This is such a frustrating issue. I have an 18 month old who I’ve had on and off problems with. I have yet to figure out the cause or the cure. Ugh!
I have one like this too. 26yo mini. I feed out hay all year as he doesn’t have much access to pasture. Still, every fall the well formed poops with… goo. I thought for a while he might be eating too many leaves (sugar maple), but it continues periodically throughout the winter. Pony is happy, perky and in good weight. shrug
Do a quick search on this. This has been discussed a lot. Some have found a round of antibiotic such as metronidazole cleared it up.
One of the old guys I care for gets this issue in the winter. Last year I gave him a probiotic and it worked, sort of. This year, on the advice of a trusted friend, I fed him a handful of dry beet pulp (cringing the entire time) and it worked really well. He’s on week 2 of no runny bum. At least he’s bay, though.
Grass gone to seed
My vet recently told me that this is caused from grass getting cut after it is mature, which results in stalky hay. I usually get first cut and because of the wet weather, it can’t always get cut at its peak…instead it matures and once it goes to seed…its texture becomes course. My pony can’t digest this and the body keeps trying to…thus producing extra water (runny brown water that stains his legs). I put my pony on Misoprostol and it went away…but it is very expensive so now I use shiny hiny (or vaseline) and wash him…he has laminitis so can’t have much grass. I am getting second cut hay from now on which may work better because the weather is dry usually during second cut and grass does not have tome to go to seed.
I had this issue. Tried everything. Had ultrasounds of his intestines. Scoped for ulcers. Blood work. Fecal test. Tried bio sponge, human grade probiotics, smartpak’s $100 digestive supplement. Dewormed. Psyllium. Tried metronidazole. The metronidazole and bio sponge worked a little bit but it came back as soon as we stopped. I finally switched his hay to a grassy Timothy. Problem 95% gone. Now 100% gone as we switched to an organic grassy Timothy. He also gets some alfalfa. The second he gets anything stemmy or with a ton of sugar in it and it comes back.
I second Dressager. For two years, I searched for an answer. My mare is ulcer prone and has had right dorsal colitis, so I’m quite familiar with the quality of her manure before, during, and after an ulcer flare up. Like the others said, it’s gas with liquid, and and sand clear and gastrogard had little to no lasting effect.
My vet kept telling me it was due to hay change, but I refused to believe him, until the boarding barn got a full-grass, no alfalfa at all, load of hay and the problem 100% cleared up in three days. Turns out, my mare is extremely sensitive to the high sugar, oat hay we sometimes get. That is a total no-go for her. She can tolerate some alfalfa mix, which is our predominate hay type, but would do best on all grass. Unfortunately, I’m at a larger boarding barn and can’t segment out a few tons just for our use when we find a good batch. So we make it work.
I’m curious how others wrap their tails in the winter. I’m in the frigid upper Midwest and last November braided her tail, where it remained until March. It was a gross poop-sickle, but I don’t have much of an option and it cleaned up in the spring with a bit of work. But is there a better way?
[QUOTE=MNewbie;8771966
I’m curious how others wrap their tails in the winter. I’m in the frigid upper Midwest and last November braided her tail, where it remained until March. It was a gross poop-sickle, but I don’t have much of an option and it cleaned up in the spring with a bit of work. But is there a better way?[/QUOTE]
Why not put it it up in “breed” fashion with an old sock or vet wrap?
Yes! Oat hay was the worst! Our barn still feeds it but I buy my own hay now. Problem solved. It’s cheaper than all the vet tests and meds I tried… Plus it was so horrible to have to clean him daily and wash his hind wraps!
I second the omeprazole recommendation. A friend’s gelding has this issue and a month of omeprazole cleared it up. Vet wanted horse to stay on it long term, but my friend is into holistic meds and began adding carob to gelding’s feed instead. He’s been fine ever since.
[QUOTE=Episefa;7958746]
Gets hay 24/7 and has large pasture (which right now doesn’t have grass). [/QUOTE]
Overgrazed pastures quickly fill up with weeds that are high in short chain fructan, aka FOS or fructo-oligosaccahrides. These are rapidly fermentable and create a lot of gas. Culprits include dandelion, plaintain, chicory, thistles, sowthistle. I have had clients with horses with gas and diarrhea clear up after controlling broadleaf plants with herbicide. Horses like all these weeds and eat them readily, especially when it’s the last thing green in the pasture.
The FOS used to induce laminitis for study is from chicory.
[QUOTE=Buckadoodle;8771877]
My vet recently told me that this is caused from grass getting cut after it is mature, which results in stalky hay. [/QUOTE]
FOS is produced in cool season grass under environmental stress. Cold, drought, low nitrogen. FOS is NOT correlated with fiber content.
I wish vets would stop inventing reasons for all these issues. Plant people understand this easily. I promise any vet that I will not do surgery on horses if they will stop giving advice on pasture management and forage quality.
[QUOTE=Katy Watts;8772533]
FOS is produced in cool season grass under environmental stress. Cold, drought, low nitrogen. FOS is NOT correlated with fiber content.
I wish vets would stop inventing reasons for all these issues. Plant people understand this easily. I promise any vet that I will not do surgery on horses if they will stop giving advice on pasture management and forage quality.[/QUOTE]
Can you tell me more about stemmy hay with grass/plants that has gone to seed? I though mature plants had less nutrients, so it is a change in starch that can irritate horses? Are these changes worse with different species of grass/legumes?
My horse had the runs with a batch of new hay, of which it appeared stemmy and had heads that looked like it went to seed. I’m not sure if there was any oat hay involved in the mix or not. He had squirts for a couple weeks after the new batch arrived and never seemed to fully resolve. I’ve since moved and he gets timothy blend and no problems.
Maturity/stemminess/fiber content has nothing to do with fructan content. Think of a plant cell like a warehouse full of bins. The walls of the cell/warehouse contain fiber. The fructan is in the bins. The bins can be empty or full and it has nothing to do with the width of the walls/amount of fiber.
If the specie of grass is prone to fructan build up, that can happen anytime the plant is subjected to stress, regardless of stage of maturity.
Grass with high tendency to respond to stress with fructan production: rye, fescue, oat, wheatgrass, timothy, orchard, brome, lots of broadleaf weeds.
http://safergrass.org/pdf/FibervsSugarabs.pdf
http://safergrass.org/pdf/GrassCHO-Safer.pdf
[QUOTE=Katy Watts;8775488]
Maturity/stemminess/fiber content has nothing to do with fructan content. Think of a plant cell like a warehouse full of bins. The walls of the cell/warehouse contain fiber. The fructan is in the bins. The bins can be empty or full and it has nothing to do with the width of the walls/amount of fiber.
If the specie of grass is prone to fructan build up, that can happen anytime the plant is subjected to stress, regardless of stage of maturity.
Grass with high tendency to respond to stress with fructan production: rye, fescue, oat, wheatgrass, timothy, orchard, brome, lots of broadleaf weeds.
http://safergrass.org/pdf/FibervsSugarabs.pdf
http://safergrass.org/pdf/GrassCHO-Safer.pdf[/QUOTE]
So having a mature hay would less likely be the cause of runny bums than a different species of grass that was introduced in the new batch of hay is what I am understanding?
Thx for explaining.
[QUOTE=Moogles;8777118]
So having a mature hay would less likely be the cause of runny bums than a different species of grass that was introduced in the new batch of hay is what I am understanding?
Thx for explaining.[/QUOTE]
Of all the many factors, the maturity of the hay is way down on the list. Being a cool season grass grown under stressful conditions is the biggest factor.
If you your horse is prone to this, then get hay tested before purchase and get the WSC-ESC minimized, I’d guess below 6-7%. Test a batch that causes problems, then get lower than that.
