Recurrent annual diarhhoea

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MelT

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I have a homebred 6 year old section A mare who, for the last 3 years has become very poorly end of March/early April. It seems that as soon as the fresh grass starts to come through, Min gets really, really loose droppings (very green and smelly). This lasts for about 3 weeks during which time she loses a rediculous amount of weight and whatever we feed her, treat her with nothing seems to help. She is wormed regularly. Worm counts have showed nothing. After 2 - 3 weeks she starts to pick back up and is fine then for the remainder of the year until next year. It's very frustrating. Even if we stable her, the condition doesn't improve sufficiently and Min hates being in. The strange thing is that her gut sounds are amplified. You can really hear her gut gurgling and making odd noises. We've tried stabling her with just a high fibre diet, giving her NAF Pink Powder, natural live yoghurt with honey and various other things all to no real benefit. This happens on an annual basis whether she is in foal or not. None of the other mares are affected and we've even moved her to different fields thinking it was something she was eating but nothing changes. She's quite poorly at the mo but eating normally. It's just coming out the other end at a rate of knots! Any suggestions. Vet has suggested taking bloods as he's never seen anything like it. To see her mid summer, you wouldn't even know there was anything wrong with her as she picks up lovely after the 3 weeks. Very frustrating!! Any suggestions?
 
Might be a long shot but my boy was awful last year and I was recommended Black Salts, cleared him up in no time!
Smell awful once you wet them (mix feed and run kind of awful!) but were about £6 for a 1kg tub which I barely dented so worth a try?
 
Are you able to keep her on poor - even mud - grazing during this time, introducing very small amounts of fresh grass over a period of time. Feeding hay only???
 
Have you wormed her with the 5 day panacur?

Sounds to me possibly encysted redworm. They hibernate in the gut in the winter and then emerge in the spring which causes rapid weight loss and makes the animal feel pretty awful with it. No amount of Pink powder/probiotics would prevent this.

Only the 5 day wormer will kill 95 percent; equest kills 80 percent but with a heavy burden that may not be enough to prevent symptoms
 
Our Welsh A is like this too with the new grass, this year he is on Badminton Fibre complete and he has been fine, cup in the morning and cup at night, he has been solid this year. Brilliant and cheap enough.
It's big pellets so you can soak it down too for older ponies.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I wormed Min with the Panacur Guard towards end of last year in readiness but this doesn't seem to have helped much. Maybe I'll do her again with it just to be sure. The worm count didn't reveal any significant worm burden either but whether this would have shown up i don't know. We tried last year leaving Min in the stable and just giving her hay, Happy Hoof and fibre-beet. This helped a little but the droppings still resembled cow-pats. I'll give all the suggestions a go and see how she is. In herself, she's bright and alert apart from a bit smelly and lean looking! Keep you posted. Thanks again.
 
Hmmm.... if you kept her in and off the grass completely this time last year and still had the same problem, then it does sound like it's coming from within. Poor girl... sounds like you've exhausted most avenues of investigation too... I hope you are able to solve this one - I have to admit I automatically thought it would be grass-related.
 
panacur equine guard is done in autumn and spring.
i have a welsh a mare the same (must b something with the welsh a's)
i find verm-x pellets herbal wormer. good as it is a liver tonic as well.
 
My horse gets this too. That's how we know when to stop feeding hay and to think about fencing the pony off.

This year I've tried pink powders and it's worked. See you've already done that and it hasn't helped. :(

With you keeping her in and still having the problem could it be a form of tree pollen allergy?
 
equinim said:
panacur equine guard is done in autumn and spring.
i have a welsh a mare the same (must b something with the welsh a's)
i find verm-x pellets herbal wormer. good as it is a liver tonic as well.
Click to expand...

actuall now reccomended as a winter dose for ancysted larvae- especially because you should be doing tapeworm spring and autumn which requires a different product. Only exception is timely equest pramox.
 
Just to add that encysted redworm won't show up on a count; when did you do the 5 day? Best time is November as above (used to say spring and autumn but advice has changed)
 
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