Horse struggling/in pain when eating?

emandchar*

emandchar*

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Hi, I am looking for some advice/any insight on why my horse appears to be struggling chewing his food, in particularly hay.

Tonight when i went to bring him in from the field he was just standing and not grazing although he is in quite a lush paddock and he normally loves his food. He also seemed a bit lethargic. Put him in his stable and he grabbed a mouthful of hay but then just stood there with it hanging out his mouth and didn't chew it. I pulled most of it out his mouth and he sort of attempted to eat the few strands that were left but looked almost like he'd forgotten how to chew.
Tried again offering him a few strands and the same thing happened. So tried him with a treat and he managed to chew it but tilted his head to one side and seemed very laboured in his chewing. Tried a handful of chaff and again tilted his head to one side but seemed to cope with it better than the hay and managed to eat a bucketful, albeit slowly. His whole manner still seems a bit subdued.

He seemed completely fine this morning so i'm very puzzled. There is no swelling around his mouth or jaw. I've tried looking in his mouth but he was being difficult so struggled to see anything. Could this be a tooth problem, maybe the start of an abscess? or just that he could have scratched, or been bitten/stung in his mouth somehow? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
 
Thanks for your responses, teeth were last checked around october last year i believe, of course if he is still like this tomorrow i will sort out a teeth check asap.
I suppose i'm just puzzled why this has come on so suddenly as he appeared fine grazing and eating his hay this morning/early afternoon.

He doesn't get a lot of hard feed normally, just some chaff so he thinks he's getting something as he doesn't really need it, so can't really test that.
 
Right

Because of his age I would be looking at teeth. It is possible that there is a gap between 2 teeth and he is getting stuff stuck in the gap.

I have 2 mares that have this problem,one is 18 and the other is 22.

Take a large syringe and wash the mouth out a couple of times a day. I use one that has a Large tip to it.

I use a weak solution of listerine (fresh mint) mouth wash.

Also if you go to Boots and buy a brush that you would use to clean a babies bottle out with and use this as a tooth brush.

They do get use to you washing their mouths out. I do not need a head collar on either of mine.

Also try and get him to have a drink after his feed.
 
Thistles in your field???

My old boy used to lacerate his mouth to pieces and do exactly what you describe. I was completely confused at first with what was causing it until I caught him biting the tops of thistles and visibly wincing as he did so. His mouth was shredded at the back, but he continued to do it. :rolleyes:

It is also possible given his age that his teeth are becoming looser and infection may have got in causing an abscess. I would get the vet tomorrow if not completely normal again.
 
Take care - friend of mine had a horse that suddenly struggled to eat hay. Teeth were ok. Nothing else had changed. A 3-horse lorry from the yard was going to the vets with 2 horses on board - nothing major. So owners popped their horse on at the last minute. Long story short, its lower jaw was broken. Unitl you get to the bottom of the problem, you need to start feeding either a short chop fodder such as Mollichaff Veteran or similar, or make up a sloppy feed that the horse can almost suck up. Otherwise the horse could be in bigger trouble because of the liver and other issues linked to starvation. Vet job, pdq.
 
I recommend getting your vet out to check him over, as it could be any of the things mentioned on this thread, or something completely different.

Having said that, it sounds very similar to what happened to my horse a few weeks ago, all of a sudden he was really struggling to eat any haylage, so vet was called that day- turns out he has a diastema (gap in between his teeth) where food had been getting stuck, causing inflamation of the surrounding gum. He's going to be having a procedure to widen the gap, in the hope it will allow food to pass through rather than get stuck, but until I can pin down the vets on a date to have the procedure (don't ask!) I've been washing his mouth out with a hosepipe then suringing dilute mouthwash into the affected side- I'd like to point out that my horse actually likes a hosepipe in his mouth, and am very careful not to aim it straight at the back of his mouth, or allow too much water in his mouth, in case he chokes. He's also having feeds of sloppy speedibeet and readygrass to suppliment the fact he's not as able to eat long forage at the moment. However he does seem to be doing better since I've started washing his mouth out.

Please keep us updated on your boy's progress.
 
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