Diarhea in winter with old horse

[danda]

My horse is retired and is 24 years old, he lives outside with a good shelter in his field (he suffers from allergy to dust/pollen). Last winter was not cold but very wet here. He had diarrhea on and off for a few months, he has not had it at all in the Summer even with all the rain we had. I thought it was maybe the cold and so have bought him a new warmer rug. He is wormed regularly. He is old and has enough problems without this, the vet did not find a reason.

Any other ideas?

 

[onemoretime]

Try feeding Pink Powder by NAF with his feed, it is very good for the gut.

 

[Nari]

Maybe too much water in his diet & not enough fibre? If he has allergies does that mean you're feeding haylage or soaked hay to try & minimize dust? I wonder if steamed hay, so it doesn't take up as much water, would help.

Did the vet give you anything to control it? I know that, once infection is ruled out, codeine phosphate can help.

 

[TigerTail]

Are you feeding haylege? Most likely that if so - far too acidic for the gut of an oap. Don't bother with pink powder- its full of fillers, the bit in that which helps guts is brewers yeast which you can buy separately - or as part of a better supplement such as Pro Hoof which isn't full of rubbish to make the pot heavier and you pay more for it unlike Naf

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Are you feeding haylege? Most likely that if so - far too acidic for the gut of an oap. Don't bother with pink powder- its full of fillers, the bit in that which helps guts is brewers yeast which you can buy separately - or as part of a better supplement such as Pro Hoof which isn't full of rubbish to make the pot heavier and you pay more for it unlike Naf

This, this, this.

Haylage was my first thought and my 2nd, on reading the advice to feed PP, was 'please don't'.

 

[Tiffany]

My 17yo girl had the same problem last winter and vet said it's because her gut was working the same because she was in more. I bought a haylage balancer, even though she's on hay and it did help.

 

[Morgan123]

My old horse was the same in winter - fed pink powder, unbelievable difference!

 

[fidleyspromise]

we've got an old boy that can't chew hay and instead of spitting it out after chewing, he swallows it. He's on long stalky grass and big feeds of fast fibre, gets pony nuts, sugar beet, linseed and psyllium husk.

He was in vets last year after having several rectal prolapses and he had horrific wind and really bad diarrhoea.

The psyllium husk makes the difference to him with his diarrhoea.