For those of you who have had a horse or know of one who had confirmation of sand buildup in the gut, can you please tell me what the outward signs are?
I’m still struggling to find out what is wrong with my mare and 2 vets are stumped!
Your recent post was about hock arthritis, and needing to save up for x-rays and injections. She was in major pain, dragging her hind legs, on NSAIDS.
What are you seeing that isn’t connected to either this pain or potentially ulcers from NSAIDS?
My sense is that sand colic is not that common in the PNW because although people certainly use sand paddocks, for most of the year the sand is damp and not getting in the feed. Sand colic is more prevalent in drier desert places.
I understand you can do a sand test on the manure, mix manure and water see what settles out. Meanwhile pursue appropriate hock care when you can afford it. This seems to have been a long term issue building over several years.
I’ve seen remarkable improvement with both IM adequan and IA steroids in joints.
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My horse had free fecal water (liquid comes out around solid poop), weight loss, looked uncomfortable at times to the point of almost colic. It took a second opinion vet to figure it out because I had treated the horse for weeks with sand clear to no avail. Second vet took x-rays after hearing the tell tale ocean sounds and confirmed several inches at the deepest. I learned that not all sand removal products work or can stop working, I had used the same one for years for regular purges.
I’m not sure if the diarrhea is connected to the pain meds, vet does not think so because she has been on it a year, but could very well be. I have the hock injections booked for September already, but right now the stomach issue is more urgent than hocks because she has lost a massive amount of muscle in 8 weeks. She looks emaciated with a huge bloated belly - no topline at all - every vertebrae is visible. She has massive extremely wet and heavy cow patties - looks like the hay did not digest completely.
We are working with a second vet in the same practice now and I just can’t get any answers. All they are telling me is to try different things but no actual diagnosis or definite answers. I can’t tell you how extremely stressed and frustrated I am. The diarrhea started when the barn abruptly fed 2 new hays without transitioning over slowly. Some other horses got sick too for a few days but mine did not get better.
I keep looking for help on Coth and on facebook groups in case someone has any suggestions for something myself or the vets have not though about yet.
Horses can absolutely get diarrhea from switching hay. Especially if the hay is high sugar. Once they poop out the good gut flora they can’t reestablish it and diarrhea becomes chronic.
Since several other horses had the same reaction I think you have your Diagnosis.
Id recommend Herbs for Horses probiotics fed to instructions and Yeassac. I fixed this last winter in an ottb mare that had been on pasture for years and got persistent diarrhea on good hay. Took a while and some relapses.
When the probiotics alone didn’t work I emailed the company for ideas and they suggested Yeassac which they don’t make. Got another brand.
Persistent diarrhea is very hard on a horse so I try to get it stopped ASAP. Two months is a long time to be shitting out everything you eat half digested.
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Thanks for the fast reply, I always hope you see my posts!
The “new” hay the barn got in is timothy that looks and smells nice but is stemmy and the other is a local grass hay they grown on the property. The local hay here is known to be very high in sugar.
I asked them to only feed timothy when the diarrhea started - which they did immediately - and no more local was fed. When there was no change to her condition in 3 weeks, vet suggested that we try the local hay. She has been on only that for several weeks and is still sick.
I’ve kept her on Bio Sponge and pro-biotics (Equine Choice paste) the entire time. The Bio Sponge is stopping it from becoming projectile liquid but it is not treating anything. The pro bio is super expensive and not doing anything.
I want to go out and buy hay today and pull her off the stuff from the barn completely but all we have here is timothy, alfalfa and crappy local.
Would it make sense to try alfalfa only? The vet is busy and not calling me back 
Once the gut flora is pooped out the diarrhea will persist despite diet changes. I really recommend Herbs for Horses Probio Plus. It has worked for me on multiple horses. I can’t speak to any other brand. And Yeassac which actually has some research behind it in Europe.
Not all probiotics are created equal. For myself I have Florastor to knock out mild food poisoning and the long term runs you can get from that. Other cheaper probiotics have been useless.
Probiotics are a real thing, but you need to get something with live cultures and appropriate to the particular issue.
I would really suggest a 10 day course of H4H. It’s okay to way overdose them on it too.
I’m ordering the H4H probio today! Vet should call back soon and advise on what hay would be best to switch to. I really hope my girl will get better soon or I’m going to turn into an alcoholic!
Some things that come to my mind and I have seen used to diagnose/treat “sloppy” stools, weight loss, loss of appetite etc are Equiotics probiotics, put manure in water see if sand settles, have vet listen to gut sometimes they can hear sand, feed psyllium pellets for a week then see what happens, basic blood work to rule out infection, determine organ function and oh ya look at their teeth. You can actually test the manure as well to help determine if it has “bad bacteria” blood, parasites or anything else that should not be in it. And of course try any one of the million of OTC ulcer “treatments” but Omeprazole n Sulcafrate(SP?) are the proven treatments.
Hi, If you suspect something I suggest sprinkling half a cup of psyllium husk over their food for a week this will naturally clear any sand/dirt out of their gut. You can then if you wish shuffle through their poo and see if there’s sand in it…
