Fecal Water in Horses

Digestion begins in the head gut, i.e. in the mouth. ... (Zwischenüberschrift: "The mouth and saliva") Here, several salivary glands produce around 40 litres of saliva a day. The chewed feed is mixed with saliva and swallowed. At the end of the oesophagus, it enters the stomach under pressure. Chewing and swallowing already trigger digestive processes such as the formation of enzymes and hormones. These control the further processes in the stomach and intestine, for example the amount of stomach acid and digestive secretions as well as the activation of intestinal peristalsis, i.e. the muscular activity of the intestine.

The stomach acid dissolves easily digestible carbohydrates and initiates protein absorption. The stomach empties every 2 hours. Feedstuffs that swell strongly, such as starch-rich concentrate feed or modern gut-cleansing minerals like bentonite, are quickly pushed into the small intestine and often bind a lot of water. The dry lump of feed can then lead to a sluggish intestine, because the intestinal muscles have to work hard to move it along. In the worst case, this results in intestinal irritation instead of "cleansing".

Once it reaches the small intestine, the food pulp receives further fluids, namely bile from the liver (the horse has no gallbladder) and up to 30 litres of pancreatic secretion per day. Both are responsible for fat breakdown and carbohydrate breakdown and are dependent on each other, since these processes can only start in an alkaline, i.e. non-acidic, environment. Along the entire length of the small intestine (19-30 metres), "mucus" is produced. This makes further transport easier. In addition, the cells of the small intestine are highly permeable to water. All in all, in a 500 kg horse, 125 litres of water flow through the secretions in the digestive process each day before reaching the large intestine. The sodium content also plays an important role in the small intestine. The presence of electrolytes, especially sodium, is considered the driving force of water resorption. A disturbance of the electrolyte balance can therefore also lead to water loss and free fecal water.

The highly effective lymphatic system in the cecum also contributes to the rapid return of water into the intestine, or its resorption back into the metabolic circulation. The actual removal of fluid from the digestive mixture before excretion only takes place in the rear section of the large intestine.

Once it reaches the stomach, the chewed and salivated feed is moved along by contraction of the gastric cells. In the middle (fundus) and at the end (pylorus) of the stomach, the pre-digestion and preparation of the food pulp for the intestine begins. It is important to mention pepsinogen breakdown here. This is a still-inactive enzyme that is "prepared" by stomach acid and converted into pepsin. This pepsin is responsible, in the small intestine, for breaking down the proteins and utilising them.

Poor dental material, inflammation in the mouth, and misshapen molars are not only the reason for poor feed breakdown and preparation, but can also cause reduced food intake due to pain. In cases of noticeably long-lasting free fecal water, having the mouth examined by an equine dentist is certainly the first step in investigating the cause. If the preparation of the feed in the mouth does not work well and salivation is not sufficiently stimulated, the digestive process is already significantly impaired from the start, which can lead to further problems along the way to utilisation.

A lack of nutrients can also cause free fecal water. Iron deficiency and sodium deficiency have a major influence on water resorption from the small intestine, but a lack of protein can also lead to intestinal irritation if there is not enough protein available to renew the tissue. A well-balanced overall ration, which is of course adapted to the horse's needs, should be reviewed by the horse owner or keeper once or twice a year. A comprehensive blood count can also provide information about acute deficiency situations that have clearly existed for some time, but it does not replace balancing the basic ration. Not every deficiency is immediately visible in a blood count.

The gut flora cannot be precisely defined. There is no single "one" gut flora. Exactly how it is composed depends on what the horse eats, where it lives, how it is kept and how it is exercised or used. The colonisation and pH value of each section of the intestine can look quite different. Even two horses of the same breed in the same stable can show a fundamentally different gut colonisation. A disruption of the flora, i.e. dysbiosis, can have various causes and should be professionally clarified by a clinic or a specialist veterinarian. A precise assessment of the gut colonisation would be a basic requirement for determining why the balance of bacteria, fungi and yeasts has become disrupted here. However, an analysis of the gut would only be considered once all other problem areas have been optimised and clarified.

If you are not the horse keeper yourself, as an animal owner you are often not directly involved in assessing the quality of the forage. So you are dependent on the quality control at the facility where the horse is kept actually working. However, the know-how needed to recognise mouldy bales or those contaminated with too much soil and sand is not always present at the facility. Sometimes the riding students feed, sometimes the boarders themselves, and an unusable bale ends up in the hay rack. It is worth checking at this point what your own horse actually gets to eat. If the hay is noticeably dusty when shaken out, smells musty, looks brown, or even contains clumps of soil, you can assume that quality management in your stable is inadequate. One of the most common causes of long-lasting free fecal water is poor hay quality (mould growth or too many mould bacteria). If the proportion of straw is also significantly increased and exceeds 20% of the daily ration, this can already lead to massive fermentation problems. If haylage or dry silage is fed in your stable, you should also clarify the quality here. Dry silage does not necessarily have to be the main cause of free fecal water. However, if the silage being fed resembles cattle feed, is very wet, has a strong smell, or even shows several white patches, you can assume that it contains a lot of lactic acid bacteria, which have a negative effect on the gut flora. Your horse should not be given that to eat.

Gastritis or a bleeding gastric ulcer can also be a cause of persistent free fecal water. This is especially the case if your horse chews without food in its mouth, yawns or licks frequently, is very sensitive in the girth area or directly on the belly, and tenses up strongly in the sacroiliac area. You can read more on this topic here: Gastric ulcers in horses.

• Hunger due to overly long gaps between feedings
• Stress within the herd
• Stress caused by unsuitable housing conditions

The main cause of digestive problems in horses: stress. The horse feels unwell, overwhelmed, suffers from hunger, cannot settle down, is constantly moving, or perhaps is not allowed to move enough, is in pain, or is even depressed. All of this sooner or later leads to possible hyperacidity and, as a further consequence, to gastritis, a disrupted gut flora, or directly to small intestine inflammation. Chronic stress should be avoided in any case. This can never keep your horse healthy, so it is advisable to observe your horse very closely. It takes time to analyse whether the horse in question visits the hay rack often enough, whether it feels comfortable within the herd, whether it can or is allowed to move sufficiently, whether it gets adequate relaxation time, and so on. This time spent observing is a good investment and spares your horse pain and discomfort, and ultimately saves you a lot of money too.

A well-thought-out deworming management plan should be a basic requirement in every stable, regardless of the type of housing. A fecal sample can already rule out a large proportion of possible parasites. The rest can be checked by means of a blood sample if parasite infestation is suspected. Intestinal damage caused by worms can not only lead to malnutrition, but is also very painful for the animal concerned. Therefore, reviewing the deworming schedule is also a good approach.