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EQUINE MATTERS
D I ARRHOEA
Veterinary surgeon
Rebecca Goodwin
XLEquine practice
Cliffe Veterinary
Group
Managing Diarrhoea
Rebecca Goodwin BVetMed CertAVP(EM) MRCVS
Cliffe Veterinary Group
Figure 1 –
Diarrhoea staining of the tail
Figure 2.
Diarrhoea staining of the tail
Diarrhoea refers to the passage of watery faeces,
(figure 1)
as opposed to
relatively solid faecal balls of a normal horse. In basic terms, it can occur
due to increased speed of movement of food through the gastrointestinal
tract, increased water secretion into the gut and/or reduced absorption of
water by the hindgut. If the horse lives at grass rather than in a stable,
diarrhoea can be harder to identify, but faecal staining of the tail
(figure 2)
or scalding of the skin around the horse’s back end is obvious.
Figure 1.
Profuse diarrhoea in a horse with
Salmonella
spp. infection