old horse with weight loss

[JackieC]

hi i have a elderly horse who has started lossing weight again, this is the same situation as last year .His teeth have been treated and he has been wormed with panacur five day,as my vet thinks equest or similar would be to severe. His egg count came back with a count of less than 50. He has diahorrea for the last couple of months. Loads of tests were carried out last year and they all came back negative. The only thing I can think of is he has made himself sick from crab apples but my vet couldn't be sure. It took me five months to bring him back to health. He can no longer eat hay due to lack of teeth. I have been feeding him bran and alfafa in mash form which he loves and also top spec to get some vitamins and minerals in him. My first concern is to stop the diahorrea, has anyone got any ideas?

[galadriel]

As a temporary measure, it is actually all right to give your horse anti-diarrheals. "Mylanta" in 30cc doses (use a large syringe) works decently.

As a long-term measure, if the horse already has digestive problems, then even one incident may seriously disrupt his "gut flora" (that is, the bacteria in the intestine that help the horse digest effectively). It may help to give him probiotics to help his gut flora recover. Probiotics are live bacteria that can help replenish the intestinal bacteria. A *pre* biotic is food specifically for the gut flora, and can also be useful, but is not the same thing. The probiotic will only have live bacteria if it is something in liquid/paste form which needs refrigeration.

When the spring grass came in, both my TB's started having runny manure. My vet told me that she often sees that with a mild food allergy. Of course it's not healthy for them, and the grass itrself wasn't hurting them, so all we needed was to clear up the runny manure. She recommended feeding Metamucil (powdered psyllium product for people) daily. After a few days they did start to clear up, and were just fine after a few weeks.

I actually can't recall how much she recommended feeding. I know that I used about half a cup once daily.

[Fuzz and This]

someone else with the diahorrea! my 46 yr old had it constantly throughout the summer and it was really really bad (he's had it on and off for about 5 years now but thats due to his age) and my 27 yr old has had it for the whole of her life for no reason.

i had the vet out to my 46 yr old and they couldnt find anything wrong with either, just like you. i have tried various things to stop the diahorrea a such as corn flour in his feed which worked quite well for a bit, NAF pink powder, rescue remedy as a bit of a 'pick me up', extra mollichaff and others which i cant think of off the top of my head. how old is your horse?

Bran has always made my 2 loose so i dont feed that and i took him off barley and after a couple of weeks he stopped being loose, but i dont know what it was that done the trick if anything.
I also found that a certain hay i bought one time made them loose.

Have a go at feeding the corn flour, i started off with one tablespoon in his feed a day and then went up to 2.

let us know how you and horsey get on. i know exactly how you feel about this!

[clipclop]

Bran is usefull in many ways depending how it is fed. fed Wet as amash it encourages passage of food through the gut. I.e making the droppings looser.

Fed in a dry feed in can have a binding effect.

[JackieC]

thank you for all your advise my horse jest who is about 30 lost his best friend 2 years ago and thats when the problems started though he had probelms in the spring most years. Due to stomach damage from redworm i was advised by the vet that stress could bring on weight loss redworms damage the stomach lining and in turn protein is lost which results in muscle loss. I am going to try and stop the diahorrea first with people's medication and i have ordered some paste probiotics. Jest will only eat wet bran at the moment and i feel i need to get something inside him i have also started giving him soya oil which is high in protein and is more beneficial than cereal based proteins. I will let you know how jest is getting on and more so when i get a rest from washing him and his rug down.

[JackieC]

I'glad to report that for the moment I have been given a rest from washing duties. Not sure what has worked but the diahorrea has stopped!!!! From a health shop I got a nutriential drink, psyllium product and charcoal tablets. The charcoal was supposed to clear his stomach and then the drink to replenish nutrients. I wormed him again panacur 5 day and finally resorted to equest. My horse had a worm count of 50 but you really don't know what is still in the stomach (but please ask your vet first regarding worming combinations) He is now eating hi fi dry bran and yesterday I started him on sugar beet. He is finally getting his appetite back. He is also on probotic paste. Somewhere in there something has worked (touching wood)

[galadriel]

Terrific! Glad your guy is feeling better.