Apologies in advance, I think this may get long…
My 30 year old Morgan mare is having a really difficult time as we transition to winter (we are in Vermont). For the past two weeks, we’ve had snow on the ground, and there is no more grass accessible. Once the grass was covered, it was like a switch flipped- she has stopped eating almost any pelleted food, and goes through the motions of eating hay but doesn’t seem to be getting much down. She has terrible teeth- has had 4-5 molars removed over the years, and those that are left have nearly no grinding surface left. With such an abrupt change in her diet, she is having explosive diarrhea- though I almost hesitate to call it diarrhea, as it’s simply manure-stained liquid pools that are freezing all over everything they land on, including her. Temps are already below freezing so clean up is difficult.
I’m really beating myself up because I had been on the fence all fall about euthanizing before the winter. By the end of last winter, we were struggling with keeping weight on and similar GI upset/liquid manure. I stayed in close contact with my vet about this all year; every time she saw the horses for routine care, we’d discuss Isabel’s BCS (right at a high 4/low 5), attitude, etc. When she last saw the horses for fall shots in October, I asked her to be really direct with me about whether I was letting myself be blinded by a horse who was happy and looked shiny from a warm fall with lots of good grass. But she really felt the mare had another winter in her. In addition to being happy with the grass, I had switched her over to Triple Crown Senior, and for ~2 months, she was eating 6 lbs/daily of TC Senior and nibbling hay. The hay we have this year is the softest I’ve ever had- last year it was almost polar opposite, stemmy and coarse, and we thought a lot of the digestive upset we saw towards the end of last winter was that the stemmy hay was becoming too irritating to her digestive system given the condition of her teeth. Since she had been eating so well all fall, I felt that I was in a good position to keep weight on her, even though I knew she would have some issues-physically and mentally-once the grass was gone. Now I’m just really mad at myself for making what seems to be the wrong decision.
I’ve tried not to panic over the last few days, and I don’t want to switch so many things suddenly that I make the situation worse. I’ve got a call in to the vet this morning, but would welcome any opinions on what you might try to reset the GI system and generate some appetite again.
What I have tried over the past week:
- I removed all powdered supplements/additions in the feed (ground flax, loose salt, Probios, Vit E). No real difference in interest. She has well-controlled Cushings and is still getting (and eating) her Prascend.
- I did have a tube of Probios gel so have done 1/2 tube in the morning the past two days. Don’t think it’s changed anything.
- I did a couple of days of Ulcerguard. At first, she was acting like she wanted to eat- sticking her nose in the feed pan, pushing the food around, dumping the bowl on the ground and halfheartedly eating it. I wondered if maybe the stress of the grass disappearing was making her ulcery. This didn’t seem to make any difference to her appetite. I stopped after two tubes.
- Food has always been well soaked because of the teeth situation and history of choke. But I was finding that the drier I made it, the more she would eat. Against my better judgement, I gave her 1/2 lb of TC senior totally dry today, and she ate more of it than she has the past few days. But I don’t think I’m comfortable making a habit of that.
- I’m offering her a tub of Safe Starch + chopped alfalfa. For a minute, she’ll dive into it like she wants to inhale the whole tub. And then after a minute, it’s like she loses interest and either leaves it or dumps it out and soils it.
- I’ve added some strongly flavored treats (Stabul 1- banana and cinnamon) that I know she likes to the feed. I think she has eaten the treats out but hasn’t increased her overall interest in the rest of the feed. Was also considering doing something like peppermint oil mixed in but haven’t tried that yet?
Writing all that out, I feel awful throwing so many changes at her and probably that’s not helping. I just feel so desperate to get her eating something, anything again. It’s too early in the winter for her to stop eating and start losing weight. Her ribs are well covered but her flanks are already starting to get a sunken look, which is concerning.
Sorry this has gotten so long. I’m just feeling so guilty and sad and mad at myself, I know I need some objective outside opinions on anything I’m missing (and of course will be working with our vet hands-on). Euthanasia is of course still an option, though becomes infinitely more complicated logistically with each day that goes by because of the weather. If there’s a viable option to stabilize her for the next few months and get her through until the spring, that would be ideal. It’s more than clear that if we are able to do that, we’ll be choosing a beautiful sunny day next fall to say our final goodbyes.
I’ve known her more than half her life and I can’t bare to see her so uncomfortable.
