Hind gut acidosis - no loose poo?

[mega spoilt ponies]

A musing if you will......

Are loose droppings always present with Hind Gut acidosis/ hind gut problems?

Long story short, I have been treating my horse (unsuccessfully!) for grade 4 glandular gastric ulcers for a few months now (Gastrogard/ranitidine/sucralfate/antibiotics/ KER Rite Trac etc etc!).

I keep coming across information on hind gut problems and how they often go with gastric issues etc and wondering whether my horses predominant problem could be in that area and it is 'spilling over' into the stomach so to speak (his pyloris is very swollen, not splash ulcers).

However, all of the information that I come across tells me that horses with hind gut issues have loose droppings. My horse have never had anything other than a perfectly formed dropping.

Would this be enough to rule it out do you think? anybody know any horses with hind gut problems that have had normal poop??

Thanks muchly

 

[Laroxes]

My horse was diagnosed with hind gut acidosis as his symptoms were not tracking up, limited movement around the sacro iliac area and starting to lose performance jumping - knocking down poles where he used to jump clear.

He also wasn't on a high sugar / starch / hard feed diet, 99.9% fibre. After many vets not being able to find out what was wrong Donna Blinman tested him straight away and is on a long treatment programme, 6 months so far but is looking like a new horse so completely worth it.

 

[twohorsewonder]

My horse was diagnosed with hind gut acidosis as his symptoms were not tracking up, limited movement around the sacro iliac area and starting to lose performance jumping - knocking down poles where he used to jump clear.

He also wasn't on a high sugar / starch / hard feed diet, 99.9% fibre. After many vets not being able to find out what was wrong Donna Blinman tested him straight away and is on a long treatment programme, 6 months so far but is looking like a new horse so completely worth it.

Sounds great. What was the treatment regime? What changes did you make?

Thanks

 

[mega spoilt ponies]

Did your horse have normal droppings/good doer?

 

[Laroxes]

Yep very good doer and no loose poo.

Treatment is long, complicated and expensive I'm afraid. Nothing you can buy off the shelf and it was specific to my horse. He had tests to see what exactly was going on in there and what he had too much of and was lacking, then Donna created a specific protocol for him.

My advice is to contact a very good vet and not waste money on standard supplements which may not fix the problem.

 

[Laroxes]

Sorry should have said that I changed his diet to low sugar and starch as possible, purified his drinking water and in light work until his hind gut was less inflamed.

 

[ecrozier]

I also spent a lot of time and money treating stomach ulcers with limited success, within a week of starting on Equishure for hind gut acidosis he was much improved and is now vastly better after 6 weeks on equishure and I also have him on Succeed and aloe vera now. He's very nearly back to normal behaviour and the good bits of ridden work are better than ever before as his right hind limb/straightness issue has disappeared.
He never had loose droppings and is a very good doer, however his stable is now cleaner, and he's drinking much less water. He was also never fed anything 'high risk', except speedibeet in various forms but thats a whole other thread! My next port of call was Donna Blinman but fingers crossed we seem to be moving the right way without her help.
However - did you say you've used Rite trac? As that contains equishure, so if that had no effect...probably no point trying that. Has he been on omeprazole all that time? Does he scope clear?

 

[Laroxes]

I think the only problem with things like Succeed are they are great for diagnosis purposes and ARE very effective, but they kind of 'mask' the problem / ease the symptoms rather than resolving the true route of the problem.

Although his treatment was expensive it's investigating the problem and eliminating it, rather than just easing the symptoms. After he's finished his protocal in July time he won't need to take anything expensive at all, just a maintenance dose which will cost approx £20 per month for the rest of his life, which is a bargain compared to the cost of Succeed!

 

[ecrozier]

I agree to an extent Laroxes.... But succeed works out at around £50 a month so a lot better than repeated courses of gastroguard, and for me to see Donna was going to be £1000+ and my insurance has run out!
Plus, thanks to very careful diarised management of him, I'm fairly confident I know what is his trigger and I am pretty sure we can come off the succeed long term.
That said.... In the OP's case I would definitely get a referral if at all possible! As have heard such good things from a number of people with persistent/tricky gastric issues.

 

[Silverfire]

Your vet can do a Succeed fecal test to see if your horse has a hind gut problem, its not just to test for ulcers. If the test comes back positive Albumin then horse definitely has some sort of hind gut issue.
My five year old mare has a problem in her hind gut and she does not/has never had loose or runny poo.

 

[Ali27]

My mare tested positive for stomach and hind gut issues using succeed test and she never had loose or runny poo. She is good doer too. She has now tested negative in the succeed test after 90 days on their digestive supplement and she is a much happier pony.

 

[Fransurrey]

Another with a good doer that does pellets. Definitely not loose. Hers was a result of ad lib grazing in the winter. She really cannot tolerate much grass at all!

 

[mega spoilt ponies]

Great thanks guys. Half of me was saying it myst be that and the other half saying its not possible as he is well covered with normal droppings. Now i know its possible!
Interestingly of all of the drugs and supplements we have trued it was the ker rite trac supplement that has made the difference (and that treats hind gut too)

 

[ecrozier]

That last bit re rite trac making biggest difference definitely suggests there is likely to be a hind gut issue! Good luck