- This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
My 3.5 year old Friesian has very high water content in her manure. She has GIANT piles that you can barely fit on a manure fork and lift up. They rarely have road apple form. Sometimes they can be much closer to a watery cow pie. They have been like this since we have owned her for 1.5+ years.
A couple of weeks ago, she was dribbling down her vaginal area. I lifted her tail, and she squirted out a stream just like a squirt gun that was completely liquid. It passed, so I thought maybe she was in season?
She gets a couple coffee cans of LMF Senior (Complete feed), alfalfa/grass hay and grass hay. Two other horses get the same, and their manure is normal.
I have seen her have normal manure sometimes when we are camping (perhaps more dehydrated?) I have also observed her playing in water and flapping her lips in the water. So perhaps drinking more?
She has been wormed.
She is bright, lots of energy, good coat, healthy otherwise.
Thoughts? Should I be concerned?
Attachments:
-
Hello LSweeny,
Sorry for the slow response, somehow this did not appear in my mailbox. I should check the update bar more.As to your horse with chronically loose stools, I must say I have such a horse too. Cowboy has been that way since owned and I attribute it to the large amount of water he drinks, almost twice that of the other horses. The problem is: does he drink a lot because he looses more through his stools, or do his stools stay loose because of excessive thirst. We have run him through a battery of tests when he was young and did not find a answer to this problem. I bring this up not to say our horses have the same problem but to suggest this is a common problem which may not have a simple answer.
Because of this the Diarrhea Overview article is a long article with many many suggestions including a diagnostic paradigm. One thing stands out in your post is that there is alfalfa in this horse’s diet. Many horses have looser stools on alfalfa. Sometimes it occurs when they are first pup on it and resolves, other times it remains until the owner tires of the problem and goes off it. I think these are osmotic diarrheas. You should try removing the alfalfa from the diet and give the horse a month to see if there is improvement. If not I would consider a complete chemistry panel and perhaps a equine diarrhea PCR panel. If all this comes back normal consider the empirical treatment for diarrhea outlined in https://horseadvice.com/horse-equine/diseases/colic-diarrhea-gi-tract/diarrhea-in-horses/diarrhea-an-overview/. There you will find more on the diagnosis and treatment of diarrhea without other signs of disease.
DrO -
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.