horse, grass, and diarrhea?

Question

for the past six months my gelding has had diarrhea since i put him out in pasture. took him to vet. got his teeth floated and put him on treatment for parisites. when i bring him into barn for grain and brome hay, he goes back to normal. in the pasture is bale of prarie hay and fescue grass and he gets diarrhea again. he is out there with six other horses and none of them have this problem. all the hay is good quality and keep it all stored in a barn. it seems that the grass is the problem. my question is....... do u think the grass is too strong for his stomach? do u think he will get over this? he has been to more than one vet and his paristes are gone now. any advice would greatly be appreciated. NOTE: i have had this horse since he was three. i have owned horses my hole life and never had this problem.

i have ask the vets and they cant tell me anything.

all the animals are on regular scedule for worming and he got the problem before i moved him out there.....long story.... mom bought him for me then took him and sold him last year then had to buy him back... and he was thin and hooves were horrible... but now fat and happy and acts normal except for the diarrhea we cant get rid of

i have had three different vets in my area look at him... none of them can give me a good answer... "it may be his teeth. or parisites".... i have had his teeth floated and the parisites are now gone and he is on a regular worming program

Answer 1

Definately something in the pasture, but diarrhea is usually caused by not enough fiber, and it definately seems like he is getting enough. Locking him up all day tho, with only an hour turn out a day will kill his joints, and cause him to 'age' faster. horses were not meant to stand in a stall all day. I recommend a dirt pasture or an unused arena with low or no grass. Feed him his hay outside in a trash barrel or something, let him have his freedom!

Answer 2

From what you said, it probably is the grass.
How watery is it? We have a gelding that will always have diahrrea in the spring months when the grass is new. He has it for about 2-3 weeks and then it clears up by summer. (on it's own, untreated) Did you get any kao-peptin for your horse? It is pretty much like pepto bismo. Call a vet and ask for some. You can also buy it at fleet farm, but I do not know the dosage for horses anymore. You may just have to treat him for it and hopefully it will go away on its own after a few weeks on the grass.
Does he have access to hay when he has grass? Ours will eat hay inbetween grazing episodes, which may help solidify his poop. If you already have it out, maybe he is just eating mass quanities of grass because he is so happy to see it. Try slowly increasing his time outside, and maybe that will fix it.
I know that this was a jumble of ideas, but maybe you can pick something out that works!
As for parasites- if he had some before, all of your other horses have some and need to be wormes and on a regular worming schedule. Parasites persist in poop. The only way to truly get rid of them, if you can not leave that field be for a year, is to worm your horses and pick up every scrap of poop in the pasture daily. Otherwise they reinfest themselves. Once parasites get into a pasture, they are hard to get rid of.

Answer 3

I agree, it probably is the grass. Try putting him in a paddock with little or no grass and feeding him the brome hay in that paddock. He just may be sensitive to the fescue or he might be eating something in the pasture that is toxic. Also, how many vets have you consulted? It seems weird that none of them could give you a clear answer.

Answer 4

Either there is a specific plant he is getting into or like you said the pasture is just too rich for him. If he has had his teeth floated, is on a good worming program, has been seen by different vets, and isn't showing any horrible signs of colic or anything of that sort then I bet he is just fine. We have a grey few spot filly that had the same issue when she was younger. She eventually grew out of it.

Answer 5

The Fescue grass is too rich you could try gastro guard .
You could try putting the horse back in the barn and turn him out for an hour a day for a week and see how that works if he tolerates that put him out for 2 hours a day the next week and so on

Answer 6

There is obviously something in the pasture that the horse is eating that doesn't agree with him. If it has been six months, he more than likely won't just get over it either. I say, as inconvient as it may be, don't put him out in that pasture anymore.

Answer 7

He might have a sensitive stomach or there is something in your grass. what did your vet say? you really need to ask your vet questions!