Horse off hay after float

[saitou_amaya]

My 19 year old gelding got his teeth floated yesterday. This is a vet that specializes in teeth and comes highly recommended. Vet said his teeth look good overall and he only had to do some small things. But horse has not eaten any hay since the float yesterday. He is eating grain, grass, treats, and has an appetite. But seems to be having issues chewing hay. There were some partially chewed up bits of hay and some slobber in his water bucket. And his stall was totally full of hay from breakfast and lunch hay this afternoon. When I offer him some hay by hand he kind of lips it and doesn’t chew.

In the 12 years I’ve owned this horse I have never had him go off his hay after a float. The barn owners says that some of her horses that also got floated were not eating hay and that has happened to them in the past. This is a new one for me though. Anyone have any experience? Not sure I want to use this vet next year for teeth if he made my horse so sore he couldn’t eat hay. I will definitely be calling him Monday, but debating if I should call sooner, like tomorrow even though it is a Saturday. I’m a bit worried the horse isn’t eating hay, but he does go out all night and is grazing so at least he is getting something.

[Amy3996]

Do you have some bute on hand that you could give him? It might relieve any soreness for a couple of days and allow him to eat normally until his mouth has recovered. I’d definitely call the vet sooner rather than later, if only to check in and see if this is typical or something to be worried about.

[danacat]

@saitou_amaya

In the 12 years I’ve owned this horse I have never had him go off his hay after a float. The barn owners says that some of her horses that also got floated were not eating hay and that has happened to them in the past. .

Were yours and the other horses power floated or hand floated? If power floated there is a chance that too much tooth was removed somewhere – an over correction – and/or excessive heat was generated causing some damage. Any of this will cause horses to temporarily turn down hay.

[Texarkana]

The three big reasons I’ve seen this happen: irritation of the TMJ joint (most common), removing excess occlusal surface, or a poor float that created a bite problem.

I’d give him some bute and ideally put him in a paddock where he can graze (instead of eating hay). If the bute doesn’t improve the situation, I’d definitely call.

[PrincessPonies]

My pony did this after her float. When I called the vet she mentioned that though she hadn’t had bad teeth one was effecting the way she was eating so it was possible that her jaw was sore as everything settles back. Since the vet was already coming back out a week after the float I didn’t worry about getting the vet out sooner. I found that my pony was happy eating grain, the very fine Bermuda hay, and chopped hay. depending on what your hay looks like you could try finding a different hay to try and see if that works.

[warriorhorse]

My gelding quit eating hay this spring after getting teeth floated. Took him 2 weeks before he started eating hay again. Bute helped but even with it he wouldn’t eat hay.

Had vet back out after 5 days he couldn’t see anything wrong. Horse dropped close to a 100 lbs of weight . No grass as we still had over a foot of snow.

since you have grass horse should be ok. Can always feed hay cubes well soaked.

Hope you boy starts eating hay soon.

[saitou_amaya]

Thanks for the replies. It was a power float, but he has been power floated for as long as I’ve owned him (12+ years). I’m not sure what happened this time. He is eating grass and grain, so I’m not too worried about him dropping a ton of weight but I am concerned that with less bulk/hay going through him he is at risk for colic. My boarding barn always has hay in front of them 24/7 so he is used to always having something to eat.

I am not able to get out to the barn until this afternoon to check on him and will hand graze him a good long time too. I texted the barn owner to ask if he is eating hay this morning, but it is hard to say because his usual routine is to come inside at 8am, eat his grain, then sleep for a few hours. She is going to check in on him in a bit when he wakes up.

[SuzieQNutter]

I have had 2 horses who I thought did not like our hay.

The chiropractor said their jaws were out. This can only happen when there jaw is open. I have to get them to open their mouths so as he can put them back in.

One stood there opening and closing his mouth afterwards. We came hone and he ate our hay immediately and now tackles round bales as well.

The other ate our hay immediately as well.

[Horsecare101]

I used to work as a dental technician for a local vet who specialized in dentistry. Although it was rare, sometimes the speculum could cause some TMJ soreness. If your vet was working on the very back molars, they may have had the speculum opened more than usual in order to reach. This can create some soreness, but it always went away rather quickly. It’s worth calling the vet to let them know what is going on, but I would saw a few days and your horse should be back to normal. Do you have an update for us?

[Sansena]

Was this the first time this vet floated your horse’s teeth?

[saitou_amaya]

@Horsecare101

I used to work as a dental technician for a local vet who specialized in dentistry. Although it was rare, sometimes the speculum could cause some TMJ soreness. If your vet was working on the very back molars, they may have had the speculum opened more than usual in order to reach. This can create some soreness, but it always went away rather quickly. It’s worth calling the vet to let them know what is going on, but I would saw a few days and your horse should be back to normal. Do you have an update for us?

Update, he is eating hay now, although still not cleaning up all the hay every day. The vet said he seemed to be chomping on the speculum more than typical when he floated him and he could have had some TMJ inflammation. A few days of bute did seem to help. He may also not be eating as much hay as usual because spring grass is finally coming in and he does sometimes eat less hay when the grass first comes in. He goes out at night and is in during the day so he is out all night gorging himself on good spring grass. Then he comes in in the morning and will usually sleep from 8am-lunchtime. So he may just be tired/full. He is in for the next few nights because of all the rain/barn owner wants to give the grass a chance to root so it will be interesting to see if he goes back to cleaning up his hay or not.