hello, my 3 and 1/2 years old mare is off hay, she is eating grain though but quite slowly. I soaked the hay but she still do not eat it. she normally eats a lot and all the other horses of the barn are fine with the hay. She does not have temperature and she looks fine and happy. She is a very calm mare and i wonder why isn t she eating hay. could it be ulcers? teeth? thank you
Sounds like teeth to me
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why? maybe the fact that she is changing teeth?
With ulcers, they normally will eat hay and not grain. I’d have teeth checked. Could have something stuck, sharp edges, who knows what. When was the last time her teeth were done?
I don’t know much about young horses and the kinds of changes they go through, but I would think if something was uncomfortable in her mouth she would be ambivalent to eat hay, since it requires extra chewing.
3 days ago…she had her teeth done because she was not eating, but the vet did not check if there was a loose tooth or other things like abcess, i mean, i don t think he was a specialised in teeth
This makes me scratch my head. Your vet may not specialize in teeth but he should know what he is looking at. ALL vets should be able to do a rudimentary dental and oral exam .
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Probably caps on her teeth but could be a fractured tooth. Better to check this out if it is a fractured tooth so it doesn’t turn into an abscessed tooth. She needs a good oral exam.
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My horse will stop eating hay but continue eating grain when he has a high parasite load. I know this is weird, but it’s real.
When the horse had its teeth done, was it sedated and a speculum used?
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While you’re trying to figure it out maybe get her started on a pelleted complete feed, soaked?
If this started right after her teeth were done , I wonder if the vet doing the floating was really bad at it and now her mouth just hurts.
I have BTDT once, but I was there to see the incompetent man grab my geldings tongue. He was off feed for days. I would have another vet out to assess the mare’s mouth asap and they can give pain meds to help if that is the issue.
If it’s not the teeth, hind gut ulcers can cause the horse to go off hay (but still eat grain). My horse was previously an excellent eater and started not finishing her hay along with other behavioral symptoms (but still gobbles her grain!). Long story short, only thing that fit was hind gut inflammation/ulcers. Started treating for that and symptoms started resolving.
Pain from floating is very real. It’s not difficult to irritate the TMJ while floating. Over-floating is another concern, where too much occlusal surface is removed and the horse literally can’t chew hay. Also, just a bad float in general can leave the horse’s mouth working NQR.
But my understanding is the horse went off hay before the float? Unless there was a cap or point causing pain before, teeth probably aren’t the issue if it started prior to the float.
Is it possible this is new or different hay? Even if the other horses like it, maybe she does not. Some horses are also more sensitive than others to things like foxtails.
Hindgut ulcers can put a horse off hay. So can a disruption of the bacterial flora of the hindgut. If it’s the latter, probiotics may help. A trial of baking soda in coconut oil can supposedly help diagnose the former.
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I would be concerned about illness. When a horse won’t eat, I think colic, tick related illnesses, or other problems. If the horse hasn’t eaten well for days, something is wrong. Time for a vet visit.
She tryes to eat but she eats really slowly, looks like she has pain in her mouth, yestarday she lost a tooth, at this time she s changing her teeth, do you think that changing teeth could make her off hay? Otherwise she s happy and running, no other thing going on
I already showed her to two different vets,maybe i should take her to a clinic where she can have some x rays of her jaw, teeth to see what the problem is. Yesterday she took more than one minute to eat a little carrot
But, have any of the vets sedated her and used a speculum to do a proper oral exam?
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I would take her to a vet school clinic or other, well regarded big clinic.
My mini, Bean, same age, same issue. He had loose caps on his molars, one of which had developed a pocket of infection underneath the cap, seen on xray. Vet said it was too early to pull, started him on antibiotics. Cleared up the issue, he was fed soaked alfalfa/grass cubes in the mean time. Issue started again about 3 weeks after finishing antibiotics, Had dentist out, cap was more loose, but rocking back and forth on top of the permanent tooth. Cap had sharp edges that dug into the gum every time he bit down. Cap was easily pulled, minor float was done. He was sore for a few days, but then back to normal. Bean never presented with fever, etc. Just off feed, but I could tell he was hungry as he would hoover up any small bits of hay and his mash. After a few more days of the mash, I transitioned him back to his grass, no issues. I’d recheck the teeth/mouth for an infection or a loose cap.
