A mystery- can you help?

JUst a random thought .(Triggered by Muffinino,s OH,s comment.) Your electrics are ingood order are they?Horses can feel voltages that we wouldnt notice.I know a yard that had a problem where horses were getting random shocks from the most unlikely things.It turned out it wasnt even their wiring but a break in the electricity boards neutral in the road.
 
That happened to a freind of a friends horse, it used to act really strangely and go mad apparantly at nothing at one point on the yard. That was the electrics too.
 
Like others have said, try leaving himout for a few weeks or if you have to bring him in could you just not give him a feed? Don't know what else to suggest!
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Hope you work something out.
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I thought a couple of things. The first is definately choke. Make sure his teeth are checked and then make sure the feed is really damp and has chop in it. Mine has had this a couple of times and the only symptoms were unwillingness to lower his head and not eating. He isn't a stressy sort though. Most Horses get over choke themselves within a couple of hours. The second was if he can eat grass he can eat a feed so maybe it's psychological? Definately agree with trying to feed him outside and see if it helps. The third....and sorry for mentioning it....is grass sickness. The reason I mention this is the sweat patches. A Horse I knew at a riding school went a bit like this - wouldn't put his head down and developed sweat patches on his neck. Not long after he developed grass sickess :-(
However....if he is eating grass fine I'm sure it won't be that.
 
Mike007 and Louby actually make a good (if rarely applicable) point. Iv seen cows with similar signs (that improve on grass) due to voltage escaping from a yard scraper. Not sure what in your stable block could cause it, but may be worth investigating. No other horses on your yard (especially in neighbouring stables) acting odd at all? If by some small chance it is the electrics it is very dangerous for them to get repeated shocks.
Other main causes of patchy sweating include grass sickness ( as has been mentioned above - Is he bright and normal in every other way, no muscle tremors?), Cushings (very young for this - cant remember what age you said he is - but a slight chance) and nerve or muscle damage which is quite likely. Is he still only sweating in the one patch - and always the same patch?
 
I was going to suggest something like choke - perhaps a small amount of feed got stuck in such a way that lowering his head obstructed his windpipe and therefore he was very stressed and colicked. He might therefore associate being brought in and fed at night with the previous stress. Can you bring him in at nights but not give him an evening feed and just up the morning feed? Might be worth getting him scoped - a friend had a horse that regularly choked and they found a sort of pellet that had got stuck, stopped doing it afterwards.
 
I'd vote for the remembered pain/remembered place cause. If it was me, I'd take a chair into the stable, put his dinner in the bowl on my lap and feed it to him handful by handful, telling him all the while what a wonderful clever boy he is and occasionally sneaking a polo or apple slice in the next mouthful from your hand. Break the cycle. After a couple of feeding sessions like this you should be able to start sitting on the stable floor to do it, then just standing there and grabbing the odd handful from the bowl. If at any stage ned gets worried again, go back a step x
 
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How very bizarre
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Non-horsey (he insists you know this in case his answer is crap
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) OH suggested it may be something to do with light if he's ok outside but not in the darker/un-natural lighting of the stable. Maybe he's got a problem with his eyes, hence him being ok outdoors and in the morning. Maybe try leaving it a while so he can get used to being indoors? Not sure, but it could affect him, I hope you get the bottom of it.

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I was going to suggest this!!!
 

My first thought was electrics too. I remember something similar happening at a friends yard and the electric cable running underneath the yard was shorting out. Is he happy to enter the stable? I think I would try putting him in a different stable and seeing if there is any difference.
 
QR - Is he grey? A friend of mine had problems with melanomas in her horses neck obstructing and stopping the horse from eating, but this would be very rare and you would probably be able to see/feel the melanomas. Also, not sure if it would cause the sweating.
 
Lots of excellent suggestions, thankyou
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The electrics should all be in excellent order, it's a newish stable block. He's perfectly at ease in his stable the rest of the time.
 
Might be similar or not.... my horse got stung by something on his lip (or something that gave him a really sharp feel) when eating his dinner whilst in the yard and he for obvious reasons is really nervy about eating in the yard now. Fine in stable and field - eats as normal. His behaviour sounds similar - he snatches his food, reluctant to put head down, paces (no sweaty patch though) and colic could be the next response I guess if he was the type of horse to really get upset about it - mine did get through it but would dive in grab a mouthful and then dart off shaking head - thankfully he only has a small amount of food. He wants to eat it but is scared so I would be going down remembered pain reflex....just a thought!

As to how we got around it I didnt feed him in the yard for a while and then I used a different bucket when I did and he seems to have forgotten but I would say it took about 3 - 4 weeks for him to 'trust' his bucket again
 
I had a young horse suddenly start lying down and showing colic symptoms. It turned out he had a nerve trapped over his back, and when manipulated, it never happened again.
The thing you have described I've had happen several times (but without the colic) each time it was the axis bone behind the ears being slightly out of alignment (the muscles really) and the effort of eating hard feed on the ground made the horses really depressed. I found though that they would all eat if I tied a bucket to the door so they weren't stretching. It sounds like your boy is very sensitive. I would certainly try McTimoney or something like that. Can I also suggest Arnica, preferably in a tincture 100 or 200 strength. Brilliant for shock, stress, colic. I've used it many times, and colicking horses really responded within 24 hrs. PM me if you want a source. I always have some here for emergencies!
 
is it possible he is catching/(or caught the first time) a nerve as he comes into his stable?

im just thinking, alot of horses as they come in make a tight turn back to the door again?? maybe it is possible he tweaked something as he turned?
 
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