Horse not eating hay

[DizzyDaisy29]

My ISH has stopped eating hay at night, he's in for about 14hrs at a time. Any ideas as to what to do? It's been going on for about a week....

Since not eating hay he has moved fields so he might just be gorging himself in the day, and he has also moved onto daytime turnout. Should he be okay or...?

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

It's probably because the grass is good his not that interested in the hay and full up on grass, I would just cut it back until the grass gets eaten down he will eat it when his hungry so don't worry.

 

[WandaMare]

Thats a long time to go without anything, is he picking at it? Could it be teeth, some horses will eat grass with teeth problems but not hay. Have you tried some different hay, maybe he doesn't like it, or try some haylage just to test what he does. How old is he?

 

[DizzyDaisy29]

He's 13. He is picking at it a little bit. He had his teeth done in may

 

[Shay]

Can you change your hay batch and see if that makes a difference? Its a long time to go without eating at night.

 

[WandaMare]

You could try bringing him in early one day just to test whether its purely due to being stuffed with grass. I would want to sort it out sooner rather than later, just in case he does have a tooth infection or something that needs treatment.

 

[Carrottom]

Are you mucking out the normal number of droppings? If so I wouldn't worry.

 

[Ellietotz]

Is it the same hay he ate before? Could it have gone off? Does it smell bad?

 

[Goldenstar]

Weigh how much you put in and how much is left .
if he’s doing the normal amount of droppings over night he’s eating something .

 

[magicmoments]

It happened when I had a TB on loan. I found that the round bale had been peed on by a dog/ fox so no wonder he was reluctant to eat it. 14 hours is along time to only pick at hay.

 

[ester]

If others are eating the same hay source I would be getting a vet/dentist to look at him.
Mine has stopped eating hay twice, once it was with others on the yard so clearly a hay source issue.
The second time was a vet job as the hay was definitely fine, he just couldn't/wouldn't eat it.

 

[showjump]

I had this with my mare (a year ago) we have only just got to the bottom of it. I tried different hay/haylage the lot. Dentist found she had some diastamas and cleaned them out, however it carried on. We have only just got to the bottom of it. She was picking at her hay but nowhere near eating as normal. She turned out to have arthritis in both mandibular joints. Shes been jabbed and now 12 days later has started polishing off her hay every night! Its worth keeping in mind if you cant tempt him to eat/trying different bale wont work. I honestly feel awful we haven't been able to sort her out sooner, but we just wrongly presumed she was a being ott about the diastamas.

 

[Green Bean]

Have you tried wetting your hay. When my horse was on box rest she liked a choice of both, hadn’t had soaked hay with me before. Otherwise agree with others. A vet should be able to tell you what it may be?