Thursday, August 5, 2010

Good Gut Health

As many of you know, I've been battling loose poop issues with Ollie since the time I got him. I've had some relative success in getting poops with some semblance of shape to them. Lately, however, after fighting an infection with antibiotics, Ollie's poops are as loose as they've ever been.

He has gone through a treatment with gastroguard, and now I'm doing loading doses of probiotics and utilizing U-gard. His feed is Kalmbach's "Kalm 'N Ez" which is a low sugar, low starch, high fat feed (sounds like he's on a similar diet plan as me!). At his new home, he's being transitioned to getting more hay throughout the course of the day (we're doing this slowly) and eventually less grain.

That's our current plan. That's always bound to change as we monitor him.

Many of you have offered your suggestions on supplements and I have checked into many of them. One of them was Bio Sponge. The website doesn't tell you what's in it but after reading a wonderful article about Global Hunter and his recovery, this stuff must be darn good!

So I thought I'd post a link to the story. It's a great read!

Saving Global Hunter

This is the part that made me want to blog about it:

The horse has been placed on Bio-Sponge, a supplement Herthel designed to promote gastrointestinal health. In this case, Bio-Sponge is being used to help Global Hunter’s gut ward off colitis that sometimes is a complication of antibiotic therapy. He also is receiving a daily triple dose of Platinum Performance, a supplement Herthel developed to aid in maintaining healthy bones in performance horses, to help repair the fracture.

Interesting stuff!

4 comments:

  1. I'm joining Global Hunter's Facebook page ;o) Having good gut health after all those antibiotics is just as important for horses as it is for people. Fingers crossed Ollie's system settles down. Honestly. These horses of ours ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Probiotics are good. I fed probiotics to a 30 year pony mare who was scouring so badly that her owners were going to put her down. in fact I was so determined that I paid for them myself. They worked. She lived.

    ReplyDelete
  3. kippen64 that's great! The probiotics have helped Ollie in the past. Right now he's on a good regime of them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. SynerGI EQ by Stellar Mark Animal Health is a newer probiotic on the market that was designed specifically for GI issues like those you mention (loose manure, as well as travel/stress associated diarrhea, antibiotic associated diarrhea).

    The main ingredient is Saccharomyces boulardii, a yeast with repeatedly proven anti-diarrheal effects in horses, humans and dogs. Most universities and referral equine hospitals are skeptical of probiotics (see Dr. Scott Weese's JAVMA paper from March 15, 2002 on PubMed) due to poor quality control or ineffective concentrations. SynerGI EQ was developed by an equine surgeon and an equine internal medicine specialist specifically for this reason- with efficacy and quality in mind. SynerGI EQ has only been available to veterinarians until recently and has received an excellent response from Doctors at Rood and Riddle, Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery in Weatherford, TX, University of Florida, Littleton Large Animal Clinic in CO, among others.

    If you are looking for a probiotic with loads of scientific support behind it, SynerGI is worth a look. Check us out at www.stellarmark.com and feel free to email us with any questions at rob@stellarmark.com or keith@stellarmark.com.

    ReplyDelete