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  Discussion on Chronic Cow Pies
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New Member:
Rach

Posted on Friday, Feb 13, 2004 - 9:59 pm:

Please bear with me, this is long. I'll start at the beginning. I trailered my 16 yo TB mare to a boarding facility about 6 weeks ago. They have an indoor arena and I wanted to get a head start on spring training. Anyway, almost the day she arrived she started going cow patties. The diarrhea never turned into full-blown watery stools. At first I thought she was nervous, she will tend to get loose stools sometimes when she gets nervous, but it never lasts longer than a couple hours. She has been boarded at this facility before so it's not unfamiliar and she settled right in. I kept her grain mix the same, but changed her hay (same kind of hay, just a different source). It's brome/timothy mix. She also gets beet pulp/strategy/oil/vitamins (this is the part of her diet that didn't change). When her stools didn't clear up within the 1st two weeks, I started her on a Stress Pack (transfer factor). Her stools got firmer and looked like normal (although they did smell foul) while she was on the TF, but within 48 hrs after the 7 day treatment, it was back to cow patties again. She's on a good deworming program and I had a fecal exam done to rule out worms - it came back negative. She does not have a fever (I checked her temp many times). Her gums look good. She doesn't seem obviously depressed although her attitude is a little off, but she still wants to play. She's drinking okay and isn't dehydrated. Her appetite is okay, but not up to where it should be (she'll eat her grain mix and treats, but doesn't seem real thrilled about hay). She lost about 40 lbs during the last 6 weeks. I've been giving her time off from work. Even though the fecal was negative, my vet wants me to dose her with a PowerPack anyway in case larvae is the problem. The vet also mentioned ulcers. Problem is, we don't have the equipment here locally to do an exam for ulcers and I would hate to spend all that $$ on Gastroguard if it's not needed. I talked to another vet that thought I should test for coccidia; the positive response to the TF led her to this suggestion. But before I do anything, I'm going to rule out the hay. I brought some hay from home and that's what she's getting now (first it was mixed in with the farm hay for a few days so the change wasn't too abrupt). She's been getting the old hay for 2 days now, but no change thus far. She does like this hay better though so she has been eating more of it I noticed. Oh, also I started adding Probios to her diet about a week ago. Still cow patties though. This is really unusual for her, she has never had this problem before.

I have read the information in "Diarrhea an Overview," but I still have questions.

1) If it does happen to be the hay, how long should it take for her to get back to normal?

2) How do we test for coccidia. The other vet said something about draining the liquid into a fecal flotation solution. What is that? I wonder if this is something I can do myself, then take to a lab?



3) How do horses become infected with coccidia? I've never heard of this before.

Thank you in advance.

Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Feb 14, 2004 - 10:21 am:

Ill bet this in just the move and with no other signs of illness the loose stools are not dangerous to your horses health but I don't know how long it will take for it to get better.

Coccidia is best diagnosed with a fecal float but this may have to done repeatedly. Coccidia is contracted through exposure to other infected animals and not a common cause of diarrhea in healthy adult horses.
DrO
Member:
Rach

Posted on Saturday, Feb 14, 2004 - 11:14 am:

Thank you DrO. The fact that she lost weight is of concern. She's a hard-keeper to begin with. Having had this condition for 6 weeks is also concerning me. Would it be okay to put her on metronidazole to see if it works? I don't want to start her on ulcer meds; that's the last option on my list. If we try the metronidazole, how long of a course would be recommended? The other vet said she had success treating coccidia with sulfa and transfer factor. Does the fact that my mare had normal stools when she was on the transfer factor stress pack raise any flags for you? I don't think it was a coincidence - it was pretty clear that she did well when she was on it, then backslid within 2 days after the treatment stopped. I could try running another stress pack through her, but it's expensive and it's likely she'll just go back to cow pies again after.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Feb 14, 2004 - 6:11 pm:

It is even more common for horses to lose weight when moved than it is to develop lose stools.

Not being able to examine your horse I cannot really tell you what would be ok or not. If you would like to learn more about metronidazole we have an article on it, see Equine Medications and Nutriceuticals » Antibiotics and Antimicrobials » Metronidazole. If I were trying it I would give it 10 days and if there was a response would treat for at least a week past the time symptoms resovled. I don't think the product which labels itself as having transfer factor is on any known efficacy and have doubts it had a real effect. Run a search on "transfer factor" as we have discussed this in depth recently.

The problem is there is nothing in your post that really suggests to me you have a colitis or infections process. If your vets have evidence of such, and diarrhea alone is not evidence enough for me, then proceeding to identification of the cause and treatment seems logical, otherwise throwing antibiotics at it might make things worse.
DrO
Member:
Mwebster

Posted on Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004 - 11:26 pm:

What are you/they feeding her? Does she have hay around the clock? Is it possible she's just not getting enough to eat and her calorie requirements have gone up (stress)?
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