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  Discussion on Horse off eating pellets
Author Message
Member:
jones

Posted on Sunday, Dec 20, 2009 - 1:59 pm:

Dr.O.
My girlfriends horse was put down yesterday from an undiagnosed severe colic and being with her and her horse the last few hours has made me more neurotic than yesterday :-)

My horse had a mild colic this fall. (2 weeks after returning from a summer boarding facility) After the IM Banamine, he was interested in eating grass and some hay but not his pellets (soaked alfalfa and timothy Mt. Sunrise brand)
Then after 2 days or so he went back to eating normally.
At that time my vet recommended I worm him with Panacure 5 day. No fecal done. I gave him the panacure. Its been 2 months. He still sometimes would not eat all of his pellets.
So suspecting ulcers, I have been giving him Ranitidine 3 times a day for about 3 weeks now and he still sometimes will not eat all of his pellets (I soak the pellets in water to get every thing to stick together and add his vitamins, ground flax seed, joint supplement, 1/4 c. corn oil)
He gets psyllium 2 times a week with probiotics in the mix also.
He gets no turn out on grass.

A few questions....
Are cubes better than pellets?
I will do a fecal at 90 days (?) after the panacure. How do I do this??? Do I give it to my vet or can I send it away on my own?

If Ranitidine does not ease symptoms should I try something else?
He seems to have more formed poops (most balls stay formed now instead of large clumps)
His teeth were done 2 weeks ago and that seemed to make it worse (no eating the pellets). Would the dentristy still be contributing to him not eating soft pellets?
Sorry for the jumble of thoughts, I'm swimming a bit in the head with what ifs...
Thank you
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Dec 21, 2009 - 7:40 am:

Hello Jones,
I think alfalfa cubes are better than alfalfa pellets because they provide fiber in a less processed form which is good for digestion.

Concerning fecals, either method will do just as long as it is done carefully.

To solve the "what if's" you need to rethink your method of approaching the problem. If you continue to feel there is some disease process going on with your horse you should pursue a diagnosis and not keep trying different treatments. Usually the best way to do this is to begin a simple and short problem list.

As to whether the floating is causing chewing problems it would require an examination of the teeth to see if something was done during the procedure to cause ongoing pain in the mouth. But before you do that, have you seen evidence of painful chewing?
DrO
Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Monday, Dec 21, 2009 - 8:59 am:

Jones,

DId you add or subtract anything in your horses feed when you noticed he was off his feed?

Last year one of my horses went off his feed ( normally a ravenous eater) and I traced the cause to a new batch of Garlic that had more of a potent taste and smell than the stuff I had been using up to that point. The reason that I found it difficult to figure out was that he had also been prescribed an antihistamine which is what I thought the problem was, but when I stopped the antihistamine treatment, the horse still refused to eat so I knew it had to be something else. I stopped the garlic and voila he was back to his normal self the next meal.

I did start him back on the garlic at a lesser amount and gave it to him twice a day instead of once a day and he seemed to tolerate that schedule fine.

Rachelle
Member:
jones

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 22, 2009 - 12:18 am:

Rachelle,
I got a new brand of corn oil... I was using frys brand and my husband brought home mazoal a week or so ago...I left the oil out of his pellets tonight and he seems much more interested!
Thanks!
Lesley
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