Veteran with ongoing diarrhea - beginning to worry - any advice??

Hels_Bells

Hels_Bells

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Both my 30 year old veteran and 11 year old have had diarrhea lately. I have put this down to the snow as they are suddenly getting no grass whatsoever and they are used to several hours of turnout with plenty of grass everyday at this time of year.

I have put them both on pink powder to try to help (which is a probiotic) and it's helping the 11YO lots but not the old boy who doesn't seem to be improving. I'm a bit worried as poo is starting to look a bit pinky now and I'm concerned there may be blood involved.

He's a very good doer and still has a great appetite and is eating all his haylage and hard feed fine. [I feed him 16+, flaked bran and sugarbeet and a bit of baileys outshine, plus bute and ventipulmin for his minor ailments, which he's been fed on for about the past 12 years and is going great guns for his age].

Does anybody have any suggestions as to anything I can feed him to help solve the problem as the pink powder doesn't seem to be working for him?? I wonder if I should get them a load of carrots in - it's fairly far removed from grass but I thought it might act as a substitute for some of the things he might be missing until this wretched weather ends???!!
 
Diareeze by Global Herbs is fantastic - but should you be calling your vet?
 
Thanks Donklet. I picked up some global herbs diareeze in saddlery the other day, but the feed lady said the pink powder would probably work better. Wish I'd gone with global herbs now.

As he's right as rain in all other respects I was holding off calling the vet and hoping it would clear up as the snow did. But think I will get him looked at tomorrow as I'm sure it was looking a bit pink this evening.
 
Check with your vet first but years ago I used Kaolin and morphin (sp) it's designed for humans but worked wonders on my old boy when nothing else worked. Most chemists should sell it, plus it's a liquid so you can syringe it down if necessary.
 
Sorry to hear this and possibly a numpty reply, but could the pinkness in his droppings be the Pink Powder by some chance ?
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Hi
I would think the pink in the poo is from the powder, it is going in one end and out the other without being absorbed.

How are their teeth?

I would recommend getting the vet out esp as the older horse's poo has not improved and the pink powder is flushing through his system.

His stomach is obviously trying to flush something nasty out of his system and I would talk to a vet before trying anything else.
 
We had a 30 year old pony who also had the same problem, his system could not tolerate haylage (even though he had always had it before) so we put him on hay but although it improved a fair bit (was no longer like water) he still had fairly bad diarrhea.

The vet suggested giving him codeine as that often works but in his case it didn't
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the yard we were at had no winter turnout but luckily the yard owner said he could go out & once he started getting grass in his belly the problem resolved & he is still going strong.

As regards the pink droppings, I feel it must be the pink powder as my horse (see post in NL re bowel infection) is currently an inpatient at Liphook, he has digested blood in his droppings (although you can't see it with the naked eye) the droppings are incredibly dark in colour (not quite black but very dark)

Good luck with your chap
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Could it be the haylage? I assume he's having more of it if there is no grass?
However in that you are suspicious about the colour of his feaces I would definitley get the vet in to check. They could have had a virus and the older guy is struggling to shake it off..
Do let us know how he gets on
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It could be the haylage, but it could also be the sugar beet - particularly if you've increased quanitities recently.

I'd look at swapping to hay and perhaps partially replacing with a bucket of redigrass as he's not getting any real grass or much short fibre by the looks of it either

I always understood bran to help 'keep them regular' hence why it is often fed to help relieve blockages and on rest days so it might be worth reviewing your feeding of this....

but yes, I would call a vet.
 
QR, haven't read all replies...

My 29 year old had this too. She's had haylage in the past with no problems at all, but for some reason, this winter, it hasn't agreed with her at all. She was fine on it for a few weeks, but then it seemed to upset her and she stopped eating it after a couple of weeks. I tried probiotics, but it didn't help, and as she wasn't eating the haylage anyway, I switched back to hay which she's eating like there's no tomorrow. No more tummy trouble!

Definitely worth calling your vet if you're concerned (I called mine for a chat - they said to try the probiotic first, but they'd come and look at her if I wanted them to), but thought I'd mention the hay/haylage in case that was something you're able to try
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Thanks so much everyone. The good news is that the old boy was definitely better when I went to do them this morning (yung'un is pretty much back to normal anyway) but there is still definitely room for improvement - I'd say he's at about 50% at the mo and there didn't seem to be any more pinkness.

I'm definitely thinkin the readigrass is a good idea and I might cut down the Bran too, I did think it made them go more, but as he's been on it since he was about 11 years old and I didn't want to tinker with his diet too much, esp as he really is so well for his age (until this problem came along).

I had considered that the pink in the poo might be the pink powder but thought as it's never shown up in the younger guy that it might be blood instead but now thinking you are probably right.

His teeth aren't the greatest but i do get them done every 3 to 6 months so we are "on top of" the teeth situation really.

As the weather is so harsh I had increased the sugarbeet by about 40%, so maybe I should cut that back to how it was before.

I had also thought about trying hay instead of haylage but am a bit between the devil and the deep blue sea as he has asthma poor lad and it almost completely clears up when he's on haylage and (and a bit of ventipulmin) and is far far worse when he's on hay as there is much more dust in it.

Thanks so much for the recommendations on various medicines - I might try the one with the funny spelling if we don't see a further improvement. I will def keep you posted as to how he's getting on!

Also so sorry to hear yours is in Liphook Neddy - hope he gets better v v soon!
 
I'd cut back on the sugar beet and bran first and see how you go... the sugarbeet is quite possibly the culprit as some horses seem very sensitive to it and can cope with a small ammount but once it goes past that, their digestive system just can't cope.

if you do decide to go for hay you might want to consider steeming it rather than soaking given the weather. you just need a dustbin (with lid) and a kettle or two of boilng water...

good luck, and keep us posted!
 
Have you tried gastro gold or equine gold?

My veteran had awful guts when ill during the summer due to bute/metacam/antibiotics - my vet recommended gastro gold when he would not eat the probiotics.

Company that make it recommended the equine gold as it is better for veterans - have to say it sorted the problem quite quickly and the equine gold is quite a bit cheaper than gastro gold
 
At 30 I'd think his teeth are not up to grinding thoroughly enough to get the haylage into the best 'condition' for digestion. Try more mushy feed (soaked Hi Fi cubes and other feeds which don't require chewing but are fibre-filled and some sort of soft short chop.

Glad to hear he's picking up already, and a bit of a diet overhaul might be a good thing for the longer term. 30 is a fantastic age, so you must be doing something right!
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