Bit of advice needed

Tink

New Member
Feb 27, 2008
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Flintshire
My coblet has always had wet poos, no matter what she's fed.
We've tried feed balancers, just feeding alfalfa etc, but her poos have always stayed 'wet'. She's regually wormed etc and I've had her since she was a baby so I know she's always been regually wormed etc.

She's currently fed on good quality haylege, chaff, unmollassed sugarbeet and topline cubes. Her poops are better than ever on this diet, but they're still a rather wet.

I've been told to try her on alfabeet or fibre beet to try and harden her poos up a bit.

Any suggestions/comments on this??
 
I have no experience of cobs so this might not work, but does she need the sugar beet? I just wonder if its just making things too wet and that's the reason for wet poo.
 
My coblet has always had wet poos, no matter what she's fed.
We've tried feed balancers, just feeding alfalfa etc, but her poos have always stayed 'wet'. She's regually wormed etc and I've had her since she was a baby so I know she's always been regually wormed etc.

She's currently fed on good quality haylege, chaff, unmollassed sugarbeet and topline cubes. Her poops are better than ever on this diet, but they're still a rather wet.

I've been told to try her on alfabeet or fibre beet to try and harden her poos up a bit.

Any suggestions/comments on this??

Perhaps what you are feeding is just too rich? Perhaps the hayledge is too good a quailty for her - especially when mixed with so much extra food! And sugar beet! That will add to the problem!

What is her weight like? does she keep it easily? Is she an excitable type?

You could try cutting back on the feed (sugarbeet) and giving more HAY. Keep it a little simpler, and add extra hard feed only if she is losing condition.
If shes in hard work, then add a little more hard feed into the equation - but make sure there is more roughage than anything else.

IMO, people tend to over feed their horses, and they miss out on the roughage that they really need. You say shes a "coblet"? They tend not to need so much feeding (although I understand it varies from horse to horse and workload etc)...but I have 2 TBx and they keep weight REALLY well - despite being young, unrugged, unstabled and exercised. They get fed hay, and grass. Good poos, good weight....not too feisty either :D
 
It's not the beet that does it. We've tried cutting the beet out of her feed to see if it made any difference which it didn't.
She tends to bolt her feed if she doesn't have any in it.
:rolleyes:
 
hehe, typical cob!
could you not try cutting everything out and giving damp hay? pack it tight in double nets to slow her if necessary.

Ive not come accross many cobs that need beet - even if in hard work....its often fed like molasses - just to make things sweeter to taste for fussy eaters.
 
Quite alot of food for a coblet. Hay would probably be a better option to dry her poos out a bit. My coblet type horse has hay and hi fi with her supplements - thats it. Also check you bucket meals are small as too much can pass through the system too quickly to be absorbed properly.
 
She's not a stereotypical cob and she does struggle to keep weight on, she can also get very excitable.

She's not 'over fed'(atleast I woudln't say she is!). She only gets a handful of chaff, 1/4 of a small scoop of sugarbeet and 1/2 a scoop of the cubes twice a day, and plenty of haylege. She's ridden 6 days a week for a min of 45mins. We do alot of competing - dressage, sj'ing, hunter trials and ODE's. I personaly wouldn't say that is over feeding considering she does find it difficult to keep weight on??

She was on hay for most of her life, but started to cough quite badly(even though it was good quality and soaked) so we had no option but to put her on haylege. Her poo's have remained the same since the hay/haylege swop.
 
Feed sounds great then in that respect. Have you tried NAF's pink powder ? Are the poos watery or do you have half normal poo with lots of water coming out before or after the poo:eek: (what a lovely topic - hope no-one is eating!)
 
I seem to have a habit of lowering the tone!:p

It's hard to describe her poo. Two words come to mind - elephant poo!!
There's no deffinition to them, they're not really loose but are still quite wet(if that makes sense..) It just makes life difficult, because her poos seem to be quite wet, it means her bed gets wet and messy really quickly. We go through 4-5 bales of shavings a week on her alone, where as my other mare I'm pushed to get two bales in.

I had thought that fibrebeet would provide more fibre than the sugarbeet and theoretically hardening up her poos a little more??
I don't want to up her haylege, as I'm concerned this will make the situ worse.
 
I mix normal live yoghurt in with my horses feed when he goes like that, usually in the transition from winter to spring, it works within a couple of days for him. Pink powder etc is the same kind of thing with all the probiotics, but tescos own live yoghurt is cheaper ;)
 
After a couple of bad colics one of my vets recommended I try Equine America's U-Gard Plus for my ID as there was query ulcers but scoping would have been far too traumatic for him. It has seemed to help & it also very noticably firmed up his poos, before they'd always been very loose & watery but now they're soft - look like horse poo rather than cow pats & hit the ground rather squirting into his tail of down his legs :p
 
Personally if the horse isn't dehydrated and is healthy then I don't see a problem.

Ruskii on here has the same experience with her gorgeous cob. :)
 
I see a problem in the amount of money I'm spending on shavings for her each week:p (Approx £30+ each week!:eek:)

How would feed live yoghurt? Just mix it in with the feed or would I need to syringe it in like you would a wormer??
 
Maybe upping the haylage would be the way to go. Does she always have some left in the morning etc. As haylage is lower in fibre and higher in water than hay , you normally need to feed alot more of it weight for weight. I would try a digestive aid either yoghurt, PP, milk thistle etc, etc.
 
There's never any left over - she'd eat the entire bale over night given the chance! She has one BIG net of haylege at night(break your back weight)!
 
Would there be any side effects if it's fed long term? :confused:

I think I'll give the live yoghurt a bash first, at that price it's deffo worth a go!
Failing that I'll try the pink powder - Thats Naff isn't it??

Thank you all for your advice:)
 
No idea about long term, as I've only had to feed it for about a week at the most then his gut seems to be rebalanced and he copes fine.

Another point to add is I have him on a magnesium supplement and he hasn't had any sloppy poo since I started him on that. I started to use that after he got laminitis but the guy in the feed shop says the reason it helps with laminitis is because it balances the gut and stops it from going haywire which is what causes the lammi. Perhaps thats another route to take a look at?
 
She's not a stereotypical cob and she does struggle to keep weight on, she can also get very excitable.

She's not 'over fed'(atleast I woudln't say she is!). She only gets a handful of chaff, 1/4 of a small scoop of sugarbeet and 1/2 a scoop of the cubes twice a day, and plenty of haylege. She's ridden 6 days a week for a min of 45mins. We do alot of competing - dressage, sj'ing, hunter trials and ODE's. I personaly wouldn't say that is over feeding considering she does find it difficult to keep weight on??

She was on hay for most of her life, but started to cough quite badly(even though it was good quality and soaked) so we had no option but to put her on haylege. Her poo's have remained the same since the hay/haylege swop.

Just wondering if she is stressed ? If she is excitable and finds it hard to keep weight on, is her busy lifestyle something she finds stressful ? How much turnout does she have ? Please don't take it as a criticism, it isn't meant to be, as I may be barking up the wrong tree, I don't know her and she may thrive on it.( Not enough turnout makes my laid back cob stress with runny poo.)

On a pratical note, while Pink powder is good, even better (for mine at least ) is Dengie's triple XP Action. My feed merchant recommended it and I was impressed.
BTW, they are currently marketing it as showing tests have resulted in 10% less poo per horse. Could save you a bit on the bedding costs if it works for you.
 
Wet Poo Expert!

Whilst I wish this wan't the case, I've had to become a bit of an expert in equine wet poos as my childhood ponies have hit their thirties. Your neddie's probs are no doubt not related to being as old as mine, but here's the benefit of what I've discovered - hope it helps!

Slippery elm - it sort of lubricates the intestines to reduce inflammation - this has been the BEST product I've found and not too expensive. I get mine from Hilton Herbs;
British horse feeds Fibrebeet and Dodson and Horrells Fiberygy have been godsends;
Global Herbs do something called Diareeze - not very imaginatively named and smells like curry powder but seems to do the trick - I think it's got psyllium husk in it which sort of cleans out the system;
Haylage, any oils (including linseed) and too much grass (especially in spring) go through mine like a ferrari;
I would never be so brave as to try sugarbeet - I think that would have quite spectacular results;
Bailey's do a supplement called something like destiveaid which is a probiotic and prebiotic and not ridiculously expensive.

I also got mine worm counted and teeth checked, just to make sure that wasn't the cause.

Ooh, and if you have the poo down the legs problem, a good spraying with showsheen helps stop it sticking. Nice.

Good luck!
 
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