Wits end with anorexic horse, ideas please.

Does he like molasses or honey? If so smother it on a fairly plain food like the hay cobs and he will probably eat it.
 
Sorry I may have missed it but have you had any kind of equine therapist out to him to do some work with his gut/meridians? My mini who had liquid poo for months was really helped with shiatsu and is finally solid a year on. He is very fussy and is fed a handful of Baileys stud mix and Pink Mash twice daily now. I literally tried so many feeds and herbs and supplements over the months like you have. I added dried peppermint to feed. I offered herbs for self selection which he enjoyed, tried Guiness and seaweed.
There must be something going on for this appetite suppression. I am also a fan of cranial sacral therapy which my osteopath uses. Just ideas.
I will likely get shot down for this but you could try using an animal communicator and ask your horse what's going on. I have used distance ones and can honestly say best £45 I have spent.
 
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countrywide horse and pony mix is truly delicious to all horses I have seen. Does he like peanut butter? Why not soak something in apple juice? Second the fruchtgennus by the way. a few spoon full of runny lemon curd will make some horses eat anything. see if he likes it. my mare loves raspberry jam, try that. I have know quite a few horses who will eat anything with brown sauce on too.
 
horselady said:
how did you get on today YBCM?
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Well it's raining, which may help. But I seem to have managed to teach him that it pleases me if he eats a golf ball size bit from my hand. He certainly looked as if he was taking it purely to get me to tell him he's s good boy. He was taking it off my hand and then looking at me for approval. He loves praise, so it's entirely possible, and would be a very big step forward.

We'll see what happens when the sun next shines.
 
I haven't read all 16 pages of this thread but I saw someone suggested an animal communicator. If you can message me I would be happy to try and find out the reason for it, no charge. I can also send some distant reiki if you like. If you're not into that, no problem, just wanted to help.

I assume you have had the vet check his teeth etc?
 
Jason, the horse doesn't have an issue with his teeth, he is quite content stuffing himself full of grass; however he needs what is basically life-saving medication every day, but he isn't interested in a bucket feed at all :/
 
That's it in a nutshell Casey :)

I am now almost certain that I've trained him to eat just to hear me tell him how wonderful he is. He looks at it on my palm, he looks at me, he tentatively takes it and swallows it almost gritting his teeth, and looks for the praise. So it's taking an hour to get 200 grams of bran and a small handful of chaff eaten, but it's going! And the sun was shining too :)

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I'm very evidence based and communicators aren't my thing at all I'm afraid.
 
ycbm said:
That's it in a nutshell Casey :)

I am now almost certain that I've trained him to eat just to hear me tell him how wonderful he is. He looks at it on my palm, he looks at me, he tentatively takes it and swallows it almost gritting his teeth, and looks for the praise. So it's taking an hour to get 200 grams of bran and a small handful of chaff eaten, but it's going! And the sun was shining too :)

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I'm very evidence based and communicators aren't my thing at all I'm afraid.
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We get a similar reaction from our dog, she's desperate for praise and will do anything for it. When we were housetraining her, unfortunately she thought weeing per se was the good thing rather than weeing outside. She'd come into the living room, pee in front of us and wag her tail madly as if to say "Aren't I a clever girl. Make a fuss of me!" It took weeks of ignoring the inside weeing and making a huge fuss of the outside weeing for her to get it!

Can you reduce the bran so it'll go down more quickly or do you need that much to disguise the taste? When my fussy boy's on bute, a tiny amount of feed, hand fed, is easier to get down him even though logic tells you to add more to hide it.
 
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I haven't got time to read 160 posts but have you tried copra, aniseed, liquorice or marmite? Will he eat things like cleavers and cow parsley if you pick them for him? Can anyone else step in and feed him for you - it sounds like there is quite an emotional commitment if he will only eat from the palm of your hand, and perhaps if you take yourself from the equation that would help......
 
Hi - I'm just catching up on this thread and all the replies. As you asked earlier yes I would love to meet you for a catch up....I grabbed a couple of samples of Thunderbrook muesli today with you in mind (although you might have already tried it) and some hay cobs (maybe you could soak them down to make a nice feed?). Anyway if you haven't tried them its worth a go!
 
annagain said:
We get a similar reaction from our dog, she's desperate for praise and will do anything for it. When we were housetraining her, unfortunately she thought weeing per se was the good thing rather than weeing outside. She'd come into the living room, pee in front of us and wag her tail madly as if to say "Aren't I a clever girl. Make a fuss of me!" It took weeks of ignoring the inside weeing and making a huge fuss of the outside weeing for her to get it!

Can you reduce the bran so it'll go down more quickly or do you need that much to disguise the taste? When my fussy boy's on bute, a tiny amount of feed, hand fed, is easier to get down him even though logic tells you to add more to hide it.
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Got to love that dog!

That's the minimum. On bad days I add even more. Today it was 300 but he ate half by himself one handful at a time. If I put all of it in the bucket at once, he often doesn't touch any of it!
 
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LCH611 said:
I haven't got time to read 160 posts but have you tried copra, aniseed, liquorice or marmite? Will he eat things like cleavers and cow parsley if you pick them for him? Can anyone else step in and feed him for you - it sounds like there is quite an emotional commitment if he will only eat from the palm of your hand, and perhaps if you take yourself from the equation that would help......
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There's no option but the bucket or me. If he won't eat from the bucket I'm pretty sure he won't eat for anyone's praise but mine :)

He's at home, the commitment is doable as long as I'm not away and that's only a day a month or so. I don't stand with him, I just do one plug as I wander past with a bridle, saddle, rug etc.
 
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