Help with picky eater

[eponacelt]

I have a Grand Old Man of a gelding who is a tough eater. Compounding things is that he’s also PPID and has some respiratory issues so he gets meds regularly. He seems to feel fine overall, as he eats his hay and grazes well (thank god his insulin is OK and he can be on pasture), but he regularly will just walk away from his grain. Sometimes he eats well, and other times…not. I’ve tried wetting his food and not. I’ve tried some meals with meds and some with none. And I can’t find a patter in when he’ll eat and when he won’t. I’ve also broken his grain into 3 meals which is the most I can reasonably do on a daily basis.

Any suggestions?

[PaddockWood]

I highly recommend Flavor Fix.

[PaddockWood]

I would say too that I just sprinkle this stuff whenever I need some palatably help and it’s like
magic dust. Also low sugar from what I’m told.

[2DogsFarm]

Does he have a favorite treat you could crumble into his grain?
To make sure my mini eats the portion of hisTC Sr (that’s his “grain”) sprinkled with Thyro-L, I crumble half a gingersnap into the ration.
If he doesn’t clean the pan, at least he eats 90%+, including the med.

[eponacelt]

@2DogsFarm

Does he have a favorite treat you could crumble into his grain?

I’m already resorting to putting is Prascend into a handful of treats to ensure he gets those. But the allergy meds are another level (20 ceterizine am and pm). I’m contemplating grinding them up and just syringing them into his mouth,and then not putting anything in the grain. But when I tried to JUST feed him grain this morning, he still walked away from it!

[2DogsFarm]

Mini gets 4 10mg Zyrtec twice daily.
They get hidden in half a generic fig newton.

For your 20 pills, maybe try one of those breakfast bars with fruit filling.
Dollar tree has a version similar to BelVita .
You might be able to get that many pills in one.

I have to ask how much does your horse weigh?
My 16h, 1K horse gets 10 Zyrtec twice a day.
Luckily for me, he’ll eat them top-dressed on his feed.

[Montanas_Girl]

How long has he been on Prascend? Anorexia is a pretty common side effect. Most of the time, they do come around and go back to eating like normal, but it can be a pain to try to get them to eat when they’re going through the adjustment period.

[OzarksRider]

Does he really need to eat grain? Can he maintain his weight with only hay and grass? I’m wondering if the reason he doesn’t eat grain consistently may be that he simply isn’t hungry. My horses eat only hay, grass, and 1 lb. ration balancer daily, and they do just fine. I add goodies to the ration balancer (peanuts, peppermint, a handful of oats, pretzels), and my PPID horse gets his Prascend tablet in 1/2 a fig newton. But, they are easy keepers and don’t need any extra calories.

[treebeard]

My mini mare has Cushings and has a light appetite. As with your older gentleman, Sweet Sarah will sometimes eat all her feed and some days take a few bites and walk away. She may eat a supplement for a while and then nope it.

As with your fellow I break Sarah’s meals up to three a day and that’s helped her quite a bit.

I got excited about the Flavor Fix but see the main ingredient is molasses flakes. I will need to take a look and see if I can find more info on that because Sarah really can’t have molasses.

[HeartsDesireEventing]

My senior gelding is also a picky eater - what has been working best for him recently is feeding a 50/50 mix of two different feeds. Maybe he likes the variety? He won’t eat either routinely when fed straight, but when mixed together he eats the majority of his grain at each meal.

I also won’t try mixing meds in - supplements are hard enough, and I’ve winnowed that down to just one (hoof support + MSM) now that he’s retired. He gets his Prascend via syringe.

[eponacelt]

@2DogsFarm

Mini gets 4 10mg Zyrtec twice daily.
They get hidden in half a generic fig newton.

For your 20 pills, maybe try one of those breakfast bars with fruit filling.
Dollar tree has a version similar to BelVita .
You might be able to get that many pills in one.

I have to ask how much does your horse weigh?
My 16h, 1K horse gets 10 Zyrtec twice a day.
Luckily for me, he’ll eat them top-dressed on his feed.

Fig Newtons! I love it, and may try this with at least the Prascend. He weight just over 1200lbs, per his recent hospital visit. The vet says that based on his weight, his “proper” dose is 24 PILLS which just seems excessive. Now that I think we’re past The Pollening, I will try to back down on those, but its a balance with everything.

To anyone asking if he needs to be on grain, the answer is YES. He is still in full work at 22 years old and does all of the Grand Prix. He’s a thin horse to begin with, and I keep hay in front of him at all times. Unfortunately, 24/7 pasture is not an option because we have to watch the grass sugars. That said, he’s out as much as he can tolerate. But even with all of that, he needs the calories and energy from grain. He’s simply not able to retire. He is one of those who even with turnout, gets a little mental if he doesn’t work. He loves it and never smiles as much as he does when he’s doing the pi/pa. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

[RedHorses]

Do you have my horse’s twin?

Mine is 27, with PPID, heaves, get 3+ syringes of meds each day, and tends to not finish his feed if he eats any of it. He eats his hay, and alfalfa cubes. Summer can be hard on him because he eats less hard feed and spends much of his day in the shelter.

He will often eat his hard feed late in the afternoon after being in the shelter, not eating, for the day. Sometimes he will eat early in the morning when it’s still cool. One summer he started eating after we gave it to him in a different colour of bucket. Sometimes he will eat one type of feed so I put the options in separate piles in the bowl and watch what he eats first. Sometimes he eats better if he gets the chance to eat before he gets his meds.

I bring mine in and park a feed bowl under his nose while I’m doing stuff (grooming, Bemer, etc). I put his hard feed and a couple of scoops of alfalfa cubes in it and he eats what he wants. Usually starts with the cubes and often continues with the hard feed once they’re gone. If he stops after the cubes are gone I give him more cubes. Last year he was getting about 2/3 of a small bucket of cubes every day.

I hung a haynet in his shelter last summer. I figured that anything he ate was more than he would otherwise have gotten so if his buddy ate some as well it wasn’t an issue. He didn’t gain back his lost weight, but he didn’tlose any more. I’m starting to do that again this year.

The greatest success came when he was alone in his paddock because I could just leave his feed bowl in the paddock and he would eat it whenever he wanted. He usually did eat everything overnight. I do feel he’s happier with a friend though.

One thing to consider, mine is a lot less likely to eat if he’s working to breathe. Get a stethoscope on your horse and listen to his lungs. If there’s crackles, groans, wheezes, gurgles, etc talk your vet about increasing or changing his meds. At this age long term drug use side effects are of little importance. Quality of life now is the priority. I have a bunch of things I do in addition to meds to help my horse breath better, and I listen to his lungs every day to keep on top of it. Short term use of a more aggressive medication and/or higher doses of regular meds can reduce the inflammation and irritation in the lungs and then allow the horse to maintain on lower doses.

[Pico_Banana]

I also have a picky, sporadic eater. 24 year old gelding, still in work. I feed him 3x a day and am trying to cut out all supplements. Am currently feeding a combo of TC Senior and TC ration balancer to reduce volume and get all his v/m in without the need for supplements. And the Senior for taste.

I’d like to get him back on MSM, but I tried the less expensive option from HorseTech and that seems to be unacceptable even though he ate the original stuff just fine.

The best trick for getting him to eat - and I’m not kidding here - is to hold his feed pan for him and keep him company while he eats. That works about 90% of the time.

Also, if he doesn’t finish, I CANNOT just add more and give the rest to him later. Once shunned, always shunned is his motto.

He gets one prascend daily, which I break in half before putting in two different spots in his feed.

And all food must be dry.

[mmeqcenter]

IME picky eaters that walk away from grain usually have ulcer pain that they associate with grain. I’d give a round of omeprazole.

Or, he’s done with meds and just associates grain with meds, even when they aren’t in it. In which case, I’d orally dose all meds either 30+ minutes before or after feeding and not put them in his feed. Eventually they realize it’s not in their feed anymore and start eating it again.

[luvmyhackney]

It’s the meds.
Not much you can do except change meds, lower meds for a bit and then increase the dosage to find the happy medium.

Cushings is the worst.

[RedHorses]

@Pico_Banana

The best trick for getting him to eat - and I’m not kidding here - is to hold his feed pan for him and keep him company while he eats. That works about 90% of the time.

BTDT and even hand fed from that held feed pan.

The things we’ll do for these horses…

[JB]

What grain and how much? Have you tried different feeds?

For the better part of 18 months I rotated feeds with my now-35yo PPID horse to simply get him to eat enough to not be emaciated. This included mixing different feeds together, putting different ones in the same big bucket but separate so he could pick and choose until they mixed together enough. I’ve used Cool Calories which worked for a while.

I’ve tried horse cookies crumbled on top, dried peppermint leaves crushed and crumbled on top. There are various banana flavorings but he doesn’t like bananas. RepleniMash was a no-go, but lots of horses love that. Stabul 1 has a variety of flavorings but I haven’t tried those.

I’ve done TC Sr and Complete, Purina Sr Active (more calories than regular Sr), Nutrena ProForce Fuel and Senior, Nutren SafeChoice Sro, tried mixing in Omolene 400 (a reasonable NSC), several that he wouldn’t even touch (Sentinel Sr and LS), and I think a couple I’m forgetting.

He’s settled on straight Nutrena SC Sr

And then here’s a new development - I went to get more Champion’s Mix-N-Fine plain white salt, but grabbed the mineral salt instead. Historically he won’t eat salt in his food, though happily eats it from a separate bucket so that’s fine. But I discovered that salt has anise flavoring so I thought what the heck, try it. It’s been almost 3 weeks now of sprinkling 1tbsp on top and he’s eating more than ever.

You might also see if dividing his Prascend (I assume he’s medicated?) into 2 servings will help, if you can’t find a flavor he likes.

[eponacelt]

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions. And to whoever suggested Fig Newtons as pill pockets - YOU ARE A GENIUS. Its super easy to stick the two Prascend into that cookie and he gobbles it down.

For now, we’ve pulled all meds, including his EO-3 out of his grain. And he’s gone back to eating it down. We’re crushing the Zyrtec and putting it into his EO-3 in a syringe to give it to him. Prascend and Equiox go into the Fig Newtons.

And in other good news, he’s now well regulated enough that he gets 10 hours a day on pasture, and that makes him both happy and fatter! And (knocking wood) he’s been feeling great in his body and feet although we continue to monitor for issues.