Need some advice, not sure what to do.....

[Marnie]

I am just tossing a few ideas around at the moment about my mare Marnie. For the last 4 days or so she has not really been eating any hay, she has been eating hard feed (chaff and fibre nuts) and haylege (which she gets at night as part of livery) but not the hay that I give her during the day. It is this years hay, smells fine and is clean. She has been eating it up until the last few days. This horse does not normally leave a speck of food or hay. I have opened another bale to see if she will eat that, and she will pick but that is about it. Her stable is really clean at the moment as she isn't eating too much hay, her droppings look like those of a 12hh pony and seem a bit too firm for my liking.

She seems ok in herself, but a couple of things from the past few weeks are niggling me. We have been doing pleasure rides for the last few months, nearly 1 a week, averaging about 10-12 miles. She isn't super fit, but isn't unfit either. The last couple of rides she has seemed really quite lazy, most unlike her really, and she has been going onto her forehand - again unlike her. Even when not doing organised pleasure rides, every weekend we tend to do a 12-15 mile ride, so this is perfectly normal.

She has not really lost any weight (pic below taken 2 weeks ago), although was maybe a bit tucked up yesterday after riding and has been wormed with Pramox and had her teeth done about 3 weeks ago (few shop edges, nothing major).

I wondered whether to get the vet to run bloods on her, we did have a couple of horses with a virus about a month ago, and although Marnie never seemed affected, I wonder if she was and it is still lingering. Does this seem silly? I will phone them later to discuss (Monday morning not the best time to phone!), but am always worried about seeming neurotic

Any thoughts welcomed!!

[image]

[/image]

 

[bellaM]

I would get some bloods done. Also what is the grass like on her field if she feels that is sufficient then she may not want the hay.
What hard feed is she getting is it giving her enough energy? Cobs do not always find going more than a few miles easy, if the bloods are clear perhaps you should put her on a fittening plan. Hope this helps.

 

[Shilasdair]

I would get the vet out to rule out any physical problem...and get them to run bloods too...
Hope she gets better soon - it's a worry when they stop eating normally, isn't it?
S

 

[Patches]

If she's eating haylage, then maybe she's just decided she prefers it to hay. I know my horse would leave hay if there was half a chance of haylage being offered instead.

Patches, my cob, went through a similar thing a while back. She wasn't being particularly well fed (as in hard feed) because she didn't need it. So, whilst she seemed a bit "flat", being a good do-er I was concerned about weight gain with hard feed.

My vet ran some blood tests and wasn't at all concerned from that work up. Everything was normal. He then recommended I put her on Red Cell, as sometimes cobs just need a little boost, especially when they rarely need serious feeding.

Made all the difference. Within 10 days there seemed to be a bit of spark in Patches, infact more spark than I've ever known her to have. She's not silly, just more forward going and keen.

 

[vieshot]

Sounds like shes become to posh to eat hay and would much prefer you to feed her haylage all the time, alot of horses do that when they get used to how sweet and yummy haylage is, they then turn their nose up at the hay. If there is lots of grass then she may not be that hungry anyway. If she is basically doing the same sort of thing every time she is riden then maybe she has just got a bit bored, try varying her routine to see if she perks up a bit doing somehitng a bit more exciting, take her out hunting. Also you could try upping her feed and maybe putting her on a more high energy feed, it may just be that the amount of feed you are giving her is only enough to just about enable her to cope with her work load so she may need a bit more to give her extra energy.
xxx

 

[Marnie]

Patches sounds quite similar to Marnie, she has always been fed like this, haylege at night and hay during the day and it has never cause any similar issues. I am reluctant to change her hard feed, she has always been bright and she is intolerant to barley so I have to be careful what she eats!

Talking to YO, the vet is coming out this week, so I will get them to have a look and run bloods just to be on the safe side - apparently she is eating her hay this afternoon, so will see how much she has eaten later.

Thanks for the info