Vibes and advise please - horse will only eat grass

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catherine22

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My old mare hasnt been very well at all over the last few weeks. SHe has stopped eating hard feed and hay totally (she was eating normally before that) and will only now eat grass, carrots and parsnips.

She had her teeth checked as soon as she stopped eating and had a blood test done and had a vitamin injection.That was the week before last on the friday. The next week blood test results came back ok, she has slight liver and gut damage but she is 27 so could just be old age. No improvement on her for the week so vet came back on friday gave another injection and is on steriods (i think) to try and increase her appetite and is having oil and propell plus syringed into her.Still no improvement, so vet was back on wed for my other horse and checked her again as theres still no improvement.

They are at a loss now as to what is wrong with her (will post a pic tomorrow to show you her weight) but she needs to eat.any ideas what else I can try to get her to eat? Have tried all the feed i have to hand, and shes normally fed molichaff, sugarbeet and 16+
 
How about Baileys No 1 with molasses and lots of tasty titbits chopped up in it. My friend has a 29 year old mare who suddenly stopped eating her hard feed. She just kept trying different feeds til she foud something she liked. She is now eating normally again. I think Baileys also do a feed called Meadowmix which has herbs and carrots in it.
 
Urm....poor you! You could try Ready Grass think could be Spillers,not 100% sure or a linseed feed of some sort....when my mare did not eat due to box rest,she went of hay completely I feed her Spillers-Happy Hoof as can be fed ad-lib after speaking to the Spillers help line,TBH I would phone some of the feed companies and see if they can give you any ideas.....hope I have been of some help,Good Luck in your search.
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my old boy is the other way only eats hard feed, wont touch hay and is really not that interested in grass. i hope you have more luck with your girl than i'm having with mine at the mo.
 
Have you tried literally giving her mushy food, one of the oldies at my yard really went of there hay etc. So the yard got some normal fibre nuts and soaked them, it looks disgusting but it got the weight back on him and he could almost drink it!
 
Have you tries the Simple Systems Lucy nuts, they are basically grass nuts, that you soak, but are very nutiritious, you could always phone their help line, they are very helpful.
 
thanks _OC_ i have tried readigrass but she wouldnt eat that either.

Its a nightmare isnt it, when they wont eat. dont know whats worse, ive been leaving her out 24/7 atm so at least shes eating something overnight

Good idea about phoning one of the helplines, will try that tomorrow, was going to try and put some black treacle on some feed and see if that tempts her-she always did love it!
 
Will she drink some sloppy sugar beet instead of water?

I dont know if you can still get it but you used to be able to grow your own grass using hydroponics which would have higher nutrient value I think - dont know much about it though
 
Meadow mix is what I feed my 5 year old - it must be very tasty as he gets really excited about it, smells good too. I have heard it is good for fussy eaters. My pony went off his hay too and I then found it was a bad batch.
 
have you tried putting a peppermint cordial in their feed! it helped with our fussy horse, you can put as little or as much as you like!! or try treacle mis it with hot water so it thins up and then mix it in
 
I've had exactly the same the past few weeks with my 26yr old boy. But found out that he will eat a mixture of Allen and Page Calm and Condition and Baileys Topline conditioning cubes. It was an absolute polava finding something he will eat and I've turned out 24/7 for the same reason. I get the feeling that sometimes he just can't be arsed! He can be very cantancorous in his old age bless him. Hope there is nothing going on there and that she picks up soon.

Squip
 
My boys turning his nose up at mints at the moment....imagine that!!

I sometimes think our old dears take great delight in making us worry and run around after them.

Something I forgot to say earlier is that oldies can have fit and healthy looking teeth but unseen by us, they become loose in the jaw, not enough to physically wobble but enough to make chewing just plain hard work, a bit like walking on sand, you know what I mean? Soft and sloppy food is a much easier option hence the passion for grass and mashed food.

Squip
 
try simple systems - all grass and some are great for putting weight on. i fed my old pony mare in the red grass nuts when she stopped eating, put her condition back on quite quickly and she loved to eat it. you can soak it to the consistency she likes - sloppy or quite dry. other good think is it isnt mega expensive.
 
How long has she only been wanting the grass? My mare is rejecting her hay at the moment as now she has a taste of spring grass nothing else will do
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My old mare did the same, turned out to be a tooth abcess. It took some time to come on, stayed the same as yours then over the next couple of weeks she gradually stopped eating altogether, which is when the side of her face swelled up. Up until that point niether my vet or dentist (both very good at their jobs) could find anything wrong.
 
Try pouring Tesco apple juice over her feed. Also D&H Yea Sac is a supplement that (a) stimulates appetite and (b) helps food absorption in the hind gut. My ragwort poisoned mare is on this all the time and she is doing amazingly well considering she was close to death when I took her on. She's also on D&H milk thistle which supports the liver so if you can get her eating well again, you could try that to support her ageing liver.
 
My lad does this every time his coat changes (strange creature) - only thing I've found to work with him is to buy a bottle of mollasses (about a fiver for 5l container) and stir a good glug into feed - I find I have to gradually wean it out else he goes back to refusing the hard feed though
 
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