mushy poops between. His appetite is great, and he’s always eager for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack/do you have any candy? so I’m not worried about that. He’s also generally an easy keeper.

After his ‘incident’ I took him off his grain and gave him some probiotic gel, and all three of my horses are now getting loose mineral salts to help encourage them to drink more. This seems to have helped but I am seeing some teeny rib shadows that may just be my imagination?

Previously he was getting:

-Three quarts twice a day of nutrena safechoice
-Free choice hay (literally I put out more than they eat in several piles)
-Grazing

Now he is getting:

-1.25 cups Purina outlast 3-4 times a day–this seems to help a LOT
-1.5 quarts half hay stretcher half alfalfa twice a day
-Loose minerals
-I ordered EquiShure and it should be here today or tomorrow, in the meantime I’ve been giving him 5 tums before each meal
-He still gets free choice hay/grazing

I am switching my hard keeper onto Purina Ultim gastric care because he doesn’t care for safechoice and is a picky asshole, so I have the option of slowly starting to give him some of that too.

I have the vet coming out Wednesday to take a look at him and see what she can suggest, but in the meantime my questions are twofold:

1. Has anyone dealt with this messy butt situation before, and if so what worked for you?
2. What’s the best way to keep weight on a horse that isn’t eating so much grain?

[2tempe]

my horse will get this with certain hay. We are in Florida, get mostly orchard grass or orchard/alfalfa. He is fine as long as he gets the mix ; straight orchard = runny butt squirts. I see yours is getting some alfalfa (stomach buffering supposedly) but I would wonder if there is something different in the hay since his move? Was he converted slowly from prior barn hay to this barn hay? A quick change can cause problems.

[dungrulla]

He wasn’t because we weren’t able to moving interstate. It’s possible something in the hay has set him off, but he’s only been getting the alfalfa pellets since Sunday and the messy butt seems better rather than worse. He was getting the exact same grain as the other barn but we pulled him off. It’s entirely possible the quick change has caused some issues.

He did have squirty butt a couple times pre move but nothing as bad or unmanageable. His old owners told us he gets this every time there’s upheaval, whether it’s going to a show, different hay, etc.

[Jungle_Monkey]

Ask your vet about trying Cimetidine maybe. My 22 year old QH has had brown liquid squirts on and off for a few years but this year, late Spring/early Summer, was particularly bad. Vet had a listen to his intestines and said they were “overactive” and we put him on cimetidine. It took a while (about a month at full dose) but he’s much better and on half dose now probably for another two months.

[Amy3996]

If the alfalfa pellets are a new addition to his diet, that could have exacerbated the digestive upset since he wasn’t used to them. Also, it sounds like there are a lot of moving parts in his feeding routine right now - stuff being added or taken away. Obviously, some of that was unavoidable with the move and everything else going on. Good call to have the vet out - maybe hold off on making any more changes until after the vet’s seen him? It could give his belly a chance to settle down a bit.

As for keeping weight on a horse that doesn’t get much grain: It sounds like you’re feeding plenty of hay, which is the first thing I would have suggested. Have you considered a high-fat supplement, like Nutrena Empower Boost? My 18 year old, moderate/hard keeper gelding gets free choice hay, 1 lb of a ration balancer, and 1/2lb of Empower Boost per day. He’s holding his weight beautifully, even though our pasture isn’t great right now.

[dungrulla]

The alfalfa was a very small quantity just so he felt like he was getting something and wasn’t kicking down the stall door because everyone else was getting food and he was not. He’s also improved a bunch since he started getting it…I’ll see what the vet says though. I’m nervous to put him back on grain since taking him off seems to also have helped a lot.

[MissAriel]

oops - posted to the wrong thread

[cayuse]

I give my mini bio-sponge when he gets squirty. And manna pros Opti-zyme probiotics has helped him out quite a bit. We never really figured out what triggers his loose manure, sometimes a hay change will do it, other times he is fine with it. I have a feeling with him it may be stress related. When we first got him he was always messy but now it is just an occasional occurance.
Oh, come to think of it, he was worse on the ration balancer with soy. We switch to timothy pellets and a vitamin supplement for his “dinner” and saw a difference. So soy was a definite trigger in his case, but not the only one.

[dungrulla]

A couple days of no grain and the addition of equishure seems to have fixed up the poop-ass. We are slowly working him back onto ultim gastric care on vet’s direction, a cupful at a time, but he seems to be doing well.