BallyEquestrian
New User
Hi all,
Wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this that will hopefully put my mind at rest. Before you jump to the comments to yell ‘colic!!’ - please read below…
My 17 year old, usually greedy horse has lost her appetite. She is recovering from being in horsey hospital for 3 days having treatment for a gastric impaction where her only symptom was a very very mild colic/off her food. It was treated successfully, medically with no surgery. She came home a week ago today, and we put her out on grass as per vets advise as she was still off her haylage/feed. She then got really gassy on the grass, and went dull/sad again, (stomach ache) vet came out and although all clinical signs were normal, flushed her on site which also came back normal. She does not have ulcers or any kind of impaction. The next day she started a course of equioxx in case of any throat/digestive inflammation that might be causing her not to want to eat.
Worth adding, she had bloods taken at hospital- all normal- they are 100% sure they cleared the impaction, especially after the vets most recent visit. We are seeing her drink a good amount, pooping normally and running around in the field (now half a day every day).
She is looking and acting much more herself since being on the equioxx, which I am told is a low grade pain killer and wouldn’t mask colic pain. So this is encouraging! The only problem is that we are now 5 days on from the equioxx starting and she still won’t eat very much at the moment…
We have tried offering wet hay, dry, haylage, all 3 together, small hole nets, big nets, hay on floor, usual feeds of varying sizes and flavours in various buckets/scoops/hand feeding. She is eating about half a net overnight and that’s it (she’s a large horse) and about 1/2 what she usually eats hard feed wise- leaving the rest. The only thing she is really interested in is carrots or apples. I have also tried adding apple juice to her feeds and she has a little bit then nothing more.
if anyone has any ideas please do let me know, she’s a big girl and I need to get food into her somehow before she starts losing too much weight. Vet advised against mashes as she previously seemed to get worse after having one. Do you think she could be depressed about spending time in the hospital? Stressed about the trailer ride she had over there which was much longer than normal? I have had multiple, VERY good vets check over her and advise that she is probably just sore still from all the tubes and will come round, but I am worrying so much at the moment.
If anyone has any advise that I haven’t thought of, or has had something similar before with a horse losing appetite for longer than expected after a stressful event/medical treatment, please do let me know. Or, if I am crazy and should I give her more time before worrying- please also let me know!
Many thanks for reading this far if you are still with me!
Very tired, stressed and worried horsey mum
Wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this that will hopefully put my mind at rest. Before you jump to the comments to yell ‘colic!!’ - please read below…
My 17 year old, usually greedy horse has lost her appetite. She is recovering from being in horsey hospital for 3 days having treatment for a gastric impaction where her only symptom was a very very mild colic/off her food. It was treated successfully, medically with no surgery. She came home a week ago today, and we put her out on grass as per vets advise as she was still off her haylage/feed. She then got really gassy on the grass, and went dull/sad again, (stomach ache) vet came out and although all clinical signs were normal, flushed her on site which also came back normal. She does not have ulcers or any kind of impaction. The next day she started a course of equioxx in case of any throat/digestive inflammation that might be causing her not to want to eat.
Worth adding, she had bloods taken at hospital- all normal- they are 100% sure they cleared the impaction, especially after the vets most recent visit. We are seeing her drink a good amount, pooping normally and running around in the field (now half a day every day).
She is looking and acting much more herself since being on the equioxx, which I am told is a low grade pain killer and wouldn’t mask colic pain. So this is encouraging! The only problem is that we are now 5 days on from the equioxx starting and she still won’t eat very much at the moment…
We have tried offering wet hay, dry, haylage, all 3 together, small hole nets, big nets, hay on floor, usual feeds of varying sizes and flavours in various buckets/scoops/hand feeding. She is eating about half a net overnight and that’s it (she’s a large horse) and about 1/2 what she usually eats hard feed wise- leaving the rest. The only thing she is really interested in is carrots or apples. I have also tried adding apple juice to her feeds and she has a little bit then nothing more.
if anyone has any ideas please do let me know, she’s a big girl and I need to get food into her somehow before she starts losing too much weight. Vet advised against mashes as she previously seemed to get worse after having one. Do you think she could be depressed about spending time in the hospital? Stressed about the trailer ride she had over there which was much longer than normal? I have had multiple, VERY good vets check over her and advise that she is probably just sore still from all the tubes and will come round, but I am worrying so much at the moment.
If anyone has any advise that I haven’t thought of, or has had something similar before with a horse losing appetite for longer than expected after a stressful event/medical treatment, please do let me know. Or, if I am crazy and should I give her more time before worrying- please also let me know!
Many thanks for reading this far if you are still with me!
Very tired, stressed and worried horsey mum
