Why does my horse have runny poo??

Question

I just bought a 17 year old quarter horse appaloosa. the person i got him from had him for 9 years and said he had runny poo since she got him and had it before she got him. Sometimes its just real soft but it also runs down his legs a bit. there has got to be something wrong. what can i do to fix this??. right now he is on pasture with occasional grass hay.

Answer 1

Get a vet to worm him and give him a check up.

Answer 2

It could be a few different things.

The grass he was one may not have been to good for him. He may have worms.

Or he just isnt getting the right neutrition. One of my uncles mares had runny poo. The grass in the pasture was not very good for her. But she is fine now.

I would ask the vet for more advice on how to get rid of it.

EDIT..

i have an appaloosa as well! she is 17 too. ha ha thought that was a funny quicendence. :D

Answer 3

maybe the horse needs to be wormed...or you shouldve never bought that horse in the first place.....and why would you buy a 17 year old horse?

Answer 4

my horse had it too he just haded to be wormed and it stoped

Answer 5

No one on YA is a vet, and none of them can see your horse. You need to call the vet if you want to get to the bottom of this mystery. This horse has surely suffered long enough.  

Answer 6

I wouldn't trust any information from the prior owner to be true.  Look at this with an open mind, and forget what they told you.  If this has been going on for ten years, he must have some serious skin changes on his inner thighs?  He needs a complete veterinary workup to find the cause...and the vet should monitor any worming, first taking fecal samlpes to identify any parasites.  My guess is they are guilty of neglect and lying to cover their tracks.  Your vet is the one to diagnose this....I hope it is something you can solve,

Answer 7

It sounds like worms.Make sure you deworm him every month.If that doesn't work,call a vet.

Answer 8

No doubt this horse has a degree of inflammation in his intestines, cecum, ...there is a reason for it and you may have to detective up and keep track of what the horse eats, is he near sand,  and ingesting some of that and further irritating his stomach/intestines.  You should have your vet evaluate him...just me, but I wouldn't want my horse to have a case of the runs for over "10 years?"....thats ridiculous..you'd think his former owner would care enough about him to try to figure this out.  

Anyway, I want to know how everything is working with him and I'd probably have blood drawn for blood chemistries...and a thyroid panel done.  I can't believe this horse maintained any kind of weight as any nutrients would exit that "back door"  breaking land speed records.

Answer 9

do u feed him bran mash?

Answer 10

yeah that is something to be concerned about it could be worms other signs of worms are things like a pot belly(big belly!) and as well as having a pot belly when they've got worms u can usually see the ribs as well.Also increased appetite, dull coat and poor condition also runny droppigs..Do u know if she was wormed regularly?and do u worm her now regularly?you should always change the brand of the wormer every time you worm them as they become amune to it.But surely if shes had this problem for all these years then she would of go really ill sooner id of thought!?What i think could be the problem is that shes a nervous horse and as we all know ourselves that when we get nervous it can give us the runs!if you go to a horse sales most of the horses there usually have the runs because of all the people and loud noise etc. thats going on.He could just be a poor doer which means you can feed n feed n feed them but they dont seem to really put any weight on or they dont eat alot things like that. if he is quite a nervous horse in his tempermen then u could try a herbel supplerment with verlarian root in it there are ones that are for nervous horses i carnt remember what its called but its like kalms that people have for nerves.Its a natuarl herb so it wont harm him to try it just ask for advice at your feed store/horse shop say can u show me the herbal supplerments for nervous/stressed out horses, i had a pony about 8yrs ago who was a nervous pony she also couldnt keep still always figerting, shed sweat up really easierly and she also used to get the runs alot! so i got the supplerment ive just told u about which had valerian root in (which is a natural calmer) and it doesnt happen straight away but give it time and it really worked!it calmed her down loads she was much better after a couple of months of using it and her droppings returned to normal aswell! it depends on your horse though it might work it might not?It could also be her diet thats shes been on it might not suit him for what he needs,i know u say he had the problem b4 u had him but they owners b4 may of also fed him the wrong kinds of food.As they say what goes in comes back out so if whats coming back out is runny and not a solid then maybe whats going in isnt right if u know what i mean!lol.But the best advice i can give u is and i know its expensive is to get him checked over by the vet your vet can tell u exactly what it is (hopefully!)and what u need to do to hopefully cure it! i dont want to scare u or anything but u dont know because its been left for so many years untreated that it might be quite serious! i really, really hope that its not and its nothing to worry about but if it was my horse i would definatley get the vet to check it out! The best of luck to you! if u do get it checked out or find out what it is could you let me know please!my names lianne if u could just write it as a question following on from this one.thanx goodluck

Answer 11

The only way to get a REAL answer that you KNOW is true then ask a vet or submit it onto a vets site or something

Answer 12

There are a multitude of reasons why this might be. Other than possibly needing to worm the horse, he might just be a nervous guy. Or pasture grass has too much water in it for him. I won't worry about it too much. At least he is pooing, if he isn't then you've got a serious problem.