October 8, 2011 - "Poop juice"

So Rory's been having poop juice trouble this year.  It started some time late winter or early spring, I'm not sure exactly.  I didn't think much of it at the time.  He has no other signs of anything amiss - no signs of ulcers, he's got a healthy coat, healthy appetite, willingness to work, no girthiness, nothing.  Just poop juice.

Anyway it's gotten pretty nasty at times this summer with some thick crusty streaks down his butt cheeks all the way over the points of his hocks and inside his hind legs to the fetlocks.  Nasty.  I felt he was a bit gassy too, and the gas was usually accompanied by several tablespoons (or more) of juice.  I took him off flax as an experiment and the gas does seem to be a lot less.  His poops have been normal, well hydrated though solid enough to retain the turd shapes on landing - not cow patties by any stretch but they are also accompanied by what seemed to be a lot of juice.

In August the vet was out and I mentioned it.  She gave me the "poop juice" term.  We were changing his feed that week too, and the juice dried up and his bum and legs were clean (apart from a very few individual drops).  I figured he'd been reacting to something in the old feed.  The juice started getting worse again about 10-12 days later, and got progressively worse to the point of being more than I'd ever seen before drying up again.  About 10-12 days messy.  I started him on yeast during this messy period, and he got worse for several days before getting better again.  Fortunately he was clean while we were at the Cup Qualifiers, but late last week he started again.

He did have a fecal done in August on one of his very juicy days - no significant egg load.

I discussed it with the vet again almost four weeks ago as it was getting bad again at that time and she said that a biopsy might be the next step as it would show encycsted worms  (or holes), and the white blood cells (types/counts) could indicate if there's an allergic reaction.  That was right after I started the yeast so we were going to see if that helped first.  It hasn't, he's juicing again and even had what appeared to be a mini gas colic one day (20 min and he was fine) after I rode, so we're going to the next step.  I just went through my notes and marked on a calendar his worst days and his clean days and it appears that it's about a three week cycle with 10-11 days clean and 11-12 days dirty.

One of the other vets at the clinic suggested trying a hindgut buffer before the biopsy.  He's had some success in putting horses on the buffer for six months, and then they've stayed healthy after coming off it.  He did say there were a couple that had to go back on the buffer, but it seems to work in most cases.  The buffer is EquiShure made by Kentucky Equine Research, and is a top dress powder added to the horse's feed.  Rory is starting on two scoops a day, and may be able to go back to half that in a couple of weeks (if it works).