Horse with Mild Cough-Super Picky Eater

[WildGooseChase]

Hey all. I have a 19 yr old, AQHA/FQHA mare that has super mild heaves, vet diagnosed. She will cough every once and a while. Nothing horrible. Managed well with 24/7 turn out, soaked hay and grain, and keeping the arena as dust free as possible. Well, since I live in the Mudwest, ahem… I mean the Midwest, the time of 24/7 turn out is coming to an end. Our pastures get muddy quick if they are turned out and it’s soft/wet. I also won’t be able to water down the arena when it gets below freezing. I am looking for other ideas to help keep her as comfortable as possible this winter while she cannot be turned out all the time. She will get daily turn out as long as it’s not icy or they’re not knee deep in mud.

The problem is, she turns her nose up at everything. She is the pickiest horse I’ve ever seen. I did try Cough Free but she wouldn’t eat it mixed with grain and was rearing and trying to head butt me while trying to syringe it into her mouth. She ended up breaking the syringe, covering us both with a Cough Free and water slurry. This behavior is VERY unlike her. She is stubborn but not stupid.

Just for sh**s and giggles, here is a list of everything she has refused to eat in the last 4 months since I bought her. :
Alfalfa pellets
Alfalfa/Timothy pellets
Tribute Essential K
CocoSoya oil and granules
ViaCalm with and without hemp
Electrolytes - apple, cherry, and different brands
Added salt
Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

Here’s what she gets for grain feedings currently:
1lb Tribute Kalm Ultra
1lb Tribute Senior Sport
Elevate powder -hx of EPM, so added Vitamin E is crucial -am only
Leg Up Combo Pellets - am only
Smart Digest Ultra - am only

I am working on transitioning over to Senior Sport from the Kalm Ultra. She just needs more calories but will leave food behind if I feed more than 2-2.5lbs per feeding. She just can’t eat that much and I’m done wasting my money and grain to attempt to get her to eat more in one feeding lol.

[morgansnmind]

I had a horse just like this ( she passed last yr) . Picky eater would leave her food, hated alfalfa , hard keeper. I would check for ulcers. I treated for ulcers and that helped for awhile but I think with the stress of the disease they are more likely to have them and maybe keep getting them. I was about to do a second treatment when the horse passed.

For awhile I was able to get my horse to eat amplify and she liked it. That and cool calories helped though I could not add much because she would turn her nose up.

I think MSM helped mine out the most, and I double dosed her the recommended amount. Spirulina
also seemed to make a difference . Dex on really bad days.

[WildGooseChase]

@morgansnmind

I had a horse just like this ( she passed last yr) . Picky eater would leave her food, hated alfalfa , hard keeper. I would check for ulcers. I treated for ulcers and that helped for awhile but I think with the stress of the disease they are more likely to have them and maybe keep getting them. I was about to do a second treatment when the horse passed.

For awhile I was able to get my horse to eat amplify and she liked it. That and cool calories helped though I could not add much because she would turn her nose up.

I think MSM helped mine out the most, and I double dosed her the recommended amount. Spirulina
also seemed to make a difference . Dex on really bad days.

Thank you! The Leg Up combo pellets have MSM in them. She is on a double dose of those as well. I thought when she first came in (i had her shipped from Florida) that she might be ulcery but I do not think so now. She is in much better weight, just needs a better topline/muscle tone in general. I will try the Amplify if I can get it. I’ve used it before!

[KCSLK]

I don’t have much to offer on dealing with the heaves, but I second looking into ulcers. Horses can look fine on the outside and be pretty stoic in dealing with it, but still have ulcers. My horse has had a history of ulcers and his behavioral signs are fairly subtle to other people, until they’re not subtle at all and he has full-blown, bad ulcers. I know to look for the signs, and the biggest one is if he becomes picky about his food and won’t finish meals that are bigger than a pound or two. He is choosy even when healthy, but is 10x worse when he has ulcers. Big red flags in your post: won’t eat more than 2 pounds in a feeding, picky about what she will eat, recent uncharacteristic dangerous behavior, harder keeper despite being foundation QH bred. She also has another condition that can cause stress, which is a contributor to ulcers. Especially since you just bought her 4 months ago (which was probably a stressful transition for her) and you may not yet understand her healthy baseline, I’d really encourage you to look into ulcers. (And I’m not trying to be rude about the knowing her healthy baseline thing. It took me years to realize how easygoing and excited about food my gelding can be when he is feeling his best before I sorted out a program that works for him.)

[ladipus]

The best thing I have found for heaves is to get a hay steamer… Steaming the hay is superior to soaking as it removes not only the dust but the mold fungus spores and any other type of allergens which is what triggers heaves… Secondly if the Horse is super picky about eating then you were probably going to have to orally dose and syringe any type of respiratory supplement… I have had good luck with Omega Alpha‘s RESPA free, and arenas Aleira-can be dosed orally via syringe. Smart breeze ultra pellets do work very well however if your horse is a picky eater they might not like it… However I get mine to eat his by adding a scoop of UckelesGUT powder which is very tasty and disguises most things…Uckeke also makes a product called lung EQ… Also as for the coughing Zyrtec works well too

[alterblue]

My picky mare will eat the SmartBreathe Ultra Pellets, sometimes she leaves a few after her breakfast but always finishes them with her dinner. It has spirulina and a bunch of other beneficial ingredients. Best of luck OP!

[Martina]

For my guy who has a different set of issues, but is a picky eater, I have found that adding the medications/ supplements to Speedibeet, is a game changer. Not regular beet pulp, but Speedibeet. (He would go off regular beet pulp, but never Speedibeet).

[sascha]

Thirding (4thing? Lol) ulcer treatment. I personally would go with Sucralfate. Omeprazole didn’t touch my Picky Eater Fussy McFuss Britches mare. Sucralfate turned her into a Hoover.

On the syringing dilemma, get a jar of Apple sauce. Syringe her EVERY DAY with Apple sauce until she starts looking for her treat. Might take 2 weeks. Might take 2 days. Once she is looking for it, hit her up with apple sauce laced drug/supplement and immediately after, hit her with a dose of plain apple sauce.

Keep going until she accepts that the drug + apple sauce is ok. Eventually, try the drug alone. Most will end up being fine with plain drugs once they have overcome their distrust of syringes in the mouth. I, however, always keep one of those little snack pack apple sauces in my first-aid kit for any occasion that might require nasty tasting stuff like Banamine or de-wormer.

I swear this method works and is long lasting with occasional maintenance doses of Apple sauce just for the heck of it once in a while. You will have a bit of an argument about the apple sauce at first, but once they figure out syringes taste delicious, you have won the battle and your victory is very easily maintained.

[skrgirl]

If possible, have her stall be on the end of the barn by the opening for better air flow.

[WildGooseChase]

Update-She is now eating the cough free and cocosoya. Due to construction on the fence lines at the barn, the horses were stalled for a couple days. During this time, I gave her the supplements in her grain and let her pick at them. She’s determined they are no longer an issue LOL.

For the syringe, she hasn’t had an issue since. It’s been fine. She doesn’t need to be syringe fed apple sauce every day.

She is stalled right next to a 14ft sliding door that is always open. She is far away from the arena so she doesn’t encounter arena dust all the time either.