Squits!! What would stop them?

Bayneddie

Bayneddie

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I've had my horse a year and she's pretty much always had the Squits and after spending so much time up her back end cleaning it I'd really like to know if it's something I can resolve or if she'll always have this problem.

She's a 16.1 TBx in light work - schooling, hacking with the odd dressage test thrown in. I feed her 1.25 calm and condition, well soaked, over two feeds with a handful of Dengie Hi Fi Lite. She needs to be on molasses free feed as I inherited her with rotten teeth. The EDT thinks until we get her teeth into better shape the feed will continue to 'shoot through'.

Do you think it's because she has a soaked feed and that I should change to something else? I'd like to get a bit of condition onto her (we are working correctly to help this) and she isn't a fizzy horse at all.

Thoughts welcome and appreciated.

Thanks
 
You'll probably get a lot of replies to this - you'll have to wade through them and see what actually fits your mare. But here are some thoughts...

Dry bran will act as a binding agent and stop the runs. But wet bran is laxitive so you would have to change your feed entirely. If you feed dry bran for any length of time you also need to supplement with limestone flour as it upsets the calcium / phospherous balence.

I would suggest probiotics - but they are in calm & condition already so adding them is probably a waste of time.

You are going to be on a bit of an uphill struggle with a soaked feed - but could you cut down the amount of water you soak with? We feed A&P as well and it doesn't have to be sloppy. But perhaps in your case it does becuase of your mare's teeth?

Has the vet considered ulcers?

Might it be worth moving up to power and performance? You don't have to soak that one. It might be worth chatting to A&P about that.

There is a solution out there soemwhere!
 
I think you may not be getting the best advice and suggest contacting an independent nutritionist, but will put a few thoughts of my own, horses are not humans and molasses alone is not the cause of her bad teeth, although a low sugar diet is ideal so would stick with it for other health reasons.
Her teeth by now should be good enough, if your dentist is doing his job, to enable her to chew well enough that the food, which is soaked anyway, can be properly chewed and digested, if some of her teeth need removing due to decay that is a job for your vet and it may be worth getting xrays done to find out how bad they actually are.
Soaking the feed should not make her loose, the feed you are using may just not suit her although it does have probiotics in and can help with the digestion I would be looking at adding a probiotic to her diet as well, Protexin is the one I am using and seems well recommended. Brewers yeast or yea sac are also good for getting the bacteria required for a well balanced digestive system.
If she has been lacking care in the past, which going by her teeth seems likely have you done a thorough worming programme including bloods and worm counts since you have had her, worm damage is the cause of most tummy issues and unless you can be sure all is well that would be the most obvious cause of her still being loose.
If she was mine I would probably go more low starch, higher fibre for now, speedibeet or fast fibre plus a non molassed non alfalfa chaff with plenty of hay and a probiotic and see if the most basic diet will help, if she is less loose she will absorb more nutrients and consequently the weight will go on, putting her onto a higher level feed will probably make her worse, linseed is good for weight gain and should do no harm if introduced slowly.
 
I agree with Be Positive.

How much forage is she getting, OP, and what is her age? Can you see any long fibres in her poo?
 
I would start her on Brewers Yeast in her feed and see if that helps, mine get the runs from too much hay so have calm and condition and grass nuts and grass chaff as fibre replacement Only thing that helps them is either a growing grass (none around at the minute) or brewers yeast
 
Thanks for the replies.

She is coming up 14 in April. She's had the EDT to her every 3 months over the last year but has so many issues we're certainly not done in there - shear mouth, wave mouth, missing teeth, impactions, sharp edges - you name it, she's got it. She won't ever have good teeth but we're hoping to get her managed better and more comfortable.

She's had regular worm counts since I've had her, all fine, but I moved to a new yard a month ago and gave her a tapeworm wormer. Haven't seen anything in her poos.

She's on ad lib haylage, but as I say it's different because of the move. Although she was squitty before the move too. She's turned out daily but it's on poor grass.
 
Have you tried her on hay? Some horses can't cope with haylage.

I would try an exclusion diet, so drop the C&C and feed only soaked hay for a few days. If she doesn't improve on this then perhaps ask a vet to take a look.
 
Get yourself to local saddlery they sell probiotics and also haylage balancer sometimes some haylage is wetter so can affect the balancer helps.
My lad has to go on a probiotic when he goes onto haylage in winter only a short acute course can't remember what called but that allows his tummy to settle.
I also give him probiotic yogurt in his feed sometimes as i do with the dog!
 
Feed ad lib hay, yeasacc and I'd cut any mixes etc out and just feed very simple feeds. Fast fibre plus linseed meal with a powder suppliment such as pro balance.
One of mine had loose droppings until I did this.
If more condition is needed add some oil based feed such as ers pellets.
 
I would definitely try the NAF Haylage Balancer - from the appearance it's largely good old-fashioned kaolin, and settles mine when the haylage upsets them, which it often does.

Another thing that helps is charcoal, a general mopper-up of toxins - try Happy Tummy from Fine Fettle Feed.

Go easy on linseed!
 
Thanks for your replies.

So far I have stopped the calm and condition and she is now just getting ad lib haylage (new livery yard doesn't do hay) and NAF haylage balancer (has brewer's yeast in it) mixed in some HiFi Lite. It's helped but not cured the issue, but it's only been a few days.

I've now read that alfalfa is a common allergen so might try the above but switch to readigrass instead - any thoughts?

But then she's also started quidding quite badly again, despite only having had her teeth done under sedation on 15th Feb. So I'm wondering whether I'd be better to go back to some kind of sloppier, soaked feed without the chaff?

I've got the EDT coming back in a few week's time.

Confused!!!:confused:
 
My mare was like this!! For at least 2 years while I tried all sorts of remedies!! Other than what I was trying she had exactly the same as the 2 geldings who were fine!! A month or so ago I started feeding them all some extra minerals and I added a tablespoon of Yeasacc to her share.....this was perhaps 3/4 times a week.....after 3 weeks her dung was normal....now I am cutting it out and waiting to see if she reverts or if her gut is balanced now!!! Interestingly one geldings scrapes have regrown hair that is a lot darker than the rest!!! I wonder why...any ideas?
 
My girl had was loose, and did 'splats' rather than poo.

I changed from haylage to hay and that helped enormously. Fresh grass has the same effect on her and feeding haylage balancer (Naf) did the trick. A return to perfect poo, not 'cow pat' style.
 
Bayneddie said:
I've had my horse a year and she's pretty much always had the Squits and after spending so much time up her back end cleaning it I'd really like to know if it's something I can resolve or if she'll always have this problem.

She's a 16.1 TBx in light work - schooling, hacking with the odd dressage test thrown in. I feed her 1.25 calm and condition, well soaked, over two feeds with a handful of Dengie Hi Fi Lite. She needs to be on molasses free feed as I inherited her with rotten teeth. The EDT thinks until we get her teeth into better shape the feed will continue to 'shoot through'.

Do you think it's because she has a soaked feed and that I should change to something else? I'd like to get a bit of condition onto her (we are working correctly to help this) and she isn't a fizzy horse at all.

Thoughts welcome and appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...


my first port of call would be a vet visit. A number of reasons for squits and i would not be happy leaving her unchecked.

stomac ulcers
worms

allsorts
at least get a probiotic and PINK POWDER is also good for re balancing their gut
check previous post on this subject


http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/d.html



.
 
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I haven't read all the replies but here are my thoughts;
I'm not sure why you are feeding Calm and Condition with Hi-Fi lite, CC is to put weight on, while Hi-Fi lite is to help to control weight.
Wet feeds to tend to make horses 'loose', so if yours has this tendancy anyway, it's probably better to feed drier feeds. Dry bran will help to stop the problem but if you feed more than a small amount you will need to add lime-stone flour.
I certainly wouldn't feed Pink Powder, as we have had bad experiences with it with more than one horse. I prefer Graze-on to Readigrass as Rg is rye-grass while G-o is mixed grasses but I'm told that both companies are out of stock until the next cut.
If you feed soaked feeds, you need to add chaff to avoid choke.
 
So that's why I was adding Hi Fi Lite - to avoid her bolting her food down. And I use HiFi Lite because it's molasses free, which the EDT recommended. Obviously on it's own it's not going to solve her teeth issues but better than adding to them through molassed chaff...?
She's was on calm and condition because she was lacking condition, probably because of her dental issues, and it's easy to eat being a soaked feed.
 
I know of someone who feeds crushed limestone to prevent squits, don't take my word for it, but it may be worth researching and trying :)
 
Well as it is hay that causes my horses squits I wouldnt say it was the soaked feed they have a half bucket of grassnuts calm and condition fast fibre and a bit of grass chaff to make it easier to eat.
So mine dont get much hay but big fibre soaked feeds. as I said before the only thing that stopped the squits was the brewers yeast about a dessert spoonful in each feed

How do I know it is the hay because they are fed the feeds for three months while still eating off rough grazing before they start on hay the squits start with the first section of hay they get dont ask me why they are fine on grass and fibre soaked feeds but they are I dont know why. They dont/ wont eat wet hay either so cant soak it for them either
 
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My mare did this.
Cut out anything molasses or alfalfa or cereals.
She's on fast fibre, linseed meal and pro balance. It's worked, poo is now perfect.
I add ers and releve to the youngster and advanced horses rations for extra condition/muscle building
 
Thanks for the replies, all good thoughts.

You know what, I'm wondering if I'm actually looking at the problem the right way. Had a good old rummage through her droppings tonight (we horsey people know how to live, don't we ;)) and actually the poo itself isn't too bad now, it's more that her bum is a right ole mess. And she's in season now which means it's even leakier.

So, think I may direct my efforts in the immediate future more towards cleaning it gently (was using hibiscrub but now realise that's too harsh, which should've occurred to me before) and trying to apply a barrier with Vaseline or baby oil, which seem to be the favoured options.
 
Bayneddie said:
So that's why I was adding Hi Fi Lite - to avoid her bolting her food down. And I use HiFi Lite because it's molasses free, which the EDT recommended. Obviously on it's own it's not going to solve her teeth issues but better than adding to them through molassed chaff...?
She's was on calm and condition because she was lacking condition, probably because of her dental issues, and it's easy to eat being a soaked feed.
Click to expand...
There are plenty of non-molassed chaffs available - I don't think Hi-Hi lite is one of them. Dengie do make Hi-Fi molasses free but I wouldn't use that if I were trying to put weight onto horse. Dried grass such as Graze-on or Readigrass , or a non-molassed alfalfa such as Alfa-A oil, would be better. C&C is high starch, I would use grassnuts instead.
 
My TB had major dental issues and constant runs of course sorting the issues was the main thing but during that he had loads of drugs so that did not help him either what finally settled him down was Protexin two scoops a day for six months then one now he's just gets it in times of digestive stress his droppings are completely normal.
Hes grey , thank heavens we fixed it because it was a complete pain on the turn out front as well as not good for him.
 
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