Not drinking, gone off feed

[retired eventer]

Has anyone come across these symptoms ? My 24 year old home bred mare who lives out has suddenly stopped drinking and only seems to want to eat grass despite trying to tempt her with lots of other things.............today we delivered her to the vet who is running some tests. This started on Thursday. Vet has identified slight dehydration, slightly raised temperature, slightly increased heartbeat, no gut noises. She has recently been diagnosed with early Cushings.

 

[paulineh]

This sounds very much like my 24 year old was a couple of years ago. We felt she had eaten something. Mine was thought to be pheasent droppings on the grass.

My vet ended up putting up a drip to rehydrate her,antibiotics etc and slowly over the week that followed she picked up and recently she has had a tooth out but is cantering around the field as nothing had happened.

Give her a De-Tox such as Trinity Consultants L94. Give Roger a ring on 01243551766 . The website is www.trinity-consultants.com . Roger has a wealth of knowledge

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Possibility 1: you say diagnosed with Cushings but is she receiving Prascend for it? If not, the symptoms are far more wide ranging than many people think and can include confusion, ataxia, depression, fast heart rate, slow gut rate (all to do with the 24/7 production of the fight-or-flight hormone cortisol). I'd get her on medication at the proper dosage asap and you should see a rapid return to her old self.

Possibility 2: a bit early perhaps but many horses go on hunger strike about this time every year because the increasing length of daylight lets them know that the grass should be coming through. They start to refuse to eat anything except grass! Frightening!

Possibility 3: beware as this could be the start of a colic.