help/advice for mare with chronic diarrhoea

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charlie93

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my daughter's 4 yr old coloured mare has had chronic diarrhoea since we bought her last year. the previous owners must have had her on some kind of medication as she was ok until we got her home and she hasn't been right since. she is ok on grass but on hay is terrible. rich haylage seems to be ok for her even though we have been told this should make her worse. we have spent a fortune on different remedies. bio-pro, bran, pink powder, benecol yoghurts!!, vitality health plus, changing and cutting out hard feed,experimenting with different types of hay, etc. physically she seems fine - no other signs of distress or ill health. the vet gave her codeine phosphate tablets which slow her gut down to aid digestion but says she cannot be on these long term. does anyone have any suggestions? we are considering feeding her silage, this may be the last resort and are thinking of cutting our losses and selling or giving her away even. we don't think we'll get much for her as although she is a brilliant horse, she is better off on grass all year round, which is impossible in our neck of the woods, and no one would want to buy a horse with such problems. we would tell anyone interested her problems as we wouldn't want her to go to anyone unable to cope - unlike her last owners who didn't seem to care a young girl was going to be her owner. if anyone has experience of this kind of problem please help. thanks
 
If haylage is ok for her keep her on it. Have her teeth been checked? Maybe she is having trouble chewing and digesting the hay? My 30 year old has the same problem when he is given hay, but is fine on everything else, and can only assume he can't chew his hay so well anymore.
 
Hi and welcome...
Sorry your having problems with your coloured mare, tbh ive just read the above and it could have been written about my coloured mare 4yrs ago!! We had the exact problem! My vets did every test she had days in the vets but all the results came back fine, we tried everything! it felt like she was on a different supplement every week!! tbh none did the trick though, so we just turned her out 24/7 and it did settle down, now she has normal poo most of the time and we can now pinpoint when the grass changes as so does her poo! The only thing i have found that does help is Global herbs called Clear Out its Psyllium and this ive found really helps. I know it can seem frustrating but it does get better trust me!! I know what its like to be washing a white tail and back legs everyday. Keep ya chin up, any futher info just get in touch.
 
I have the same problem with an elderly mare. I feed grass nuts, soaked. She is fine on them. She can't eat hay haylage any kind of feed in fact.

Unfortunately she has a laminitis at the moment and is on soaked hay as grass nuts too rich in her present state, so back on the codeine.

She has cushings so everything is a bit of a balancing act.

I have in the past tried all sorts of things to help her scouring to no avail.
 
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