loose poop

So... Pistol has a history of Sand Colic, he's actually been doing pretty good for some time now but his poop still gets loose on occassion, Some of it is age related and some of it I think is the sand...
He gets sandclear once a month and he's on equine senior, his teeth are all loose so he chews his hay into a big cud and then spits it out. (I buy him alfalfa, which he can eat and I buy the cubes too and he can kind of eat them too). Equine senior is a full source feed which means he really doesnt have to have the hay, although I think roughage would be good for him. He does get grass...

Anyway... his poop has been runny for a couple weeks now, he's acting perfectly fine and holding his wait so I havent called the vet out yet. I'm going to sandclear him again just to be on the safe side, but I was wondering if it's ok for his poop to be that loose as he is an older horse or if there were some tricks I can try to help him out... suggestions on feed or anything. I won't change the senior feed though, he does well on it, but hay suggestions, supplements... or anything like that would be really appreciated... and if it doesnt go away in the next week or so I'll call the vet (but he does have looser poop then normal anyway)...

I feel dumb,
Whats sand colic?

I would hold off on the extra Sand Clear as it cleans them out so thoroughly it would push his food on through, too and he'd loose the nutrition.

I would just keep an eye on it, maybe give a dose of electrolytes since it's so hot right now (it is here, at least). If it gets worse , then I'd call the vet, but for now, if he is acting otherwise fine, I'd just watch and see, personally.

Sand colic is colic caused by ingestion of sand

Also you might want to try giving him corn oil, that helps with the sand and also the digestive tract, we used to give it to one of our boarders old mares and it cleared up her loose poop.

I like the electrolyte idea... do you think I could just mix it in the water trough? I have 5 horses in the field together but I have two troughs (how do you spell that?), I could do one plain water and one electrolyte (I'm assuming the bucket will tell me the ratio to mix?) any suggestion on flavoring?

I would give him some Probios. They sell it in big syringes at a lot of farm/tack supply places. Its great stuff for digestive ailments.

My one little house dog had loose poop for a few days. After cleaning up all the little messes she made. I put some peptobismal, water and kibble in the food processor. She ate it and is in the pink again

I'll try the probios too... I thought cornoil was for the winter time though? Doesnt it burn hot?

I wouldn't give corn oil

The probiotics are a great idea - - my older (26 yo) guy gets those - -we also SOAK (aka soup) his grain. Ever since he came out of colic surgery back in Nov, we have been doing this. His poop went from loose and sometimes runny to very consistent and more "solid"

I don't think the electrolytes are a bad idea either, but (of course) be sure your older guy is drinking Plenty of water or it could have adverse effects :)

I think she should just be glad its a barn horse instead of a house horse like my poopy puppy :roll: