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Chronic diarrhea in 27 year old horse

9267 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Acadianartist
My Appaloosa gelding has been getting full on projectile diarrhea when eating hay. The horses are on pasture board but when the footing in the field is wet, they get hay and are confined to a dry lot. About 24 hours after getting hay, he gets diarrhea. The diarrhea resolves after returning to grass or with biosponge treatment. This has been going on and off for maybe 2 months.

He's been examined by a vet. Physical exam is normal. Blood work is normal. He doesn't seem to have trouble chewing and his teeth are fine. He has all of them. None are broken or loose and he is up to date on floats. The vet was unable to feel any points or other issues. He has no fever, and no loss of appetite. His attitude is bright. The other 2 horses in his field are fine. He was just dewormed and his fecal exam was negative. He's in good weight. He is being treated for Cushing's with a daily half dose of prascend and he's on probiotics.

The hay is a high quality grass hay, the same kind of hay he's always had, and none of the 18 other horses on the property seem to be having an issue with it.

There has been no change to his turnout situation or his workload (been retired for 2 years). He hasn't left the property. Other than the grass to hay switch, his diet remains the same.

I read that chronic diarrhea can be a common issue for older horses. Does anyone else have experience with this? What else can I do to combat this?
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I've had more than one older horse do this. First thing to try-- switch hay. I had one who couldn't handle grass hay, but did fine on alfalfa mix. Another needed the coarsest, stemmiest, blandest hay I could find. The rich, good horse hay caused him all sorts of issues. If it hasn't been tested, have the hay analyzed and see what the sugar content is. That may be your issue.

If another type of hay doesn't help much, he simply may not be able to digest it anymore. Sometimes older horses' digestive systems start to slow down, and they just can't digest hay anymore whether they have teeth or not. You may need to switch him to a complete senior feed that is forage-based, or look at soaked alfalfa cubes and beet pulp for his forage and drop the hay altogether.
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