Help - really dirty mare!

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Lola43

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I can't believe I'm hoping to start a discussion on this subject, but needs must!

I have had a 13hh Welsh mountain mare (she is now 18) for nearly 3 years, and ever since we have had her she has had episodes of flatulence and loose bowels - not necessarily loose stools or diahorrea, mostly just excess liquid when she poops or farts, that ends up all over her ladyparts and down her legs and tail. This I then have to wash off daily. It came and went, often for weeks at a time and there seemed to be no cause that I could identify in terms of feed/turnout etc. The only thing I thought was that it might be related to her seasons.

Anyway, over the last few months it has escalated to the point where there are virtually no 'dry' days and the washing is a full scale operation rather than a quick hose off.

She has a dust allergy that means she is fed haylage rather than hay. She gets quite fat over the summer, so has a low calorie balancer twice a day with a handful of alfa A lite and once a day she has cortaflex and winergy ventilate. In desperation I have recently tried Saracen's 'Yea-Sacc' - no improvement, and this last week I have tried charcoal - seems to have made things worse, if anything! She does seem to have lost a little weight recently, but I would expect her to do that over the winter, so that may or may not be related.

I did ask the vet about it a couple of years ago but they didn't really have any idea and their best suggestion was to feed live yoghurt, but the pony wasn't having any of it. If this continues, I will have to bring in the vet again, but before I embark upon that road, I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem and found a solution?

She's no more keen on the daily wash than I am and I cannot believe that between the front end issues and the back end issues one small pony could be so unbelievably high maintenance!
 
Agree - protexin. It is great stuff, if you call them they are really helpful. I've used the Recover Aid & the Gut Balancer before. It rebalances the bacteria in the gut, quite often tummy problems can be caused by lacking good bacteria in the hind gut which can happens from diet or viral/bacterial infection & some feeds can knock it out of kilter too. May take a week or so to see the difference, I usually see a change in 7-10days. I would also review her feeds, have a look at the Agrobs range, it is free of Alfalfa/lucerne which affected my horse, other feed companies are also starting to realise some types of lucerne can be a problem.
 
Protexin is very good indeed for this sort of thing so I would certainly give it a go.

Long term management you may need to either soak or ideally steam her hay rather than give her haylege. My ISH has a dust allergy and also gut troubles and he cannot cope with haylege so I now steam his hay and he is fine.
 
No point me saying protexin then is there Lol
I would look into coming off haylage, some of these native types don't get on with haylage, can you not soak or steam his hay, the little 11hh iv got only had what you discribed when on haylage, since hay steaming no problems. The haylage could be just to much for his system
 
Thanks for all the replies - really helpful. My protexin came in the post! I must confess I too have wondered about the haylage, however, the livery yard supplies haylage as part of the 'rent', along with straw. Because of the dust allergy I'm already having to provide my own shavings (with no rebate), so imagine it would be the same with hay. I would have no problem with feeding her steamed hay - in fact it might help with the dust allergy anyway, it's just the logistics of it mean I haven't gone down that route yet. I may have to though as it can't be comfortable for her, and it certainly isn't for me!
 
Does your mare fidget when it happens? Any discomfort?

I would be a bit concerned that she is having no dry days and she has now lost weight, I would be asking the vet to come out and look as it could be a symptom of something else.

My mare gets colitis which is access liquid in the colon that then upsets the bacterial balance and causes diahorrea, or in my mares case, painful poo's (Dancing around when pooing) or runny farts. She absolutely cannot be on hayledge for long periods of time (She gets hay and a small amount of hayledge as a treat very occasionally) and I am careful not to feed any oily feeds, garlic, molasses, anything that could set it off. The Vet told me that the only way to manage this is feed hay and control what is eaten as this was the trigger, in his experience, alot of these gut type suppliments didn't work that well for things like colitis, and I trust him, he has alot of his own horses!
 
Thanks Damnation - I haven't seen her fidgeting or looking uncomfortable at all, although there is lots of farting generally, runny and otherwise. To be honest, there are dry days here and there (maybe one or two in ten, something like that), it just feels like an endless cycle of washing! I'm keeping an eye on the weight loss - at the moment it's not a significant amount, but truthfully she needed to lose some anyway as in the summer she can apparently eat twice her own bodyweight of grass in about half an hour of turnout ......

I will look into colitis and maybe haylage is the culprit after all. After the money I've already thrown at this mare one way or another I won't notice the cost of a steamer or yet another vet visit ...... Luckily she's good at her job!!!
 
Just wanted to add - at the risk of jinxing it - that almost within 24 hours of giving her the Protexin it seems to be working. Hallelujah!!!! Thank you for that top tip!
 
French clay is very good my friends horse has ALWAYS had excess water (cow pats and water when farting) we litterally put frech clay in her watwr in her stable bought her in every night for a week to try it within 2 days she had firmed up and all excess water had gone! If your horses are in individual turnout you'd obviously be able to suplly without bringing in.
 
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