Horse wont eat hay, gastric ulcer related

[Stasha22]

My mare has suffered from Gastric Ulcers in the past and has been successfully treated with GastroGard.

She stopped eating her hay a few weeks ago and I tried her on 5 different types of hay and 3 types of haylage, all to no avail. When she stopped eating her hard feed and showing signs that the Ulcers may be back vet came out and put her back on GastroGard for 1 week.

After a few doses she picked up and started eating again. Last dose was on Sunday night. Monday night she hardly touched her hay and last night she ate her hard feed but no hay whatsoever.

I give up. I have run out of ideas for getting her to eat hay/haylage. I am going to ring the vets to discuss giving her another weeks worth of GastroGard but she can't live on the stuff!

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do with her? I really am at my wits end, I know it seems silly but it really upsets me that she stands in all night and wont eat a thing.

P.S She is turned out for about 10 hours a day and has a stress free life, not ridden due to a previous injury.

 

[SSM]

Coligone??

 

[Stasha22]

Well, she's already on a supplement that is supposed to ease the Ulcers (Equine America U-Guard Plus) that was recommended by my vet. Obviously doesn't work though, does it?!

People do speak highly of Coligone so perhaps it is worth a try.

 

[fairhill]

What about leaving a big bucket of readi-grass (or something similar) in her stable to replace the hay?

 

[Heidi1]

Give Coligone ago.. www.coligone.co.uk

 

[Stasha22]

Have tried tubs of Hi-Fi, Alfa A and Readi-Grass. Not interested. Have also tried feeding her hay in a net, on the floor, in a tub, soaked, dry... I really have tried all I can think of.

 

[Stasha22]

I will, have sent H'sMum a pm.

 

[Sags_Deer]

soaked fibre cubes

 

[sleepingdragon10]

You could try some soaked high fibre cubes?
Will she not eat any chaff at all?

Beth

 

[Sags_Deer]

okay also treat like an old horse, soft soaked food. also baileys condition cubes soaked, alpha beet, sugar beet etc just rember to keep most of it fibre based. Mollichaff has molasses in it

 

[Stasha22]

Tried that too! Not keen at all. Will take pasture nuts out of her play ball thing though.

 

[Stasha22]

She will eat the HiFi thats mixed in with her hard feed (she only gets 1/2 scoop of leisure mix and a scoop of hi-fi).

When offered it by the bucket load she turns her nose up at it.

 

[sleepingdragon10]

Wow!She is fussy isn't she?

Well.....you could try something like Applechaff(smells divine!) dampened mixed with a little Baileys No1....although the Baileys is not high fibre it might encourage her to eat her Hi-fi/applechaff,and if that works then you could slowly replace the Baileys with soaked pasture nuts.

 

[Stasha22]

I can see what your saying but at the end of the day she is only 8 years old and I shouldn't have to feed her like she's an old bird.

I think there is a problem somewhere, but I just don't know what it is. She did used to eat hay like any other normal horse but its only this past month or so that she has stopped.

Sooo frustrating!!!!

 

[Stasha22]

Hmmm Applechaff... Haven't tried that one!

*runs to feed shop*

 

[sleepingdragon10]

It's not expensive either,so if she doesn't like it you haven't wasted a fortune on an expensive feed

Beth

 

[Stasha22]

Anything is worth a try, although still stuck with the lack of hay eating problem!

 

[spaniel]

Is she out on good grazing? If she is out ten hours a day on decent grass then it may be she just isnt that hungry for more fibre??

I know you say that you dont want to feed her like an oldie but if thats the way to get stuff into her then you may have to just bite the bullet and do it that way.

 

[sleepingdragon10]

Would she eat alfalfa?Thinking along the lines of soaked alfalfa pellets mixed with a chaff?Kind of hay in a bucket type thing

 

[Stasha22]

Yes, the grazing is pretty good.

If it wasn't for the Ulcers I wouldn't be so worried because I know she is getting plenty of grass, but my vet keeps going on about how important it is for her to be constantly eating fibre to stop the Ulcers flaring up, so 12 hours in her box not eating a thing is far from ideal.

It's a bit of a vicious circle really.

 

[Stasha22]

Well, have tried Alfa A and she wasn't at all impressed with that. Not tried Alfalfa pellets though.

I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall at the moment!!!

 

[sallyf]

Talk to your vets again,
There are now a number of other treatments avaliable to either buffer gastric acid or acid inhibitors.
We struggled for a long time with a horse that had these sort of issues and gastrocare and the other products did nothing to help although have used coligone on others since with success.
I believe and i may be wrong that it is better to wean them off gastro gard slowly so as not to shock the system.
The one thing my horse would eat was spillers high fibre cubes and they helped him more than anything.
We spent a fortune all to no avail with this particular horse but i think that there are many more thing now that you can do.
Im sure that one of the treatments involves anti histimanes so keep asking.
I ended up having to put my horse to sleep as he became a danger to us and himself.
I wish we had the options then that there is now though.
If your vet not sure get them to ring someone in one of the big vet practices in Newmarket there is help out there.

 

[Stasha22]

Thanks, Sally, thats really helpful. Very sorry to hear about your loss. My friends mare also had to be PTS due to her Ulcers becoming untreatable so it is a real worry for me.

I wonder if I am having further problems becuase the GatroGard was stopped suddenly? She had 7 days with a syringe every night to nothing.

Am going to ring vets now to discuss and get her put back on GastroGard, will give her a few days and wean her off slowly this time to see if that helps.

 

[sallyf]

Will keep my fingers crossed for you it is so soul destroying, one of the problems that made my horse worse was the fact that he suffered from food intolerances to simple things like peppermint , apples , carrotts and sugar beet all the things you would think would encourage them to eat.
He also wouldnt eat any hay when not right.
A real tell tale sign with my horse is that his mouth and gums would be very dry.
The one chaff he would eat in a bucket was Dengie hi fi senior but we had to steer clear of stuff with additives and molasses.

 

[Stasha22]

That must have been really tricky for you, I only have Ulcers to deal with and that is hard enough!

Agree re the dry mouth and gums, Lottie is the same. Have tried Hi-Fi Senior and again, she wasn't interested.

Have just spoken to the vets and they are giving me another box of GastroGard and said to give her half a dose a day for a few days and then cut it down to every other day and see how she gets on.

 

[samp]

Has the ulcers actually been confirmed? have you had blood tests? Scans, peritoneal tap? Sounds to me like maybe there is sometihng going on that really should not be?

 

[Stasha22]

She was scoped about a year ago and they found Ulcers on 4 different parts of her stomach and they were grades 5 and 4 so she was pretty bad. They were successfully treated with a 2 week course of GastroGard (second scope showed they had healed) and turned out to grass for 6 months.

The vet has said that if there is no improvement after this second lot of GastroGard we should think about running a blood test and scoping her again if blood results show we need to.

Do you think it could be something else? Worried now!!

 

[pottamus]

If she eats the grass, could she not go out at night too? Have you checked it is not her teeth that are preventing her from eating the hay?
Your vet is right, she needs to be eating fibre all the time for ulcers....presumably you have had some sort of tests done to prove it is an ulcer problem?

 

[Stasha22]

See post above yours, she has been scoped etc.

Teeth were done about 6 months ago so should be ok, although will ask vet to check when she comes back out next week. I don't think teeth are the problem though as she doesn't even try to eat the hay.

Turning her out 24/7 will be my last resort if I can't sort her out. She happily lived out for 6 months over the summer but then she decided she had had enough, hence bringing her in at night. Have tried to leave her out but shes gets very stressed and makes it quite obvious that she wants to come in.

 

[Stasha22]

Hi Kate

That is exactly what I am planning to do, she is going back on GastroGard for a further week and then she will be going on Coligone. (Am yet to decide between powder and liquid though, going to try to do a taste test with her tonight!)