Horse Care

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

2kids10horses — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:21:15 GMT

Sarah,

My 36 year old gelding got tired of my soaking his feed, too! I now feed him his Sr. feed one scoop at a time, dry.

Finiky aren't they?

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

Jayne-Admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:38:12 GMT

Yay!! That's great news!

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

txspots — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:54:10 GMT

Yaaaaay! Such good news glad to hear it. Now get some rest.

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

Miss_Versatility — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:51:43 GMT

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and ideas. I havn't washed his bucket out in the last few weeks, and when i do its just a scrub with water. His grain would be dumped in then the water was placed in the grain to make the mash once it was in his stall, so it wasn't going bad at all.

The past two days the BO has been trying any possible grain combo to get him to eat.

Currently he IS EATING we found a mix of Kent Senior and a handful of Sweetfeed without soaking it is what he'll eat right now. not what i'm happy with but its what we can get in him. Without soaking it we are running the risk of him coaking once again, but we have to get him to eat.

Tonight i was actually at the barn for feeding time i gave him one scoop of the mix and let him eat that, Which he ate with such impulse as to say "Yeeze you stupid humans didnt you get the point that i didnt want more water with my mash but less!!" once he ate that i gave him one more scoop (so a full portion of his normal feeding) and he ate all that too. he has a bucket of water in his stall too.

I think i'll actually be able to sleep tonight knowing my old man isnt starving

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

Jackson1 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:11:40 GMT

Have you cleaned your feed buckets/scoops recently? With the warm summer weather, there could be some mold growing in the corners that is keeping him from eating. I agree with Txspots, if you are soaking the food to far in advance, it may not be spoiled, but just smell funny. Good luck, I know how stressful having an older horse can be.

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

txspots — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:37:14 GMT

Miss_Versatility :

Tonight i got him to eat 1/2 a scoop of the senior and a hand full of sweet feed mixed from a shallow bucket on hs stall but once he finished that small portion i gave him more and he wouldnt touch it.

he may have an abcessed tooth that is really sore.

also i don't know what the weather is where you are, but i had to quit soaking my old guy's stuff over night since it got so warm, it smells different and apparently doesn't taste as good to him so i do it first thing when i get to the barn now. takes a little longer, but he eats better so it's worth it. the new purina equine sr. absorbs really fast. that may be part of the problem since he ate it fresh out of your hand but not mixed in his bucket. just a thought.

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

Jayne-Admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:58:09 GMT

Wow - that's amazing that you have a 36 year old. That's a tribute to your good care.

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

2kids10horses — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:37:22 GMT

I have an old horse that does that to me about once a year. He just stops eating. He's 36.

I can usually find something that "he can't resist" to feed him to keep him from starving. Usually it's crimped oats.

Sometimes all I have to do is change brands of the Senior feed.

Sometimes he likes it soaked, sometimes he won't touch it if it's wet. I try different things to get him to eat. Usually, after about a week, he's back to normal.

Good luck with your old guy!

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

Frizzle — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:03:42 GMT

I agree with the others - I would call the vet and make an appontment for him to be seen as soon as possible. He could have something in his mouth that's bothering him, or some kind of minor illness that is making him lose his appetite. Especially given his age, I wouldn't wait on this one. I hope everything's okay - let us know how he is.

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

walkinthewalk — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:06:48 GMT

Ditto Jane.

Especially getting the vet back out to check his teeth, given his age and that he has some missing.

That swollen eye that went away, might somehow be related to a infection in a tooth cavity

Re: Help... Old Horse wont eat

Jayne-Admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:36:44 GMT

I'm sorry to hear that Sarah. I don't really have an answer for you, except would it be possible to split his feed up into more feedings? If he can't or won't eat much at a time, can you split it into smaller feedings, several times a day? Also, it might be that he has an abcess or something that is making him sore and not feel like eating. I'd get the vet to come check out his mouth, even if his teeth were done recently, something else could have happened in there.

I can sympathize with you -- as soon as I got to the barn this morning, I noticed Annapolis has dropped weight since last weekend. The barn owner came over and told me that Annapolis seems to be having trouble eating his soaked alfalfa pellets (although it looked like this morning he had managed to eat them all, as well as his Safe Choice)

Of course, I immediately thought about his teeth and remembered that Doctor Beckham said last time she floated him that he had a wave going on with his molars and although he has most of them still, there's not much left of them. She just did a manual float at that time, so Brody and I talked about it and he mentioned that Waller Equine have a traveling equine dentist (not just a vet who does floats).

So after the holiday weekend, I'm going to call them and make an appointment for them to come and check Annapolis and see what needs to be done.

I wish I had more of an answer for you about Fantacy, hope you get it figured out.

Help... Old Horse wont eat

Miss_Versatility — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:17:20 GMT

Fantacy is 29 years old has very few teeth in his mouth, what he does have let are taken care by a Equine Dentist once a year, they were one about 3 months ago, so i know this isnt the problem. He also cribs so he has NO top front teeth.

Anyways He gets two 3qt scoops of Kent Senior and three 3qt scoops of water and mineral and MSM all mixed together twice a day. he gets about 2 hours in a stall to eat this and whatever hay he decides to munch on. July 2nd BO calls and says his eye is a little swollen, but by the time i got there in the evening it was back to normal.

Starting the evening of July 2nd Fantacy wouldnt Eat grain, but would eat hay. So i know he's not colicing since he is eating and acting fine in every other way.

He didnt eat his grain again this morning, but when i went to the barn after work today, he would eat the grain out of my palms, but wouldnt have anything to do with it if it were in the bucket.

Tonight i got him to eat 1/2 a scoop of the senior and a hand full of sweet feed mixed from a shallow bucket on hs stall but once he finished that small portion i gave him more and he wouldnt touch it.

Any Ideas? He can't not eat grain, becuase he can bearly eat hay and he loses weight in the summer normally. So i know if this goes on much longer he's gonna loose alot of weight