I have a Haflinger who I've had for about 5 months now.  She's basically a pleasure horse and not in heavy work.  We ride out in the field, mostly walk/trot and sometimes canter.  She's not very balanced, so I'm working on that now before we start cantering a lot in the field.  So, when I canter her under saddle, we're doing that in the round pen.  Gradually doing more laps at the canter.

So, I've always noticed that her manure is a little looser than I'd like to see it.  No, she doesn't have worms and has been on a regular worming schedule.  She has also had the power pac, and doesn't have any other symptoms of worms/parasites.  She's at a healthy weight, not dehydrated, great appetite, and drinks plenty.  I feed her Wellness Safe & Lite by Seminole and local coastal hay.  I've tried Timothy on her to see if that helps, but it doesn't.  The coastal is actually better from what I've observed with her.

I also notice that when I exercise her in the round pen (on the ground), she poops a lot.  The first poop will be almost normal, just a little cow patty like, then the second, much looser, and the third very loose.  So that's when I stopped and hosed off her legs.  I'm wondering if she gets diarrhea with work???

She did have an episode where she was displaying symptoms of ulcers, not colic tho.  Vet gave me Ranitidine to try on her after a dose of Banamine.  Banamine did the trick, but I think the Ranitidine gave her more loose manure, so I stopped it.

Anyone ever heard of this?  Any suggestions?

Banamine can cause gastric upset and ulcers because it's an NSAID, so I would not recommend it for a horse displaying symptoms of ulcers.  I can see why he had you give it if he thought she may be having a colic episode.  How long ago did you give her the Powerpac?  I've also heard people that say soy gives their horses the runs and the #1 ingredient in the Wellness & Lite is soybean hulls.

Have you tried a pro/prebiotic like RationPlus?  I can't say enough good things about that stuff.  As far as treating for ulcers, I know GastroGard expensive but it's the only thing to heal ulcers on the market right now.  You could also try http://equine.omeprazoledirect.com/ I know a lot of people have had great experiences with them and made treating for ulcers much more manageable.

Then again... some horses just get nervous when it's time to work.  My BO's QH gelding will instantly poop runny poop down his leg when someone he's not familiar with comes at him with a saddle.  Her Arab also poops alot when he works but it's usually soft balls not runny like a cow pie.  You just have to play detective and use the process of elimination to see the problem is.

Hope this helps... good luck!

 

I am seriously starting to wonder if it is soy that is a problem with her.  I was thinking the same thing as I read through the ingredients.  If I remember right, I think her cow patties started when I switched her over to my feed vs. what she was on before which was Stock & Stable 10%, which has no soy, but not much in the way of quality ingredients. 

I did start her on a prebiotic late last week, Lifeforce.  I'll see how that works, but so far has not really made a significant difference.  Guess I could also check out the RationPlus.

Thx

 Banamine will exacerbate ulcers, so I would not continue that.

My first guess is that she is getting nervous with the work, hence the degradation of poop integrity (haha, that was fun to type).  It could also be a feed issue.  

Also, don't assume she doesn't have worms unless you've had a fecal done.  I had my horse on what I thought was a great worming program -- and he was full of worms!!  And I consider myself an educated horse owner, I was so ashamed!

 

Interesting, Solaris.  Did he have other symptoms when he had worms?  What was body condition?  Thx 

I agree with Solaris and BHK: anxiety. That is a sure way to see if a horse is nervous about something: they poop. You'll see balls at first, then as the manure gets less digested it will become runny b/c the balls don't get a chance to firm up. If it were runny all the time, diet might cause it, but firm-to-mushy-to-runny sure sounds like anxiety to me. It only happens when she's worked, and diet-related problems are rarely on-again-off-again. There's the red flag.

Removing soy from their diet isn't easy when you feed a commercial complete feed.  You might have to do some research and have the feed mill mix something up for you or just start with alfalfa pellets (good for the tummy), beet pulp with some vegetable oil (good for the tummy) a vitamin/mineral supplement and the probiotic.  If she's a halflinger then I would think she would be an easy keeper and not require a lot of feed?  If you powerpac'd her recently I wouldn't be too worried about worms, but you can have a fecal done just to make sure. 

If it's anxiety then I would worry about ulcers and maybe look into a magnesium supplement like E/Se Mag  or Quiessence and always make sure she has hay in front of her especially before a ride.  They should never be standing around with nothing to eat.  My horse has a hay in front of him all the time and I especially make sure he's eating hay before a ride.  Keeping something in the stomach helps keep the stomach acid in the lower gut from splashing up on the upper gut while riding.

HH5131:

Interesting, Solaris.  Did he have other symptoms when he had worms?  What was body condition?  Thx 

 

It was very surprising.  His body condition was great, he was very fit (eventer) in full work, looked perfect (shiny, no real noticable belly).  The only thing I noticed was that he resisted engaging his hind end under saddle and he just didn't feel quite right (I know this horse VERY well).  I had vet check that out and found some soreness in hindquarters that we injected with muscle relaxers.  That didn't work and we were pondering and on a whim did a fecal (I hadn't bothered before b/c I thought I had a great program).  OMG, it was full of worms.  Sure enough his belly was sore because the worms had caused ulceration.  He didn't want to engage his hind end because to do so required engaging his ab muscles which made his belly hurt.  

We treated him for ulcers, changed his worming program and he was eventually fine.  The initial worming was really hard on him and the worms took a lot of out of him when they came out, he did NOT feel good for that.  But once we got over that hump, he was great and completely back to normal now.

 

Wow Solaris I think I'm going to talk to my BO about changing our deworming program because her program is really out date.  I've been reading more and more about doing a fecal twice a year and deworming accordingly instead of just squirting whatever down their throats and forgetting about it.

BoyleHeightsKid:

I've been reading more and more about doing a fecal twice a year and deworming accordingly instead of just squirting whatever down their throats and forgetting about it.

I have to add that my new vet also recommends doing a fecal test to see if you need to deworm in the first place.  She said if the test comes out negative, there's no reason to worm.

I'm going to have this done to rule out worms.  Everything I've tried as far as feed allergies and/or ulcers has not worked.  She still does not have the nice formed balls of manure that the others have.  It's getting better formed, but still rather loose.  I'm now trying a stomach soother of pure papaya and only a handful of grain w/alfalfa pellets and plenty of coastal hay.  Can't give her too much alfalfa since she's an easy keeper Haflinger and will get fat very easily.  This is very frustrating.  Will post any results I may get.

I thought she only had runny manure when she was worked. It's actually all the time? Then that changes my suspicion, from anxiety to what other have mentioned.

Yes, after much observation, she drops almost cow patty style manure on a regular basis.  However, when she works, it becomes runny.  She is not worked hard, she is mainly doing pleasure riding, hacking around the field, or if I'm limited on time, she'll get exercise (w/t/c) in the round pen, again, nothing strenuous, she barely breathes hard.  She's in great shape - tough Haflinger.  She needs to get exercise, so I hate to let her sit around.

However, I've got a fresh manure sample in the frig to take to vet tomorrow a.m. to hopefully get a handle on this.  They'll do it in-house, so will know tomorrow.

thx

I've also been reading more about this stuff: 

http://www.sweetpro.com/products-equipride.html

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=297534&highlight=equipride

Some people say their horses won't eat it but others say their horses love this stuff.  I don't have any experience with it but I think I'm going to try it.  It's soy free... 

Let us know what happens when you remove the soy...  I'm really curious!

Well, she's been off the soy for about 3 days now, and no change.

 I took a poop sample to the vet this a.m.  They haven't gotten the results yet, but they said that cow patty poop isn't usually a symptom of worms. 

It's a mystery right now.