Mucky Bum (or Equine Free Faecal Fluid Syndrome!)

C

Calvados

Member
Joined
22 June 2018
Messages
17
Visit site
My 8yo 17.1 Belgian warm blood passes green fluid when he passes droppings, sometimes without passing any droppings at all. This leads to terrible staining to his quarters and down his hocks. It’s worst in the winter when he’s in at night on hay and a very small amount of feed.

He’s been worked regularly so I don’t think it’s that. He appears to be very well in himself, eating and drinking normally and always finishes his hay at night.His droppings are perfectly normal apart from the fluid.

I think it could be either hind gut acidosis, hind gut ulcers or an excess of simple sugars entering the hind gut.

Anybody have any thoughts or advice?
 
Last edited:
Been battling this with my gelding for the past year or more. Tried most supplements and even Holland & Barrett Acidophilus Capsules which contain billions of good bacteria. Nothing worked. He is okay at the moment because the grass has stopped growing. He reacts badly to spring grass and wet lush grass - sometimes pepper spraying the walls of his stable, muck running down his legs and onto his fetlocks. I order hay from my supplier which is not so rich (good quality though) and feed it dry. I have talked to vets who recommend Protexin but this doesn't work either. I feel sorry for our farrier when he has to shoe him with horrible wet legs! Sorry I haven't got an answer for you but would put the flags out if someone came up with the solution!
 
My young cob had a similar problem but not as extreme as your lad. Have you tried feeding some bran every day? This was recommended by our vet and worked well - add some limestone too to balance calcium. It was a cheap and cheerful solution.
He did improve significantly when we moved yards and is now on chalk downland rather than old cattle pasture, living out 24/7. He is ok on hay or haylage as long as kept on fairly short rations (he would really like to be a very fat little cob)!
 
I’ve been doing a lot more research. The two major points are that it is a “poorly understood condition” and does not seem to adversely affect the horse, apart, of course, from any problems that may arise from permanently “mucky” legs!
 
One of mine goes a bit like this at times his been fine all summer and it started about 6 weeks ago, some days are better than others I really think it's the grass if he has a night in his much better the next day his on protexin and fennel seeds at the moment, vet said try protexin and worm him which I did and it's made a slight difference I think, so I will be interested to see if anyone else has any ideas.
 
H suffers from this although it sounds less severe he was terrible as a young horse and I tried all sorts protexin charcoal various supplements bran helped as did the supplement Eugsin .
But this year we have him sussed he’s fed a mixture of rye haylege Timothy haylege and hay in separate nets so he chooses what to eat.
Now the only time it’s bad is before hunting .
However every year he’s slowly improved
He was what I would call rough Irish raised . he’s a. RID and sadly grey the mess was nasty , I don’t think the worming regime would have been brilliant when young .
 
After hours of reading and research I’ve finally reached a conclusion - as far as my horse is concerned. I’m pretty convinced that he is unable to deal with the level of fructans in his hay.

So :-

I need to find a hay low in fructans

I need to raise the pH in his hindgut - probably with Equisure, which is basically sodium bicarbonate in a form which will reach the hind gut without being degraded. It’s quite expensive so I may have to go onto something like Egusin as maintenance. (Thanks Goldenstar - my horse is a grey too, not good if you’re going to be in company).

Because the bacteria in his hind gut have probably been hammered by the excessive acid I’ll need to try to repopulate his gut by transfaunation, (thanks druid, didn’t know IEC made such things. Probably simpler and cleaner than trying to make up my own).

Anyway that’s my hypothesis for helping my horse - just need to test it.

Thank you all for your interest and help.
 
I've seen good results with the probiotic/refaunation solution - they do require a sample from your own horse because they reculture the animal's own good fauna to repopulate. It's about €120 but worth every penny if it's effective!
 
Celtic Fringe said:
My young cob had a similar problem but not as extreme as your lad. Have you tried feeding some bran every day? This was recommended by our vet and worked well - add some limestone too to balance calcium. It was a cheap and cheerful solution.
He did improve significantly when we moved yards and is now on chalk downland rather than old cattle pasture, living out 24/7. He is ok on hay or haylage as long as kept on fairly short rations (he would really like to be a very fat little cob)!
Click to expand...

Just a quick question .. did you feed the Bran dry or soaked ? When we fed Bran in the olden days am sure that wet Bran was considered to have a laxative effect and dry was the opposite?
 
Dry! Soaked bran is laxative.

We had this with our cob for some years and fed bran with limestone flour. Cheap and simple. After a few years it just resolved itself. I was told that the hind gut heals and repopulates over time.
 
Celtic Fringe said:
My young cob had a similar problem but not as extreme as your lad. Have you tried feeding some bran every day? This was recommended by our vet and worked well - add some limestone too to balance calcium. It was a cheap and cheerful solution.
He did improve significantly when we moved yards and is now on chalk downland rather than old cattle pasture, living out 24/7. He is ok on hay or haylage as long as kept on fairly short rations (he would really like to be a very fat little cob)!
Click to expand...

Thankyou. I got some bran after reading this thread and it seems to have done the job so far. What a relief not having to wash bums and tails in the middle of winter!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top