My mare squirts!

I have a mare that will be four years old in May. I bought her as a yearling. She is energetic and healthy, and her manure is essentially normal, but she passes gas constantly and "squirts" small amounts of diarrhea with the gas. It is worse when she's in heat. The vet says it's a stress reaction to being in heat. She is not at all "marish" when in heat, in fact, were it not for this, you could never tell! Her tail and hind legs have dried diarrhea on them constantly! I have tried giving her probiotics, "For-a-Flex" and "Probios". Not really any help. I wonder if a "mare" supplement might help. Has anyone had this experience?

What is her TOTAL diet?? Hay and grain?How much how often of each??

We do not have pasture so she is on free choice mixed grass hay. She isn't exercised hard, just trail ridden, so I give her about a half a cup of grain every day just to mix her probiotic in.

I have a gelding who has done this ever since I bought him seven years ago. He dosen't ever act like he's in pain/colicy/annoyed. So its only been an annoyance when it comes to bathing/doing shows. It does seem to get worse when the weather changes... so I figure that's his way of stressing.

I have called many vets and they don't act like its any big deal since he's not in pain or anything. So I just hose his butt of every two days or so to make sure he dosen't get a rash or anything.

There is another gelding at my stable who also has done this for many years. His owner has done hair tests, biosponges, almost everything under the sun and nothing has come up.

She got a vet up from OHSU here in oregon and they figured out he has some sort of weird bacterial disease called ganieria (sp?). Its not the same as the disease that gives you diarriea. Basicly what the 'squirts' are is mucus. The horse is producing mucus to get rid of the bacteria or something (can't remember the full details).

So they pulled all the suppliments off the gelding and put him on some 20+pills a day (forgot the name of them... starts with an M though). It cleaned his back end right up. But after a month they pulled him off and he started doing it again... I don't know if this problem can ever be cleared up.

I currently have my horse on MSM and Equieries (sp?) probiotic (non pellet form). And it does help keep his mucus in his poop down... but he still squirts if the weather changes. He's not in pain... and if he's had it this for a long and he's healthy... so its probably not life threatening so I haven't put any more money into trying to stop it. I've just been watching the other owner figure out what it is so I can in the future get a vet over to try the same thing.

Figured out the name to it. Its called Giardia.

The pills have the same name as what humans use (in cream form) for vaginal and testical infections... can't find it though at the moment.

You could try changing the grain to a pelleted mix without grain. Maybe she has difficulty with the grain. I've seen it, so you never know.

You might try adding a good vitamin/mineral supplement to her diet.. it may just be an imbalance in her system.

You might also try Diamond Vee Yeast if you can get it ... 8ozs a day.

I had a mare who if given one handful of grain based feeds made her stool loose.

Can you tell me what your experience with Diamond V yeast is? Did you have a horse with the same problem as mine, and if so, how long did it take for the yeast to help?

I knew a paint mare that did this. She was mostly white 2. Talk about messy! We found out that any thing with alfalfa made it worse but never could find the cause of it. Make sure you check you grain to see whats in it.

was it metronidazole? They use that often for dogs with diarrhea, my dog is on it every time she eats something she eats something other then her food because she has a very sensitive stomach