stops eating mid feed - leaves it paws floor and tummy then return

lj0429

lj0429

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hello everyone, my darling little welsh pony has on two occasions recently now stopped eating his evening feed after a mouthful, taken himself off to his bed, pawed floor and tummy then returned. On both the times he has done this it has been his evening feed after his half an hour turn out, not after work or anything.

Im not sure if anyone on here can share any similar experiences.

I have gave him a gentle walk out when this has happened and he has the odd stop but then returned to eating up etc. I am going to speak to the vet and get him checked out. Anyone else share similiar experiences, hopefully nothing but always a worry!
 
How old is he? has he been tested for cushings? Has he seen a dentist recently?

Definitely one for the vet. Our little Sec A used to do this from time to time in his last months - he was 30+ with controlled cushings - and it was a touch of colicky pain related to his illness. We were told to remove the feed, turn a bit of it into slop and offer it back. But he was very old and very ill at that point.
 
He is only 8, dentist floated his teeth in december and he has feed dampened into a bit sloppy as it is.

He hasn't been tested for cushings but will look into it. His coat is still quite clumpy coming off under his tummy and on his bum, I think that is a sign of cushings, our other pony is clipped - I cant recall what to expect on the coat changes, we havent had him at this time of year before.
 
If he is only getting 1/2 hour of turnout it could be that he is gorging while on the grass and he is coming in a bit bloated and gassy, you don't say what he is fed or how much hay he is getting but I would probably feed at a different time so he is coming in to hay and not a feed, being a pony he will probably be a bit full but still set out to get the feed in as fast as he can and it is just too much for his tummy to cope with.

My sec a can get gassy once in a while and it tends to be when I am really restricting her time out and she has been out for a short while being greedy, a 5 min trot on the lunge is enough to get the gas out, I have no problem with her when she is out on very restricted grass for a longer time, she is now out all night on a bare paddock, in on soaked hay during the day and is looking nice and slim with no gas this year.
 
8 is a bit young for cushings. I think BP is probably closer the mark than I was. What is the reason forthe restricted turn out?
 
silv said:
What is your reasoning for this, just curious?
Click to expand...

My grey once started to look more and more uncomfortable when eating her feeds (it started off subtle - were flies just annoying her?). She looked fine at all other times but after a couple of feeds where she tried to almost tried to lie down with her front legs while still standing up at the back, I decided that something was really wrong and called the vet. Result - encysted red worms despite her being on a good worming programme and the other horses being red worm free. IIRC I was told that worm counts will miss encysted red worms.

So I wormed with five day panacur and then after the prescribed gap (sorry I can't remember exactly) she was wormed again with a different wormer (memory failing again) and she was fully comfortable eating her hard feeds again.
 
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