foal with diarrhea

[CHRISTINE]

I have a 6 week old Clyde foal who has diarrhea since day 4 ... he is NOT failure to thrive ... at first, we thought it was due to his mother's colostrum changing to milk, then it was blamed on her foal heat. (It is important to note the mare retained her placenta and was on antibiotics from day 2 for about 7-10 days.) After the foal heat was over, the foal continued to have diarrhea and was put on oral antibiotics. Nothing has helped. He has projectile watery diarrhea. He was put on large doses of buttermilk - again, no results. Now he is on Equine Probios 15gm BID ... this foal is active, playful, healthy (he has grown 5 inches in the first month of life) ... is nursing, nibbling at hay, grazing and eating a little grain twice daily. Any thoughts?

[EquineOnly]

Diarrhea may be caused by eating inappropriate or unfamiliar feed; by bacteria or viruses, or diseases of the colon. If the horse is very ill and/or has a fever, your veterinarian should collect fecal material for culture to eliminate the possibility of a bacterial infection which could be spread to other horses and/or humans. Has this been done?


Other possible causes of acute diarrhea are foal heat but that seems to be ruled out already, arsenic poisoning, phosphorus poisoning, plant poisoning, parasitism (especially Trichostrongyles) and Potomac horse fever.