Help! Any tips for fussy eaters on Antibiotics recovering from gastric infection?

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BonnyB

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So basically our mare was admitted to our local Equine Hospital with a gastric infection and now she doesn't really feel like eating (or drinking for that matter). We have tried Happy Hoof, Sugar Beet, Horse and Pony cubes, Conditioning Cubes, Alfa-A Oil, wet food and dry food, carrots and re the water she was on a drip so has almost gotten used to not drinking normal water and she thinks Molasses water is not nice.
Any suggestions would be HUGELY appreciated, we are running out of things to try!
Thanks
 
Grass is probably the only, and best, thing that she will feel like eating at the moment. It's the most natural food, and the easiest for them to digest. My mare had enteric septicimia 4 years ago and grass was the first thing she wanted to eat. It also contains water.
What is wrong with your mare?
 
They don't quite know!
We initially thought she was colicky, but after two rectal examinations and an ultrascan they could find no twists/impactions. She had a temperature of 103 and a heart rate of 70, both are now down to normal (thankfully) and both white blood cells and protein levels were very low (both on the up again though). The vets have put it down to some sort of infection in/around her colon area, and they have also run tests for Salmonella but so far that has returned negative.
She does sort of like the grass, but she doesn't really seem too bothered about eating anything, she has a bucket of grass, a net of hay, a net of haylage and some Alfa-A, Condidtioning Cubes and Sugar Beet but of the three she eats the Haylage and the grass.
Thanks for replying :)
 
Whenever I've had to tempt my horses to eat feed when they've not been very enthusiastic is by smothering it in dried mint... they love it. And mint is very good for the digestive system too, so an added bonus!!!!!

Hope your mare picks up and is back to her old self very soon :)
 
You really need to put her out to graze herself, rather than feeding in a bucket, even better if you can put her out with a quiet companion who will encourage her to eat.
All the best.
 
My guys all turn into raving maniacs for a snifter of readigrass - so it might be worth trying!

Also putting apple juice, treacle, golden syrup, fresh mint etc into regular feeds can sometimes work?
 
Are you putting drugs/antibiotics in the food? My mare won't eat anything with medicine in it - regardless of what it's smothered/hidden by. So all her meds are syringed in her mouth, leaving her feed plain and unadulterated.

She too is a fussy eater, and she isn't interested in most packaged feeds. She likes straights of pelleted linseed, split peas, and chopped grass. But most of all she likes grazing in the field.

Good luck with it - and maybe remember - after we've had big illness/digestive problems, we don't feel like eating much either. A couple of slices of toast is what most recently-ill people want, not a big old tasty yummy roast dinner.
 
Is she still at the equine hospital or back home? What have the vets suggested re: feeds? Do they feel some sort of probiotic product might be a good idea?
 
She was a little more interested in food today, but not to the same degree she usually is, we were going to try getting hold of some mint but nowhere round here seems to have it! we would use mint tea but she thought soggy food was even worse! She wasn't allowed out to graze at all as they weren't (and still aren't) sure what was up so they put her in isolation in case she was infectious, but she was allowed out in hand for 15mins today and she seemed to really enjoy 'pick your own' food! She said apple juice wasn't meant for horses, ditto honey and golden syrup. She is having her medication intravenously so it's not like her food tastes off, but the vets just want her to eat more so they know her system is a-ok, and if tomorrow that is the case she should be allowed home so we shall see how that goes
Thanks again for all your suggestions :)
 
BonnyB said:
They don't quite know!
We initially thought she was colicky, but after two rectal examinations and an ultrascan they could find no twists/impactions. She had a temperature of 103 and a heart rate of 70, both are now down to normal (thankfully) and both white blood cells and protein levels were very low (both on the up again though). The vets have put it down to some sort of infection in/around her colon area, and they have also run tests for Salmonella but so far that has returned negative.
She does sort of like the grass, but she doesn't really seem too bothered about eating anything, she has a bucket of grass, a net of hay, a net of haylage and some Alfa-A, Condidtioning Cubes and Sugar Beet but of the three she eats the Haylage and the grass.
Thanks for replying :)
Click to expand...

I posted on your veterinary thread. I can't remember which of my threads I posted (as in, where I was in the process) but the fact that she has low protein and colicky symptoms strikes me as similar to my mare. She has Right Dorsal Colitis - basically inflammation/ulceration of the colon. Hers was caused by Danilon but it can be caused by infection. Another poster on the thread I linked you to had a mare with colitis I think caused by infection. Protein losing enteropathy and low white blood cell count both presented with my mare too. Hers went to 36 at the lowest (protein that is). Does/did you horse have ventral odoema (sp?) ie swellings along her abdomen? That's another sign. As is going off food and diarrhoea (sp again!). My horse was very very poorly indeed. I did some googling after it was diagnosed and found lots of anecdotal evidence (US forums mainly, for some reason) that said that a horse with colitis needs to have no hay for 3 months at least. This is because the hay can literally scrape, or get stuck, in the swellings/ulcerations. Layman's terms obviously, but the pictorial image stuck with me. Anyway, she kept having repeat colics, sometimes daily, with no clinical signs of anything being wrong, other than she was clearly in pain; but has only had one in 3 and a half weeks since I took her off hay, and that was because I left her too much dry readigrass, so my fault. She is now on a diet completely of soaked food, as I think i said before. She does also get some grass, but only 20 mins or so 4 times a day at the moment.

I'm not sure if any of that rings bells/helps at all (and I realise I am now obsessed with this issue and probably trying to find it wherever I look!). I also realise that getting her to eat anything is probably quite difficult, but keep at it. If you haven't tried readigrass yet, definitely try that, they seem to find it very palatable, just make sure you soak it!

Just re-reading your post above, about all she is interested in is hay/grass - I posted a thread with almost the exact same title, not long after first diagnosis. She really didn't seem to want to eat hard food for a while, but readigrass helped, and her appetite/interest in food slowly came back.

Apologies this is now very waffly and potentially all irrelevant, but maybe do a bit of googling of colitis and see if it fits? And of course, discuss with your vet! Feel free to PM me if you want, too.
 
Thanks for all that ^^
Thankfully it didn't turn itself into anything else and we have her home now, the vet is coming out Wednesday to do a final assement. We've found a cool mix which she seems to be enjoying and being able to put her out during the day is really helping
Thanks again though :)
 
Vet told me to give my mare glucose when she was recovering from colic. It is good for energy and I presume it tastes nice. I just put a tablespoon into the feed. You can buy it in a supermarket.
 
Apple flavoured water, apple juice or packet of strong mints with boiling water poured on them in a mug mixed in with feed. Or failing that powdered dried mint from feed merchant.
 
Thanks for the suggestion about the glucose, though she is feeling rather well at the moment, and she is a very good doer so there is no lack of energy at the moment! I will bear it in mind though if she does start to lose energy.
Thanks also for the advice with her water, though thankfully she is drinking a decent amount of water now, and it seems to be that she much prefers home water to vet water! :)
 
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