There are many diverse reasons for diarrhoea in horses, acute outbreaks with accompanying fall off in health and responsiveness must be reported to a Veterinarian as soon possible. Salmonella infection cannot be ruled out especially with foals. Chronic cow pat like dung or brown fluid surrounding semi-segmented droppings can be a lack of indigestible dietary fibre failing to act as a brake and sop to moisture. Changing from haylage to hay or changing to later cut hay will often help droppings to firm up. Morning Foods OB Pellets (Oat husks) can also be helpful.

On occasion when changing from a fermented feed (Haylage) to a dehydrated one does not solve the problem the answer may be found by sending in a dung sample for faecal examination and an accurate pH test. Assessing the preponderance of fibre particles, dead bacteria, epithelial mucosa fragmentation and of course moisture may be informative and depending on these finding or in the absence of any relevant information we can do the following.

a)   Feed a probiotic for a week to ten days to see if a probiotic is helpful, it often can be, if the looseness is recent. In reality this may have all ready been tried in vain before we are consulted however it is sometimes worth repeating especially if the strength of the proprietary probiotic cannot be ascertained. We would make up a 2 Billion colony forming unit/g mixture of S/F Plus or if necessary HY18 which is S/F Plus (the Plus bit is dextrose) combined with Live Yeast Culture and Arun Powder.     

b)    Failing A or skipping it because we are certain a probiotic does not help we would consider a course of L94 especially in the older horse to see if helping bile production and liver function has any bearing and also feed G23 if the horse is loose but not too gassy and G21 if the horse is loose and it is quite projectile due to a build up of gas. Both formulae are carminative and soothing to the intestinal tract allowing the gut to settle and heal. 

c)     In some case Ten-Four-G can be beneficial when horses are loose in hot weather.

 LOOSE DROPPINGS AND EXTRANEOUS BROWN FAECAL FLUID EVACUATION:  Ensure sufficient fibre is being fed and any haylage is not too acid (low pH), too high in free nitrogen or mouldy. Ensure that any fatty foods (Linseed etc) are freshly cooked and not rancid.  O.B Pellets can be very beneficial at this time for ensuring good quality, pH stable, fibre is fed. 

Current recommended procedure  

1) Be sure it is not caused by worm infestation if worming use an Ivermectin type wormer if not already done 

2a) If not already tried feed a good probiotic (one that shows EU approval on label) for at least a week. Feed according to manufacturers instructions. If from Trinity use S/F Plus 2 Billion CFU/g at 25ml per day. 

2b) Mix 2 parts of Sugar to one part of Salt and feed the mixture for three or four times a days feed two Tablespoonfuls (Desert spoon for ponies). One in the morning mixed into the regular bucket feed and again in the evening. If this helps introduce Electros at similar amounts. 

2c)  If droppings are reasonably formed but accompanied by brown liquid (especially if it is foul smelling) feed L94 for 10 days at start of any programme to return dung to normal. If dung is generally homogenous feed T7 for 10 days. Feeding a handful of DRY beatpulp at this time is very beneficial for binding the dung together.  This has been proved safe to do in recent trials on the feeding of dry beatpulp in Scotland.

3a)  If the horse or pony is gassy feed G21 Formula at one measure (25ml Spoon) at least twice or if necessary thrice per day. 

3b)  If the horse or pony is not particularly gassy feed G23 Formula at one measure (25ml Spoon) at least twice a day or if necessary thrice per day. 

Sudden Anticipatory evacuation is not easy to control without dulling performance however where it is a problem Mentax Mild can be of benefit  

The above actions are for when horses of ponies are in good health and thriving despite chronic loose dung. Horses and ponies that suddenly develop diarrhoea/dysenteric scours must be referred to a Veterinarian if at all possible, especially if the horse or pony is off colour and unthrifty.