Chappie
Well-Known Member
Hi, I was wondering if anyone else has experience of this? (as in the title) Especially thinking in terms of rugging this winter, and anything else I can do to improve the situation.
I have a cob on loan, aged about 17, who has had a gut condition for a few years, and am trying to manage his condition the best I can.
A couple of years after his owners (who are not very involved or knowledgeable) bought him for their child (now outgrown), he developed diarrhea, really quite a bad case of it. Often his back end, legs and tail are badly stained with loose 'cow-pat' poo, and when he passes gas, liquid comes out.
What I was told is this; the upshot of investigation from the vet team was that they could not find the reason, and they could only suggest taking him to a teaching hospital to undergo extensive tests, but they advised that there was a good chance they would still not be able to find out what the problem was, so the owners decided to leave it, and manage the condition with the advice of the vets.
When I first took him on he was not in good body condition, was a mess at the back end, likely in pain as difficult to handle, didn't like being brushed or touched on sides and was sluggish and slow to ride (no wonder!).
His management is as follows (I don't have say in changing this; he's been kept this way for 7 years):
Fully stabled apart from two days a week he has turnout in a large grass field from about 8-2. It looks like there's a lot of grass, but there is a lot of clover in it.
There is a small field I can use for about an hour on the other days, it's really just for a leg stretch roll and nibble, it's pretty bare, but it's certainly better than nothing, it's a very valuable asset to the yard.
Exercised min 1.5hrs & max 3hrs hacking per day at weekends, mostly walk and trot and short canters; minimal/occasional light work during the week eg in-hand, lunge, short hack if I can get back from work in time (roadwork involved; weather dependent; nobody to ride with; not great hacking alone but better on weekends - we have a routine and he prefers mornings; hates school; tried poles/obstacles/small jumps etc - he says "no!")
Feeding: Owners provide feed they were recommended by vets: Alfa-A oil, a cool mix, bran, Dengie Healthy Tummy fibre feed and Mollichaf Donkey (they were recommended that by a feed store as it has camomille and other herbs in it and it seemed to help a lot). He also has Nettex gut balancer. I give him a carrot as well. I only feed half a bag a day as they are quite large feeds and he's in very light work. He gets a ration of hay at breakfast, and larger ration at 1pm. Sometimes they get haylage, it's a big yard and this is provided from a local farm (I don't know why, it sometimes changes). Just now the hay is new and green and this has upset his gut, after being dry all summer is it's back to liquid poo running down his legs.
He's on shavings, partly as he ate straw and I was told he got mild colic with that, also he's very dirty, obviously, so the shavings were advised by vets for that reason also. He can potentially finish his lunchtime hay by 4pm and breakfast is 730am so after a year or so of taking him on, I started to buy my own hay and give him a 6-8kg net in evenings and that has made a large difference, he's a lot drier, cleaner, and happier pony. Poos are a lot more like normal. He's more rounded - I'd say 3 - 3.5 on the weight scale, I wouldn't say as much as 4 but I wouldn't want him to be any more, but YO says he looks good, owners are happy and he looks more like a cob now.
Keeping clean: He has a dangerous fear of being bathed which I have managed to work on and as long as he is thoroughly occupied with a big bucket of Readi-grass and plain chaff he will not really notice what I am doing, so can wash up to above hocks with large sponge and warm water & shampoo. I made a bit of progress with a hose, can just about spray his front with it, but he is potentially panic-dangerous so I have to be very careful not to push it too far. But no way can I wipe his backside, he swings, barges and kicks out very violently. I have never been able to get anyone to help me with any of this so only by gaining the horse's trust (and the help of copious Readi-grass) has any progress occurred. I cut the hind feathers right back with scissors after trying to persuade owners for a long time to let me. Has minimal feather anyway. I suspect he would react violently to clippers and owners will not agree to having him sedated. I found spraying 7-Day-Mud-Away on his back end and underside of tail (while he's eating!) has helped a bit. Got white legs, pink skin and prone to dermatitis. Also considering trying to wipe some Vaseline quickly over under his tail region, before it gets too dirty when it gets colder.
Rugging: Last winter was quite harsh so he was in a mediumweight combo most of the time. He seems to get worse when cold - when the weather does 'downwards transitions'! Ideally, being a cob, in light work, with the amount of feed & hay he's getting, I would minimally rug. However he's stood still in the stable unable to move around to keep warm, the stable has no top door, fairly sheltered by other buildings but gets rain in the front if windy. I certainly noticed after the rather harsh couple of days we've just had here, heavy rain, windy and sudden drop in temperature, that he's definately got worse. I would prefer to use a standard neck mediumweight (unfortunately it got trashed in the field last year and needs repaired) as the combos rub out his mane, but I think he needs a neck on in the worst weather though, even when in the stable - I did notice a difference in winter when I put the combo neck up, he seemed drier at the back end, but I would not have put that on him the past couple of days.
If you got to the end of reading my lengthy details above, would you advise to be rugging at times like this (weather getting cold/wet/windy), and what kind of rug to use? Or try and 'aclimatise' for a bit, till autumn at least? I have pretty much every kind of rug up to mediumweight for this fellow, plus stable rugs - don't want to over do things though, either. Scared of him getting overweight and adding to his problems but want to keep a decent amount of forage moving though. Should I be soaking the evening hay, maybe? I don't think he'll like it as much but I think he would still eat it.
In the future things are set to change at some point as his owners are looking to find a property with small acreage to move him and their other pony to, where they would being living out (I hope with a shelter/stables, they will need it, and not let loose on lush grass). I will be lost without him but if it will be better for his health and happiness then that would be a good thing. Maybe more grass would help as it's a more natural way of life. I'll be giving the rugs I've bought him away with him, certainly the most useful ones anyway.
Thank you for reading if you got this far - I'd welcome hearing any advice or tips or your own experiences of this type of condition.
I have a cob on loan, aged about 17, who has had a gut condition for a few years, and am trying to manage his condition the best I can.
A couple of years after his owners (who are not very involved or knowledgeable) bought him for their child (now outgrown), he developed diarrhea, really quite a bad case of it. Often his back end, legs and tail are badly stained with loose 'cow-pat' poo, and when he passes gas, liquid comes out.
What I was told is this; the upshot of investigation from the vet team was that they could not find the reason, and they could only suggest taking him to a teaching hospital to undergo extensive tests, but they advised that there was a good chance they would still not be able to find out what the problem was, so the owners decided to leave it, and manage the condition with the advice of the vets.
When I first took him on he was not in good body condition, was a mess at the back end, likely in pain as difficult to handle, didn't like being brushed or touched on sides and was sluggish and slow to ride (no wonder!).
His management is as follows (I don't have say in changing this; he's been kept this way for 7 years):
Fully stabled apart from two days a week he has turnout in a large grass field from about 8-2. It looks like there's a lot of grass, but there is a lot of clover in it.
There is a small field I can use for about an hour on the other days, it's really just for a leg stretch roll and nibble, it's pretty bare, but it's certainly better than nothing, it's a very valuable asset to the yard.
Exercised min 1.5hrs & max 3hrs hacking per day at weekends, mostly walk and trot and short canters; minimal/occasional light work during the week eg in-hand, lunge, short hack if I can get back from work in time (roadwork involved; weather dependent; nobody to ride with; not great hacking alone but better on weekends - we have a routine and he prefers mornings; hates school; tried poles/obstacles/small jumps etc - he says "no!")
Feeding: Owners provide feed they were recommended by vets: Alfa-A oil, a cool mix, bran, Dengie Healthy Tummy fibre feed and Mollichaf Donkey (they were recommended that by a feed store as it has camomille and other herbs in it and it seemed to help a lot). He also has Nettex gut balancer. I give him a carrot as well. I only feed half a bag a day as they are quite large feeds and he's in very light work. He gets a ration of hay at breakfast, and larger ration at 1pm. Sometimes they get haylage, it's a big yard and this is provided from a local farm (I don't know why, it sometimes changes). Just now the hay is new and green and this has upset his gut, after being dry all summer is it's back to liquid poo running down his legs.
He's on shavings, partly as he ate straw and I was told he got mild colic with that, also he's very dirty, obviously, so the shavings were advised by vets for that reason also. He can potentially finish his lunchtime hay by 4pm and breakfast is 730am so after a year or so of taking him on, I started to buy my own hay and give him a 6-8kg net in evenings and that has made a large difference, he's a lot drier, cleaner, and happier pony. Poos are a lot more like normal. He's more rounded - I'd say 3 - 3.5 on the weight scale, I wouldn't say as much as 4 but I wouldn't want him to be any more, but YO says he looks good, owners are happy and he looks more like a cob now.
Keeping clean: He has a dangerous fear of being bathed which I have managed to work on and as long as he is thoroughly occupied with a big bucket of Readi-grass and plain chaff he will not really notice what I am doing, so can wash up to above hocks with large sponge and warm water & shampoo. I made a bit of progress with a hose, can just about spray his front with it, but he is potentially panic-dangerous so I have to be very careful not to push it too far. But no way can I wipe his backside, he swings, barges and kicks out very violently. I have never been able to get anyone to help me with any of this so only by gaining the horse's trust (and the help of copious Readi-grass) has any progress occurred. I cut the hind feathers right back with scissors after trying to persuade owners for a long time to let me. Has minimal feather anyway. I suspect he would react violently to clippers and owners will not agree to having him sedated. I found spraying 7-Day-Mud-Away on his back end and underside of tail (while he's eating!) has helped a bit. Got white legs, pink skin and prone to dermatitis. Also considering trying to wipe some Vaseline quickly over under his tail region, before it gets too dirty when it gets colder.
Rugging: Last winter was quite harsh so he was in a mediumweight combo most of the time. He seems to get worse when cold - when the weather does 'downwards transitions'! Ideally, being a cob, in light work, with the amount of feed & hay he's getting, I would minimally rug. However he's stood still in the stable unable to move around to keep warm, the stable has no top door, fairly sheltered by other buildings but gets rain in the front if windy. I certainly noticed after the rather harsh couple of days we've just had here, heavy rain, windy and sudden drop in temperature, that he's definately got worse. I would prefer to use a standard neck mediumweight (unfortunately it got trashed in the field last year and needs repaired) as the combos rub out his mane, but I think he needs a neck on in the worst weather though, even when in the stable - I did notice a difference in winter when I put the combo neck up, he seemed drier at the back end, but I would not have put that on him the past couple of days.
If you got to the end of reading my lengthy details above, would you advise to be rugging at times like this (weather getting cold/wet/windy), and what kind of rug to use? Or try and 'aclimatise' for a bit, till autumn at least? I have pretty much every kind of rug up to mediumweight for this fellow, plus stable rugs - don't want to over do things though, either. Scared of him getting overweight and adding to his problems but want to keep a decent amount of forage moving though. Should I be soaking the evening hay, maybe? I don't think he'll like it as much but I think he would still eat it.
In the future things are set to change at some point as his owners are looking to find a property with small acreage to move him and their other pony to, where they would being living out (I hope with a shelter/stables, they will need it, and not let loose on lush grass). I will be lost without him but if it will be better for his health and happiness then that would be a good thing. Maybe more grass would help as it's a more natural way of life. I'll be giving the rugs I've bought him away with him, certainly the most useful ones anyway.
Thank you for reading if you got this far - I'd welcome hearing any advice or tips or your own experiences of this type of condition.