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Discussion on Chronic diarrhea related to increased water intake
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New Member:
carolann
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Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 8:07 pm:
I have a 11 year old gelding who sounds just like a horse posted by a member two years ago. This gelding has chronic diarrhea with no other symptoms of illness. He looks and acts great. He has been treated for sand but that didn't completely clear it up. He is only on grass hay, is not nervous, weight is ok, and stool count came back free of parasites even though a culture was not done. What we have notice is that he drinks ALOT- twice as much as a normal horse. He does not urinate a lot but it comes out as diarrhea. When the water is managed and spread out, the stool returns to normal as does the urination. First is it safe to do this with his water- we of course watch for dehydration. Second, I read all the other informaton on Key Tucker (The poster whose horse sounds like our's)but did not see a resolution. Any advice is much appreciated. He is a wonderful horse and we are looking forward to showing him. We have only had him 4 weeks. Thanks.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 1, 2008 - 10:54 am:
Hello carol and welcome,
It is difficult to say if limiting the amount of water the horse drinks at any one time is dangerous. This will depend a lot on the conditions at the time water is withheld. You should note that diagnosing dehydration from a physical exam (skin tenting, gum dryness, capillary refill time) alone can often lead to erroneous conclusions for both normal horses and for those with mild to moderate dehydration. So the testing for whether this is safe or not should be done with the supervision of your veterinarian and best tested by sequential packed cell volumes (Pvc's) and also known as a hematocrit to check for one of the earliest signs of dehydration: hemoconcentration and a rise in PCV. Pvc's themselves can be quite variable depending on the conditions under which they are run. For more on getting consistent PCV see Diseases of Horses » Cardiovascular, Blood, and Immune System » The Diagnosis of Anemia.
As to treatment, chronic diarrhea is one of the most common complaints we see on these boards and no one treatment works for every horse. For a list of suggestions as to what to try review the diarrhea overview article associated with this discussion.
DrO
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