Mare not eating.

[HorseyGurl22]

Ok, so my mare that I've posted before with the coughing issue is now not eating her grain.

We started her on a round of antibiotics, Tri-hist granuals, and we tried the Ventipulmen but she had a mild reaction to it that caused her to breath hard. She is doing much better, and the only time I've heard her give even a mild cough is when she's run across the feild either to greet me or to avoid being caught

Anyway, I started feeding her and her son a 10% sweet feed 4 days ago. I put her antibiotics and Tri-hist in her feed and for the first 2 days she ate fine. Then at one feeding I had to basicaly hand feed her her feed. The next day, thinking she caught onto my trick with the meds in her food, I gave her just the sweet feed and she ate at both meals. Then this morning and tonight she wouldn't eat more then a couple of bites. I tried hand feeding her again(thinking maybe I just spoiled her) and she still wouldn't eat.

However, she is grazing normally and even when she turned down the feed she went into grazing. So she is eating something.

The reason I'm asking if I should worry is because when she was boarded at my friends barn she eat like a little pig, and even had to be locked up at feeding time to keep her out of the other 2 minis food. Now, at this same barn she was getting pelleted feed and didn't have as much grass.

Am I just over reacting or does this sound like she needs yet another vet visit?

EDIT: I just read the post about someone getting reported for posting medical advise on the board. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post on the board.

 

[littlehorse2]

I make a mash with beet pulp , senior grain, molasses, salt, and Trisket's meds. I let it set for 1/2 hr. I mix it with hot water and she loves it. I have her on Breathe Easy which is sold by Dr. Benson's. If it's hot out she won't eat that in her feed, but if it's cool out she likes the peppermint in her feed. I'd try that. I would deffinatly try the mash, you could use bran instaed of beet pulp also.

I hope that helps.

Christy

 

[HorseyGurl22]

I make a mash with beet pulp , senior grain, molasses, salt, and Trisket's meds.  I let it set for 1/2 hr.  I mix it with hot water and she loves it.  I have her on Breathe Easy which is sold by Dr. Benson's.  If it's hot out she won't eat that in her feed, but if it's cool out she likes the peppermint in her feed.  I'd try that.  I would deffinatly try the mash, you could use bran instaed of beet pulp also.I hope that helps.

Christy

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How do you make a mash? When I go to the feed store, do I just ask for bran or beet pulp mash?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[littlehorse2]

You just tell then you would like a bag of bran or a bag of beet pulp shreds with molasses. The bran you only have to let sit for 5-10 minutes. The beet pulp you let set longer, start with a cup morning and evening. You put enough water to cover it and let it soak.

If you have any other questions you can email or PM me.

Christy

 

[New_Image]

You would need beet pulp, senior grain, molasses, and the meds all in a bucket. Mix it with enough hot water to make it thick like pea soup. Wait till its cool enough to feed, but still warm. Let it sit long enough to be like pea soup.

Some horses do, some horses dont like a mash. I always feed mine what I call "Alfalfa cube soup" (alfalfa cubes and hot water) for tummy warmers when it real cold - it takes some of them a while to like them and some just plain dont, but most love mashes.

If she is eating everything but the grain I would assume its because of what you put in the grain, see if she will take some grain with nothing on it. Try stashing her meds in a mash as suggested. You could use a number of things in a mash, whats written above or alfalfa cubes, grain, molasses and/or apple sauce and her meds, see what she likes.

If she stops eating all together I would call the vet.

 

[HorseyGurl22]

If she is eating everything but the grain I would assume its because of what you put in the grain

Well thats why I started worrying some, because I stopped putting the meds in her feed and she still isn't eating it. Right now I'm syringing(sp?) her antibioctics and trying to come up with other ways to sneak her her Tri-hist. Tried wraping it in a piece of bread, the little brat picked up the balled up bread and shook it until all of the tri-hist fell out and then ate the bread.

 

[Connie Ballard]

I've mixed meds with applesauce, put it in a large syringe...cut the tip open more and give it like I do wormer....they usually look forward to getting the sweet applesauce. Good luck

 

[Marty]

APPLESAUCE!!!

 

[HorseyGurl22]

do you think maybe she doesn't like the sweet feed? Part of me thought she would like it better then the pellets she was getting. Her son LOVES his new food.

 

[Vicky Texas]

When our mare stop eating a couple of weeks ago, we had her teeth check. Yep, she needed them done. Now she is fine and eating good.

Vicky

 

[HorseyGurl22]

When our mare stop eating a couple of weeks ago, we had her teeth check. Yep, she needed them done. Now she is fine and eating good. Vicky

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Hmmm, she had her teeth done about 4 weeks ago, but, since it looked like they had never been done before I don't think the dentist wanted to take them down all the way in one visit. Maybe another dentist appointment instead of a vet visit.