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Tell me about success with transfaunation

Purely personal observation, but at the vet school, most of the horses who received FMT were literally on death’s doorstep, or very close to it. I can’t recall a single adverse effect ever. Sometimes it seemed to help. Other times there was no change. But based on those observations, I think the risk to the animal is low.

So yeah, no guarantees, but it is such a simple thing to try if the vet recommends it.

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Thanks - I tried Succeed, and got my money back. It didn’t do anything for him. :frowning:

Yeah, always like to hear updates! Interesting that he will be used in a study too.

A species appropriate amount of fibre is really all we have available at this point in terms of maintaining the microbiome, IMO. So as close to 100% as possible for a horse. Stress can have a big impact on the microbiome, limit that were possible I guess.

Somewhat hard to tell if there are adverse outcomes when a horse is on deaths door. I agree though, why not try it if there is literally no option. But the risk certainly isn’t zero and screening remains key.

https://journals.lww.com/ajg/Fulltext/2021/04000/Fecal_Microbiota_Transplantation__The_Evolving.13.aspx

Looks like you’ve moved beyond trying a sand clearing option, but just wanted to mention that powdered psyllium made a huge difference for my horse whereas pelleted psyllium seemed not to do anything at all. So something to consider if you tried pelleted or granulated. I like the Uckele product.

Best of luck to you.

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Thanks for letting me know. I did use a few days of the pelleted psyllium, and then today he had an abdominal xray which shows no sand in his gut. But going forward, if I have to use it, I may try the powder.

I actually use it daily now for fecal water rather than for sand clearing. It’s kind of amazing how well it worked for that. According to what I’ve read, when you use it daily it no longer works to clear sand (although the makers of Assure Guard Gold disagree with that) but instead it works like a probiotic and to soak up water.

I had previously planned to do a fecal transfaunation to treat her fecal water but that couldn’t happen last minute (she spiked a fever day of procedure) and I ended up trying the psyllium powder and it worked. It was such a godsend to us that I truly view it now as a miraculous product! When my other mare gets any kind of stomach upset it’s my go to!

One thing I remembered - you are not using psyllium with ulcer treatment, right? I don’t recall where I heard this, but I was told not to ever combine the two.

Also been told before to feed any supplements separate as well. Could be because psyllium acts as a sponge once wet and collects granules like that.