Feacal water- a whole new level

[Fransurrey]

Another thing to try is bentonite clay (montmorillonite). It's actually an ingredient in many gut binders and has been shown to help IBS diarrhoea in humans. Dosage ranges from 1 to 2 tsp in wet feed. You'll see bumpf about it absorbing excess water, but it also binds toxins (including mycotoxins).

 

[clairebearfur1]

This is a nightmare!
Pony who has always been a sufferer is currently so so bad, the worst he’s ever been.
I know it’s because he is getting too much hay.
Due to the fact he is just impossible at the moment to contain and I’m unable to stock fence the only field with a safe amount of grass alone (farm is flat out and VERY stressy atm) he is relegated to my turnout pen and therefore only hay.

It’s actually permanently dripping and leaving puddles on the concrete
I’m washing him daily and sloshing the yard off. His bed is gross. This is soul destroying!

Anyone tried Gut binder?

We had to try a few different types of hay, the stalky hay is what made my horse worse and new cuts of hay didnt help. We use hay a year old its like timothy hay.

 

[Dam1]

Poor you - can fully sympathise here it's a nightmare and a worry.
My big mare has had this for most of the summer. I've tried everything. Even the gut sponge stopped working in the end. Also had her scoped but nothing as far as we could see. She's in at night even in the summer. I've had a bit of a breakthrough and it completely clears up if I use half hay instead of all haylage ??? This is prob not much help to you as I see you already only feed hay. You can get very soft low sugar haylage - I'll try and find a link - might that be worth a try or soaking the hay?
I did find that putting large dollops of vaseline after you've cleaned off all the green helped and stopped it going sore and scabby. Also plaiting her tail into one large plait and tying it up (like they do for hunting) helped.
Mine of course is grey but had to wash her tail most days or it would go crusty hence trying to get it away from her bottom. Expect you already do all this but every little helps lol
Hope you find a answer. Have you tried Trinity Consultants ?
x

 

[Grassy]

I got some codeine tablets from the vet, works a treat as it slows the gut down

 

[tda]

I've actually never tried haylage either. He's so hard to manage weight wise I've always been worried to do so, Same with the bucket of hay replacer type feeds. He just balloons instantly.
He has really good teeth (I sometimes half wish he didn't to help loose some fat!)

I would definitely try some haylage, just one bag.. is it silvermoor brand that do a short cut one, or a Timothy grass low sugar

 

[Dam1]

It's Burleybale pasture haylage.x

 

[Tiddlypom]

I’ve checked the Feedmark blurb re feeding rates for their psyllium husks. They seem to have renamed it as Sand-Free since I last bought it, but it’s the same product.

It is a 150 ml scoop, but the dose is 1 scoop a day for a pony under 400g, not the 2 scoops per day that I need to give for my horses.

 

[Dave's Mam]

With psyllium it's trying to get it into them before it turns into jelly, as the texture is often a hard NO. There are pelleted varieties that are easier to disguise & don't go to jelly until after they're chewed.

 

[Goldenstar]

Yes I have used gut binder .
I used it on Hero it did make a difference .

 

[Hallo2012]

No I haven’t. Thanks!

peptac liquid is basically the same and cheaper to try just FYI

 

[sport horse]

In desperation,after having tried all the above I gave the horse some Nupafeed BSC Gastro, which contains Sea Buckthorn, that I had bought for anther horse. The faecal water syndrome stopped after a couple of weeks. I then tried her on the straight Sea Buckthorn as it is slightly cheaper but the water syndrome returned. Now back on BSC Gastro and all fine again.

I am NOT connected in any way at all with Nupafeed other than a happy customer.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Yet another tail and back end hose off followed by a bit of hand grazing…

 

[Britestar]

I know you say it is the hay, but prascend did this to my horse.

I was despairing of him and how it was affecting him. He was even colicking because of it, couldn't keep weight on him.

Stopped the prascend after a bout of colic and it transformed him. He never had a tablet again until he was pts last month. He had solid droppings from that point until the end.

I did give him agnus cactus instead.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I know you say it is the hay, but prascend did this to my horse.

I was despairing of him and how it was affecting him. He was even colicking because of it, couldn't keep weight on him.

Stopped the prascend after a bout of colic and it transformed him. He never had a tablet again until he was pts last month. He had solid droppings from that point until the end.

I did give him agnus cactus instead.

I have heard that from several people actually. In this case it is definitely hay related.
I can feed different hays and make in instant impact. I can stop hay completely and he dries up completely.
I just struggle to source hay that’s fine enough to keep him clean.,

 

[poiuytrewq]

I will go see what haylage I can find this weekend.

The psyllium should apparently come today and I will also look into and track down some of the other great suggestions that I’ve not tried yet.

 

[Jambarissa]

I know this is just speculation but what do you think the actual problem is?

I think you said his teeth are ok so it's not grinding. Do you think there's enough saliva there? Does he chew properly or just ram it down? I've started mixing straw into my hay and am seeing a lot more saliva produced, which should increase digestion.

Does he drink more/less depending on the courseness hay he's given?

My vets best guess with mine was that they weren't getting enough fibre (daytime grazing plus nearly 1.5% body weight in hay). I did up it and the FW did stop but a fair while later. And they came out of winter too well covered so I can't do that again .

I do hope you find the one thing that fixes it then at least you'll know what to do in the future. I'm dreading going through all that again.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I know this is just speculation but what do you think the actual problem is?

I think you said his teeth are ok so it's not grinding. Do you think there's enough saliva there? Does he chew properly or just ram it down? I've started mixing straw into my hay and am seeing a lot more saliva produced, which should increase digestion.

Does he drink more/less depending on the courseness hay he's given?

My vets best guess with mine was that they weren't getting enough fibre (daytime grazing plus nearly 1.5% body weight in hay). I did up it and the FW did stop but a fair while later. And they came out of winter too well covered so I can't do that again .

I do hope you find the one thing that fixes it then at least you'll know what to do in the future. I'm dreading going through all that again.

I don't fully know I guess. I think coarser hay just takes more digesting than soft fine hay or grass.

The old pony I look after has terrible teeth and on my old hay which was coarser than i have now she would get a but manky behind but i could see bits of hay which were too big in her poo, so it was very obvious with her that the chewing was the problem, this one has nothing like that. He has a regular dental but its never more than a quite routine tidy up.

No I don't notice him drinking any more or less. I'd say he chews properly. Even though he's a small fat pony he's not a pig. he's not one to clear all the scraps up and would be horrified at being given left overs! so he's not one to just guts as much into him as possible.
They all have ad lib hay and that's easy to do with him, I've never weighed what he gets so am not sure if he eats the correct amount or not, I'd assume on the lower side but he's never alone so hard to be sure.

 

[Beausmate]

I tried various gut binders, and different types of haylage (some better than others) to sort our old mare, but things either only showed mild improvement or nothing at all. She started getting messy on grass in the summer, which she hadn't done before. Absolute nightmare, as we don't have running water at the yard. I saw this mentioned in another thread on here https://trinity-consultants.com/shop/digestive-health/fw1661/ Total game changer! She is completely dry, even on haylage, and she's getting maybe half the recommended dose.

She is a fussy old horse, so I mix it in with some unmollassed sugar beet and she's happy with that.

It's only now she's sorted that I can see just how much it was bringing her down.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I tried various gut binders, and different types of haylage (some better than others) to sort our old mare, but things either only showed mild improvement or nothing at all. She started getting messy on grass in the summer, which she hadn't done before. Absolute nightmare, as we don't have running water at the yard. I saw this mentioned in another thread on here https://trinity-consultants.com/shop/digestive-health/fw1661/ Total game changer! She is completely dry, even on haylage, and she's getting maybe half the recommended dose.

She is a fussy old horse, so I mix it in with some unmollassed sugar beet and she's happy with that.

It's only now she's sorted that I can see just how much it was bringing her down.

That's interesting. I like Trinity Consultants but its one of those that i kind of forget about!
I've used some of their products with really good results in the past. Thanks

 

[meleeka]

I tried various gut binders, and different types of haylage (some better than others) to sort our old mare, but things either only showed mild improvement or nothing at all. She started getting messy on grass in the summer, which she hadn't done before. Absolute nightmare, as we don't have running water at the yard. I saw this mentioned in another thread on here https://trinity-consultants.com/shop/digestive-health/fw1661/ Total game changer! She is completely dry, even on haylage, and she's getting maybe half the recommended dose.

She is a fussy old horse, so I mix it in with some unmollassed sugar beet and she's happy with that.

It's only now she's sorted that I can see just how much it was bringing her down.

I didn't know about this. Mine is currently ok, but I'm tempted to try it.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I didn't know about this. Mine is currently ok, but I'm tempted to try it.

I don't know if you have ever had anything to do with TC but the guy who runs the place is so lovely and happy to chat on the phone about individual horses. I really like that about a company.

 

[GypsGal1718]

My neighbour used to give gut balancer and gut sponge at the same time to her fwc boy! Best of luck!

 

[Highmileagecob]

I have noticed that since we started talking about faecal water on this forum, there are now adverts popping up for FW related 'cures.'
Suggestion from forum members for causes range from poor dentition, not chewing properly, stuffing food down too quickly, feeding hay, feeding haylage, soaking, not soaking, to worm damage to the gut, damage to the gut by worm preparations, leaky gut, pain, stress.... I have also wondered whether the spraying of fields used for hay and haylage contributes. Hopefully, someone will think it worthy of some research and we may get some idea of what goes on.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Bubbles hates everyone who suggested psyllium husk… now he can’t even eat his meagre bucket feed
He stands looking longingly at it and wondering what his life has become.

I’ll mess around with feed and see if we can reach some kind of compromise!

 

[poiuytrewq]

I have noticed that since we started talking about faecal water on this forum, there are now adverts popping up for FW related 'cures.'
Suggestion from forum members for causes range from poor dentition, not chewing properly, stuffing food down too quickly, feeding hay, feeding haylage, soaking, not soaking, to worm damage to the gut, damage to the gut by worm preparations, leaky gut, pain, stress.... I have also wondered whether the spraying of fields used for hay and haylage contributes. Hopefully, someone will think it worthy of some research and we may get some idea of what goes on.

Your right. There seems to be very little actually known.
There is no where to find proper advice and it’s very much a case of what works for one won’t work for another.
I’m not sure if my hay was sprayed this year or last. I’ll find out about that.

 

[MissTyc]

All of the above + a green banana per day !

 

[meleeka]

Bubbles hates everyone who suggested psyllium husk… now he can’t even eat his meagre bucket feed
He stands looking longingly at it and wondering what his life has become.

I’ll mess around with feed and see if we can reach some kind of compromise!

Mine is like this too, with everything. What generally works is starting with a few grains and increasing gradually each feed time until it's up to the full amount. She'll leave the whole feed if she finds a bit not mixed in enough too, so I have to be thorough.

 

[anguscat]

My horse has this. I had a rectal biopsy done. Showed inflammation. My horse was treated with steroids. Very very gradual tapering down of the dose. Took a very long time to get on top of. Every time started again, increased the steroid dose to quell then return to gradually reducing them. Horse pretty much been ok for 2-3 years now. Occasional minor episodes get very quickly treated then the dose reduced.

 

[Equi]

I know a pony with this and the only thing that stops it for a while is a course of antibiotics. It clears up within a day or two and stays gone for a few weeks.

 

[Highmileagecob]

I have removed the short chopped ryegrass haylage completely, and sourced a soft, bagged, meadow grass haylage, which the old boy is eating just fine. Faecal water has stopped like turning off a tap.