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  Discussion on Chronic Diarrhea in 8yr old mare?
Author Message
Member:
Winger

Posted on Saturday, Sep 30, 2006 - 4:13 pm:

I have an 8 year old quarter horse.her weight is good.Health is good.all vet care up too date always..She has chronic diarrhea it will be loose to cow patty to water all in the same day..we have tried different things...beet pulp for digestion,probiotics ration plus,pasture thinking she needs fresh flora in her belly..the diarrhea comes and goes...I thought it was from her heat cycles but it stays around for a long time...I wormed her with Ivermectin on my vet advice he came to see her 2 days later and she was perfect he couldn't see any problems...then he left and a couple of weeks we have the water diarrhea again..she only eats Timathy hay..she has been given different hays and it doesn't make much differece...any ideas..I will do a stool sample with my vets advice..but I'm really baffled..
Member:
Kthorse

Posted on Saturday, Sep 30, 2006 - 5:35 pm:

Hi Tamara,
I am not saying to do this as you will get better advise from more knowledgeable people and Dr O, But I just wanted to share about my friends old horse who had water stools for over a year. A new vet said to give the beet pulp without molasses added and a few cups of oats. I thought to myself no way will this work but low and behold his manure became normal. Don't ask me how or why because this did not make sense to me.
Katrina
Member:
Winger

Posted on Saturday, Sep 30, 2006 - 7:50 pm:

Thank-you..I am going to try the beet pulp again too see if it helps.. I'm afraid of the oats because my mare reared on me when I gave her sweet feed before, and not very much just a treat..My old mare has I digestion problem and we resolved it with soaked hay cubes.I think the beet pulp would be better for this mare though. I know plain oats don't have the sugar in it but I have been warned not to give her any oats, she doesn't get enough exercise to burn it off.
Member:
Karent

Posted on Saturday, Sep 30, 2006 - 8:47 pm:

Hi,

I had a mare with the same problem, chronic diarrhea off and on from the time she was 6 months old until she was 2. My Vet put her on Metronidazole and also had me give her 2 cups of psyllium twice a day, for 7 days.

Of course, all horses are different, and the causes for diarrhea are different, but this regimine really worked for my horse. She hasn't had a day of diarrhea since and that was 3 years ago.
Member:
Frances

Posted on Sunday, Oct 1, 2006 - 5:45 am:

I wonder if DrO would think Platinum Performance's Biosponge a useful treatment here?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Oct 1, 2006 - 9:48 am:

Diagnostic methods, likely rule outs, and most of the above treatments and are discussed in the article associated with this forum. Biosponge is a often discussed treatment that can be checked using the discussion's search engine.
DrO
Member:
Winger

Posted on Sunday, Oct 1, 2006 - 11:29 am:

Thanks for sharing you ideas much appreciated..It is a very frustrating problem...
Member:
Stevens

Posted on Sunday, Oct 1, 2006 - 8:44 pm:

I had an aged quarter horse gelding that had horrific diarrhea for a couple of years. I'm talking wash his tail and rear end each and every day. One day someone noticed him standing and "eating" his salt block for 5-10 minutes, then going and drinking water for a long period of time.

Out went the salt block and I stated feeding him hay pellets in addition to his senior feed and oat hay. It cleared him up in less than a month and he never had a recurrence for the remainder of his life.

Good luck,
Chris
Member:
Winger

Posted on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 - 12:25 pm:

I wanted to give an update on my mare...She has been on 1/2 alfalfa cubes and 1/2 beet pulp for about 7 days now...I'm giving the hay cubes because she is a fussy eater and doesn't really like beet pulp...I do find the cubes are very digestible for them though...I am giving her 2.5lbs in the morning and 2.5lbs at night and so far her diarrhea is gone..no more dirty bums...Yippee!!!!!!!
Member:
Frances

Posted on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 - 1:48 pm:

That's great - fingers crossed!
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