Apetite

[EmmaAndSummer]

My TB 18yr old mare has always loved her feed but the past few nights she has only ate some... a bit worried because its out of character but she eats fine on mornings.
Shes still having her haylege but not as much as normal... should I be worried or just monitor it?

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Last winter E&S my horse Sunny seemed to go off his feed a bit too. He'd push it around in the bowl, eat bits then either just leave it or get cross and chuck his feedbowl about. If you knew how much Sunny loves his tum you'd have been as anxious as I was! But after reading a post on here about Speedibeet and how soon it starts to go off and ferment I realised what the problem was! I'd kept my Speedibeet too long - usually I wouldn't wait for it all to be used up, I'd just add more to what was left! Learnt that lesson now! As soon as I was more careful about the Speedibeet, Sunny was back eating his feed again.

Don't know if you feed beet in any form but it's worth considering. Also, could you have had a dodgy bag of feed? There have been posts on the Forum and messages in some horsey magazines about recall of some batches of feed but I can't remember which feed it was. Another thing might be the grass in her field has started to peep shyly through so she may be getting more nutrition there. I'd do a thourough check on the feed quality and moniter her for a few days. One thing you could try is to splash a good cupful of Tescos apple juice into her feed. If she STILL won't eat it, you might think about ringing your vets x