Hi there,
I have a 25 year old QH with constant Diarrhea on and off. Ive changed hay done wormers,sand aid, biosponge,etc.
Now i added chia seeds am doing platinum Gi which had prebiotic,probiotics,biosponge etc in it. He is also on equioxx.
Is there any hay that is better than others??? He is on canadian hay that has a mixture of brome,timothy and orchard. He gets about 2-3 hours of turn out a day.
Is he eating any grain or concentrated feed or just the supplements?
He may be developing a sensitivity to something there, like alfalfa or soy. A friend’s senior can’t have alfalfa anymore, but is ok with timothy and grass hays or pellets.
He is on Buckeye Grain Grow N win 1/2 cup twice a day.
Have his teeth checked. He may not be able to chew his hay/grass into a short stem forage. The presence of more long stem, vs short stem, can irritate the gut. Also short stem forage can absorb more liquid than long and slows the passage of material through the gut.
My oldster has all of his teeth, but they are smooth. He no longer has a productive grinding surface. He manages better on short grass than hay or tall grass. He does even better when he eats drier beet pulp or fluffed grass pellets. If provided with a slurry, he will drink all the liquid and then be frustrated by the hard to penetrate goup.
I have an older camp horse who developed diarrhea each of five winter. The onset was almost immediately after his pasture was done, and it resolved with new pasture coming in. I found an article somewhere (and haven’t been able to find it since) that pointed to irritation in the intestinal lining as a cause, with a suggestion to try coastal bermuda hay. It’s not something I would normally feed, but it worked almost instantly for this guy, and also for four other geldings (owned by a friend) who were experiencing the same thing this year.
I’m aware of the possibility of impaction issues due to feeding coastal, but the relief from constant diarrhea seemed a good trade for my guy. As soon as he can get pasture as part of his diet (which also includes Triple Crown Senior and flax), he transitions back to Orchard grass hay without any trouble.
My 24 year QH had a lot of liquid with her manure. I constantly was washing her bum and legs.
​​​​​​ My vet told me to take her off hay and switch to pellets because she is having trouble digesting the hay…and she was right. It worked!
Good luck!
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My 20 year old mare get pretty loose (not quite diarrhea) poop on and off when she’s on wheat hay. I put her back on grass hay and no issues. Could just be your hay doesn’t agree with him.
And you might want to check with your vet about a product called Bio Sponge ( I used the paste, from Platinum) which really helped one of mine.
https://www.platinumperformance.com/equine-bio-sponge-supplement
And you might want to ask your vet about a product called Bio Sponge, from Platinum w hich really helped one of mine. I used the paste, which worked very well.
How’s he doing?
Some probiotics are definitely better than others. I have had really great results with Stable Nutrition Daily Probiotics for Horses from champion blends with my older guy. I really feel this product gave me another 6 months with my elderly Ottb and now I use it for my others.
I looked quick at the platinum product and I couldn’t figure out how many cfu are in the product. That’s suspicious…
If you don’t get results in a week I highly recommend trying a better probiotic product.
I work in the human probiotics industry and the animal industry drives me crazy with their tricky advertising and substandard products.
Best of luck!
Sorry, here is the link. I hope your horse can get solid soon!
https://championblends.com/collections/frontpage/products/stable-nutrition-probiotics-for-horses
Bio Sponge is not a probiotic: it is a concentrated clay formula (smectite family). That is why there are no CFUs listed.
exactly, and it has been discussed on COTH before here https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…e-working-well
and here https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…bout-biosponge
and probably lots of other places as well! YMMV but I sure like it (do NOT use it prophylactically–just when there is a problem)
With my two oldies with loose stools, Lucerne chopped hay seemed to be the answer. Because their teeth were wearing out, they couldn’t chew their hay well enough.
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Okay so I’m an idiot and apparently can’t read. Didn’t see that OP had already tried bio sponge…sorry!
Agree with Foggy Clouds as I also use Lucerne Farms Premium chopped hay (which is naked, basically. nothing else added) for one of mine and am very happy with it. Firm, regular stools (YAAAY!) Also use Tractor Supply Dumors tim/alfalfa mix as well which my others think is like crack, just love it!
