Advice Please

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Julz

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What would you suggest?

I help look after and at the moment am in charge of the oldies health and stable duties. He has a history of Scouring due to his body not being able to cope with excess amounts of water/moisture in his system, ie, if the grass is too wet, or snow, grass frosting, then defrosting.... when he eats this extra water is stuck in his gut, and comes out through his bottom.. He currently lives in at night, and is on the Simple Systems diet, which is soaked pellets (grass nuts & Pura beet) but with careful measuring is soaked so it soakes up all the water and is the consistency that he likes.

He's been ok, but with the grass frosting, and de-frosting we have had a bit of bother with the scouring..

I thought of giving NAF THRIVE as it will act as a thickening agent, but it also slows down the gut which i dont want, as a long term solution incase it causes colic.

Do you know of anything that would be more suitable and that can be given intermittently as and when he's having an episode. He's 30 going on 7.

Thanks
 
Unfortunately, I haven't had much experience with old horses (only old cats). However, I would say that the the best person to advise you on this, would be an equine nutritionalist. Your vet could probably give you the name of one, or may be, refer you to one. They would thoroughly investigate your horse's problem and formulate a suitable diet. Hope this has helped in some way.
 
He's already on the best diet he could be on... the problem isnt his diet, it's his body being unable to cope with copius amounts of liquid!
 
I agree with Afellpony on this one - You cant go wrong with the advice given then!

On another topic - Did I read somewhere a while ago that you were leaving the forum?? :confused: Its nice to see that you have chosen to stay with us :)
 
perhaps it's just as well "mike" doesnt come on here much...otherwise i may well be gone..lolbut yes, I have decided to stay put..
 
Hi Julz,
A livery at my yard has a pony in his mid-30s and she has the same problem with him. I *think* they have been using NAF Pink Powder, but I'll check when I see her tonight and find out for sure. Whatever it is they've been doing, it's been very successful! I'll get back to you as soon as I see her :)
 
It will probably be a bit of trial & error to find what works best for him, but here's some ideas:
- add a handful or so of dry bran to every feed, it will help bind up any excess water in his gut
- try a course of yea-sacc or Biotal Equine Gold to try & stabilize the bacteria in his gut, the scouring will probably have disrupted the gut balance & so it becomes a vicious circle
- sometimes psyllium husks can help, they act the same way bran does
- I found one benefit of Equine America's U-Gard is fewer cow-pat poos!
- can you put hay out in wet or frosty weather? Of turn him out for fewer hours? Or turn out on a bare patch?
- if all else fails ask the vet about some codeine tablets, a short course can work wonders
 
Funnily enough, someone did suggest yea-sac to me, but i dont know anything about pro-biotics...

He cant eat/chew hay, hence why on Simple Systems (hay and feed replacer), so not able to put hay out...icidently hay is out for the others in his feild.


Thanks Est, that would be good to know!
 
Yea-sacc isn't a probiotic, it's a live yeast culture (I think). I don't know loads about it except that it stabilizes gut Ph & often seems to work well on upset stomachs but I'm sure a search on Google would tell you more, or you could speak to Dodson & Horrell since I'm sure they sell it (there's also a lady on another forum that sells it much cheaper, if you want details I can try to fnd them for you). Probiotics can acidify the gut & actually make matters worse if they aren't what's needed.
 
carthorse said:
Get a cribber that colics when too stressed - talk about a learning curve!
Click to expand...


I was referring to not knowing anything about yea sacc... I thought it was a pro biotic, you told me it was a yeast culture...lol

Est, I went of the search last night and have kinda decided to go for Yea-sacc, it does sound more for him than Thrive does, though the person helping me is trying to get me to go for NAFs veteran, that does the same job minus the yea sacc, and her shop stocks it... I just want whats best for him, regardless of where it's stocked, Thanks anyway.. Great minds, eh?

As for the cribber...what did you use to stop him? Problem with cribbers is they will do it on any surface if the habit is bad enough!
 
I had great success with Dengie Triple XP, recommended to me by my feed merchant when I went in to get pink powder or Yeast sac. It has probiotics and prebiotics and yeast. Worked overnight, was really impressed.
 
The thing is, I dont want a pre biotic for him...there's no problem with that part of his gut....
 
Julz I meant I'd learned a lot about settling down Mr Stresshead's delicate tummy & Yea-Sacc was one of the things I'd tried with some success ;). He's always had a squitty tummy & over the years I've tried loads to settle it but when he started colicing because any stress was more than his gut could handle it became urgent & I ended up doing loads of reading, ringing round & trying different things.

It's taken a variety of things to reduce the cribbing but he's virtually stopped in the stable. Maybe the biggest factor was U-Gard Plus, followed by absolutely no cereals. If he doesn't like a bale of hay it's changed. If he starts cribbing in the stable then I look for anything that may be making him uncomfortable (sounds stupid but if he starts cribbing in the stable he often has mudfever starting or is sore somewhere). I occassionally use Cribbox on the door if he starts in an absent-minded sort of way - one application can work for a couple of months! Ironically it's the field where he's more likely to crib & I need to use a bit of Cribbox. Sadly gates have to have electric in front of them as he still finds them irresistable, a bit like lighting a cigarette & putting it in an ex-smoker's mouth then saying "don't inhale"! Still, not bad for a horse that would crib for so many hours he needed feeding well to keep the weight on him (IDs aren't renowned for being hard to keep weight on!).

I hope you find something that helps your oldie, often it just seems to be trial & error though.
 
LOL, carthorse..... I seem to be missing your point...(it's ok, I've got it now!!) lol thanks!
 
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