horse wont eat hay :(

scrumpyjackles

scrumpyjackles

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i am very stressed over my horse as he WILL NOT eat hay....teeth etc up to date so its not that.....hes never been a massive hay lover but this year he has completely gone off it ! iv tried haylage and hes a little more interested in it but still not that fussed.....i struggle to keep weight on him....WHAT DO I DO ?????? :confused:
 
scrumpyjackles said:
i am very stressed over my horse as he WILL NOT eat hay....teeth etc up to date so its not that.....hes never been a massive hay lover but this year he has completely gone off it ! iv tried haylage and hes a little more interested in it but still not that fussed.....i struggle to keep weight on him....WHAT DO I DO ?????? :confused:
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Have you tried steaming it - sometimes works for fussy ones. Mind you, if he's not that interested in haylage, you might be doomed!!

Readigrass?
 
I was going to say Readigrass.

Something to think about - and I don't want to be an alarmist, so don't panic about it. I was talking with someone recently who had exactly this problem. She had it analysed, and apparently it had been chemically sprayed. Some kind of preservative, and they reckon quite commonly used on hay. She went back to the dealer (been bought through a middle man) and they established that it had indeed been chemically sprayed. She sourced some other hay that hadn't and, hey presto (excuse the pun!!) the horse ate it.

Might be worth exploring.
 
Will he eat a good amount of chop or Fast Fibre either of which can be fed in larger quantities as a hay replacer. Grass nuts are another thing to try.
The grass is good at the moment and they seem to prefer that over anything else so could he stay out.
 
thanks guys...
i dont think its been sprayed as plenty of other horses on the yard will eat it !
i feed him a bucket full of readi grass and a scoop of fibrebeet overnight to try and replace his hay ! but hes still blooming skinny....i worry about ulcers etc as well if hes not getting the roughage he needs !!!
god damm horses they are such a worry !
 
Have you tried soaking the hay/steming it?

Last mare suddenly went off her hay. It was because it was too dry. So I soaked it for her. Even if the hayledge was dry I had to wet it.

I then had a livery who said her horse wasn't eating the hayledge and I suggested wetting it and her horse ate it too once wet. Wierd animals ;)
 
Get a cob :D

No, sorry, seriously now... a tb mare on our yard never eats hay. So, she just stays out 24/7 on grass. Problem solved.
 
il try soaking it tonight see if that helps !!

i think i may indeed be swapping him for a cob !!!

my yard wont allow him to leave him out and the quality of grass isnt great now coming into winter - il be screwed when it starts snowing if he refuses to eat it !!!
 
Steam it rather than soak it, it makes it smell really nice. Soaking doesn't give it that nice smell.

Have you tried some different bales just to see if it is an 'off' one?
 
One year the hay that i bought off the field did not store well. There was nothing apparently wrong, it certainly was not mouldy or dusty, but neither did it smell sweet and "grassy". I took the lot back and the farmer was surprised and just said "it had no nose", his cows ate it, but neither of my horses would, they just stayed hungry.

Try buying a bag of horsehage haylage from your feed shop. It's good stuff, it's also not mentally expensive. If he won't eat that, I'd be very surprised.
 
my horse also isnt a big hay/haylage eater but i have now got him to eat it up overnight by shaking the hay out into a hay grill and large skip tub, i mix readigrass or mollichaff fibre and either fibre mash or speedibeet in the tub with his hay and he eats the lot! also try adding a few sprinkles of mint herbs onto the hay in the skip tub( i did this to get him eating it but dont need to now).

hope this helps.
 
My horse did the same. I had two different fully qualified edts look at her and two vets who all said her teeth were fine. Another vet was at the yard and I asked him for another opinion just incase. My poor horse had seven packed diastema (gaps between her teeth) and the gum was so infected it had rotted away. In a few places it had nearly rotted down to her jaw bone. With a lot of work she now eats hay. All those professionals were so obsessed with sharp points on teeth they forgot to look at her mouth.
 
my horse was like this for a short time and i got really paranoid, she was eating 3lb of hay a day at most. I went out and bought the best hay/ haylage i could get my hands on and it made no difference.
I was told by so many people that it might be serious, that she would kill herself etc. But when i sat down and thought of it she's a horse, no animal will starve itself to death :) in the end i let her get on with it and she just started eating spontaneously and now i cant stop her from eating! He will eat if he's hungry :) xx
 
how do i steam hay ? (i realise that may sound silly) !!!

i bought a bag of haylage he picked a bit of it but that was about it !

iv asked my cousin if i can pick up a bale of his hay in the hope that he might eat that !! so fingers crossed for tonight everyone !!!

i wonder if you can get like a mint spray i can spray on his haynet ? :confused:
 
the trouble is as well - as you may all well know horsey people can be very bitchy/nasty ! a couple of people have made comments about him in the past as hes quite lean....so i get paranoid people are going to accuse me of not looking after my horse !!! i spend soooooo much money on food its ridiculous, he just doesnt get any fatter !
 
I had real problems last winter with finding something my, normally VERY hungry, horse would eat. Some hay he wouldn't touch, then find some he did like but it was dusty so started coughing. I steamed, he still coughed, i soaked....he refused to eat!! Tried on the yard's haylage, refused to eat that...at this point i started really worrying and thinking there was something wrong with him as he lives for his food. All other horses were eating the haylage fine.

I then managed to source some small baled haylage from the Kent Haylage Co. and he absolutely LOVED it, finishing every last blade of it. He's now on that again this winter, and whilst its not the cheapest way of feeding him, he is very happy with the situation!!!

I agree that they generally wont starve themselves but if you have one that doesn't hold their weight well the last thing you want to see to see them not eating.
 
scrumpyjackles said:
the trouble is as well - as you may all well know horsey people can be very bitchy/nasty ! a couple of people have made comments about him in the past as hes quite lean....so i get paranoid people are going to accuse me of not looking after my horse !!! i spend soooooo much money on food its ridiculous, he just doesnt get any fatter !
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have you tried oil in his feed ? you can give a mugfull in each feed, more if you need to, I have to watch my horses weight as he had lami a few years back, he's looking a bit lean to me so am going to add some oil to his feed

My horse doesn't like hay steamed, how I did it was shake out the hay then fill the net with it, put it in a clean bin with a lid, pour a few kettles of hot water in and shut the lid, it did smell lovely but my horse didn't like it and he has to have it soaked now anyway cos of the lami risk
 
This happened to mine one year. I tried everything, steaming it, got hold of some other hay, they still wouldn't eat it! I gave in and put them on haylage!
 
In pure desperation a couple of years ago I got one of those big buckets of very molassed field licks (can't think of the name) and used to mix a couple of tablespoons with boiling water to dissolve it and then spray it on our hay. It worked but I wouldn't like to do it too often with the risk of laminitis in ours, your TB should be fine if he needs to put weight on.
 
Mine can be like this and it's infuriating when they're not good doers. People kept saying " he'll eat if he's hungry!" but he would sometimes eat barely any hay overnight and yes, he lost weight.

I mixed haylage in with the batch he didn't like and he loved the haylage, but I couldn't afford to replace the hay with that. I also sprayed it with value apple juice which made him a bit more interested in it. Funnily enough, after they went out 24/7 he was quite happy to eat it in the field!

The veteran horse society has some information on hay replacers for horses with few teeth, mainly consisting of unmollassed beet and alfalfa mix chaff. A friends horse did well on this when it had difficulty eating hay. Not cheap though! Good luck.
 
My boy stopped eating his hay this winter. I found out it's because his arthritic hocks were causing him trouble when stood in. He's now on devils claw or a tiny pinch of bute and he's fine and will eat everything
 
When you hear the saying ' you are what you eat ' it's not strictly true as in fact you are only what you absorb! It may be worth checking that your boys digestion is ok i.e ulcers etc. and then if you know that there is nothing the matter from tooth to tail , think about steaming some hay . I know some who have made steamers from a plastic dustbin with a small hole cut low in the side and then attaching a wall paper stripper inside to create steam or you could just put the hay in a dustbin and pour boiling water on and pop the lid on for 20 mins or so. Horsehage ( Mark Westaways ) is also a good option.
 
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