Any Suggestions, my horse is off and on his Hay!!

[Ruger201]

I have a 14 year old ArabX that foundered 4 years ago, but we caught it in time and since then he has been on a strict diet of mostly just hay and allowing the occassional bit of grazing on grass but timed amount only. I gave him and my other gelding their west nile vaccines about a month ago as it was advised to do so by our vet and everything went fine. About 2 weeks later he stopped eating hay and not drinking a lot of water for about 4-5 days, as soon as I was about to call out the vet I decided to deworm him again just in case (he is up to date on his worming) and he seemed to snap out of it and continued on as normal. Then over the last few weeks he has done this same thing a couple of times where he stops eating his hay and just seems to pick at it and not drink a lot of water for a few days and then he goes back to eating his hay like normal.
I figured that maybe his deworming had missed a specific type or something so I picked up a different brand of dewormer and gave it to him and that seemed fine but then 2 days ago I fed him his dinner (he lives at my parents as I dont have property yet) and since then he hasnt been eating his hay or drinking anymore, but yet he will eat grain or carrots.
I gave him a once over, checked his mouth for sore spots, looked in his mouth for ulcers or anything abnormal and nothing seemed to be hurting him, he's not acting colicy, but when hes off his hay he sort of wanders around and then stand by his shelter, and tonight when he was fed he seemed to be chomping his lips...
We borrowed some hay off the neighbor tonight and he seems to be eating that so far....
Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be wrong before I call out the vet?

 

[twiggy2]

try a different source of hay/get his teeth checked in the next few days and then vet if no change

 

[lornahill]

Hi there,

What happened in the end?

I am having a similar issue with 21 year old gelding. I assumed it was from him getting his teeth done around 10 days ago, but he also had his jab done at the same time so maybe it could have been that, he will eat treats out of my hand and happily eat his hard feed, all be it slowly. But will leave over half his hay at night, seems rather down too... he's clearly hungry and is beginning to drop weight.

I have the vet coming out tomorrow, but going out of my mind with worry! Hes doing a lot of chewing and so much licking with his tongue, ive noted excess head shaking in the stable as well!

Thanks,

Lorna

 

[Nudibranch]

I know its the condition of the moment but stomach ulcers could be a possibility. It is worth seeing the vet. You can try a drug trial if scoping is likely to be an issue, they usually respond pretty quickly.