stabled horse has the runs!

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callmelucky

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my 4 1/2yo mare has been stabled for the past week, in at night, out during day. past couple of days shes had bad diarrhoea. shes has hay over night, plus her dinner/brekkie which is build up mix, s.beet and chaff. only change is there is now lots of snow! was thinking of giving her pre-probiotic supplement. what would people reccommend?
 
has she had haylage??? that can give them the runs if fed too much,

I would cut the mix out and sugar beet just give the chaff.


what chaff is it Mollychaff??

if it is then i would say thats too much sugar
to many carrots also can do that, I would get some pink powder give her a dryish mash and dry hay, don't give her any mix or anything with high protein, do this for a day if still bad get the vet. She could get dehydrated fast if this continues.As its been 2 days already
 
Leviathan said:
has she had haylage??? that can give them the runs if fed too much,


to many carrots also can do that, I would get some pink powder give her a dryish mash and dry hay, don't give her any mix or anything with high protein, do this for a day if still bad get the vet. She could get dehydrated fast if this continues.
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thanks.
shes on dry hay, no haylage or any carrots etc. but yes its mollychaff! gets couple multivitamin treats a day but thats it.
 
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when you say the runs... are we talking lush grass like "cow pat"... or actual liquid??

if its the latter, then get the vet asap. may be a bacterial infection, and she may need fluids, and faeceal samples taken. also if she is scouring then i would clart her hind legs in vaseline/barrier cream- to protect her legs as they can burn. ;)
 
whisp&willow said:
when you say the runs... are we talking lush grass like "cow pat"... or actual liquid??

if its the latter, then get the vet asap. may be a bacterial infection, and she may need fluids, and faeceal samples taken. also if she is scouring then i would clart her hind legs in vaseline/barrier cream- to protect her legs as they can burn. ;)
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hi, no its not actual liquid, just like very runny cow pats. im a vet nurse (altho small animal!) so know what to look for with regards to infection, plus my foal had it! im pretty confident its weather change/stabling/poss food intolerance, so want to try a pre/probiotic to help her guts, but theres soo many out there i dont know which one :-)
 
:p oh well she's in safe hands then!

one of my friends foals had scours and it was down to a bacterial infection. it was pretty bad, and he was lucky to make it, as he was so young. :eek:

ive never used any supplements, so cant help you there- but good luck- let me know how you get on. ;)

hows the wee monster anyways?

xx
 
whisp&willow said:
:p oh well she's in safe hands then!

one of my friends foals had scours and it was down to a bacterial infection. it was pretty bad, and he was lucky to make it, as he was so young. :eek:

ive never used any supplements, so cant help you there- but good luck- let me know how you get on. ;)

hows the wee monster anyways?

xx
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great thanks! growing like a weed!! yea she had a bacterial infection at 12 days old, it was awful! ended up at the vets!
 
I noticed this last year in the snow, my 3 horse all had what I called "hospital pooh", like they'd been on antibiotics. It cleared up after the freezing weather lifted. I commented on it to my vet and he said, it often happens when the weather is particularly cold.

p.s. I don't like mollichaff as a feed - too much sugar, and I'd use Speedi-beet rather than sugar beet for the same reason. Probiotics can't do any harm in this situation though.
 
callmelucky said:
hi, no its not actual liquid, just like very runny cow pats. im a vet nurse (altho small animal!) so know what to look for with regards to infection, plus my foal had it! im pretty confident its weather change/stabling/poss food intolerance, so want to try a pre/probiotic to help her guts, but theres soo many out there i dont know which one :-)
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I've had my colic prone horse who is prone to bouts of diarrohea on pink powder for years now but recently switched to NAF haylage balancer (not only for horses on haylage) as it was believed by a vet that he could possibly have gastric ulcers. He's also on slippery elm and meadowsweet. He has about 30% haylage in his diet.

This is what NAF say about their Haylage Balancer: comfort the unsettled horse, neutralize & absorb excess acids, soothe and settle the gut and help guard against gastric upset. Contains a unique digestive clay, includes antacids & live probiotic yeasts to optimise gut function. Also providing a broad spectrumof vitamins andminerals to balance the high fibre diet, Haylage Balancer is the only supplement your horse will need to maintain all round health and vitality.

In my humble opinion Pink powder is really good and acts as a balancer as well as a probiotic. From what I recollect the lady at NAF saying about prebiotics at Your Horse Live to me : you don't need to add a prebiotic to a probiotic as all a prebiotic is, is soluble fibre. So long as there is a small concentration of yeast then you don't need a prebiotic, and pink powder has live yeast as its main ingredient. Pink powder or Haylage Balancer will probably help your horse. The vet said to me the other day when I was talking to him about Bailey scouring, that its only serious if this happens for days on end. He reckoned it was to do with him being on box rest and not having the grass. I started giving him a little readigrass and this dried him up but this was at the time when he was then free to go out in the field after box rest so the fact he was moving around in the field, or even eating natural fibre, i.e. grass might have been what dried him up in the end!
 
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Get some propaste it's about £8 a tube and lasts a few days. Seemed to do the trick when my horse was on AB's. Also a large handful of dry bran in feed too.
 
It may just be her feed (sugar). I would switch to speedibeet or fastfibre as they are very low in sugar 5% and under. Maybe at the moment give her plain water and another bucket of water containing electrolytes and a probiotic to encourage the growth of healthy gut flora.
 
Lotty said:
It may just be her feed (sugar). I would switch to speedibeet or fastfibre as they are very low in sugar 5% and under. Maybe at the moment give her plain water and another bucket of water containing electrolytes and a probiotic to encourage the growth of healthy gut flora.
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This exactly
 
hi guys,
thanks for your comments. have stopped the mollichaff and switched to unmollassed alfa-a, and also swithched to unmollassed sugarbeet. seems to have done the trick, although cant say the horse is impressed with a more bland dinner!
 
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