Remember my horse with persistent diarrhea?

SpottedCat

SpottedCat

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Some people asked me to keep them up to date with how my horse, who has persistent diarrhea was getting on - I posted asking about faecal transfaunation ( http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4991633/an/0/page/1#4991633 )

Recap of tried (and failed) treatments:
*Biotal Equine Gold (pre/probiotic)
*Protexin (the syringes and the gut balancer - again pre/probiotic)
*Fed topspec balancer (which has pre/pro in it)
*Tuff rock foal plus
*Biosponge (which is like tuff rock apparently)
*Steroids (on week 10 now, worked slightly for 2 weeks, now back to how he was before we started)
*Codine Phosphate tablets
*Aloe Vera juice
*Dry bran
*Just hay, no grass or feed
*Complete change of diet
*Limestone flour

Well on the day I posted that thread, a very trusted friend told me to get in touch with Jonny at Silverliningherbs - he'd helped her horse a lot, and frankly I had nothing left to lose (it was certainly a lot cheaper than the equivalent steroid dose for 2 months supply), so I figured I would give it a whirl.

Today my horse has been on the herbs for exactly 2 weeks. And I have just watched him do the closest approximation to a normal poo I have seen for over a year. I am tragically excited about this. Yesterday he was just as bad as ever, but today is the first glimmer of hope that we may be sorting this out without resorting to faecal transfaunation.

I must also mention the super super people at equiform who sent me some of this to try: http://www.equiformnutrition.co.uk/horse-supplements/EQUICELL-p-8.html Sadly the horse went on complete hunger strike over this no matter how slowly I tried to introduce it, so I gave up since I have only just got him up to a decent weight and the effects of this issue made him drop 50kg in a month and look like a hatrack. I was going to try syringing it in next week, but he already hates me because I am syringing in steroids every day and the taste of those is disguised in apple juice!

Anyway, I am now keeping my fingers crossed that the herbs will continue to work, and that I will have solved the problem once and for all - I don't think I can definitively say it has worked just yet, but if this continues then I will be grateful until the end of time!
 
Mine are crossed v tightly too. There is nothing more disgusting than brushing your horse's face and getting your legs covered in splashes of dung. Yuk.
 
Yuk indeed
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Is it a particular product you are giving your horse or an individual mix of herbs?
My friend has a foal that had gastric ulcers at a month old and is still pooing liquid several months on despite being otherwise fit and well.
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Honestly - I think you should probably just pass on the details and let Jonny advise, because it was all a bit wierd for my scientific mind and he also recommended products which I would never, ever have picked on my own. I phoned him, he was very patient and very helpful, and also very perceptive.

That said, he seems to have succeeded where the miracle of modern medicine has failed, so I am prepared to go with it. Of course I have no way of knowing whether if I had left well alone it would suddenly have got better on its own, but I think it is too much of a coincidence to attribute to that - it hadn't improved at all in the past 12 months. My horse is on 3 of their 'off the shelf' mixes, but as I say, probably not ones I would have picked on my own. Take his advice, but be prepared to be a bit wierded out by it, I was!!
 
Fingers crossed for you. I read your other post and was going to suggest a rectal with a small amount of natural yoghurt. My dad was saying they used to do it as a very last resort for horses with persistent diarrhoea in Argentina.
 
Funnily enough, I can now update you with the fact that for the first time in a year my horse did not have encrusted dung all down his backside and back legs today (which normally I have to peel off then scrub with either a sponge and water or a plastic curry comb, both of which he hates. And so do I as it is vile). I so want this to have worked - so far we seem to have had 24hrs of dung which is normal enough not to have plastered his rear end. (and no it is not the rain washing it off as he was out 24/7 in the torrential stuff earlier this month too with no discernible difference!)
 
That's really good news. I'd heard of Silverliningherbs as one of my pupils used it on her ex-racer and the transformation was astonishing; he's more beach donkey than stressy TB now.
 
Have you checked he doesn;t have gastric ulcers?
My boy had persistant diarrhae for over 6 months vet took blood and samples andcould find nothing then he took a serious colic bout and ended up in the hospital he had a gastroscopey (no idea how its spelt!!) and they found he had severe grade 3 gastric ulcers - something I would neverhad thought as he not the type to stress and worry. had 28 days of gastroguard was back 2 weeks ago for a check up and they completely gone and poos have been normal since about 3 days after starting the gastroguard.

Maybe worth asking the vet if you haven't already??
 
Thanks _Cuckoo_

RyanJoker - the horse definitely does not have gastric ulcers any more (his were grade 4 and were splash and glandular) - but he was scoped yet again when the biopsies were taken and for the first time in over a year they were text-book normal. It was the antibiotics to cure the ulcers which we think caused this in the first place!
 
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i tried almost all that you did and one tub of global herbs diarreeze sorted him out, wonder if it has similar herbs?

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Interestingly, no it doesn't! The only thing which is in them both is ginger. Plus slightly worryingly the Global Herbs one only lists latin names but it has some of those wrong (or else it is using plants which don't exist) - I'm all for latin names for clarity, but not when they are non-existent plants/out of date names and not when something is marketed to the lay-person. But then knowing the latin names of things is part of my job, so I guess I am pedantic about it.
 
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Mine are crossed v tightly too. There is nothing more disgusting than brushing your horse's face and getting your legs covered in splashes of dung. Yuk.

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Yuk indeed!

I am so pleased you have seen a normal poop. I would have been over excited about it too!

Long may normal poop continue. It will make pooh picking, grooming and stable mucking out soooo much less traumatic.
 
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