What might be causing leftover feed like this?

[jcc813]

Husband’s horse gets 1 scoop of pelleted grain twice a day. He also get a small bag of supplements (Vermont Blend, couple Vit E pills) with a handful of grain and some soaked alfalfa pellets in the AM.

We’ve been noticing lately that his bucket at the end of the day has several inches of grain “crumbs” leftover.

Neither of our other horses leave chewed up looking grain like this.

At first I thought maybe it was from the alfalfa but last night husband left just 2-3 cubes with minimal water and also fully cleaned out the bucket and this is what it looks like today.

I’m wondering if this is a sign of something going on with his mouth? He’s only 9 and just had his teeth floated end of Jan.

[cayuse]

Teeth maybe. My old guy does this sometimes and he has EOTHR and several missing teeth from it.

[JB]

Definitely time for a thorough dental exam, speculum and all. My 35yo with a few missing molars, and what’s left are pretty smooth, always has a pile of ground food in his bucket (he never cleans his bucket)

[ParadoxFarm]

Have you tried really wetting down the feed? Mine get watered down (and wait 10 minutes or so) feed and never leave leftovers. One is 31 years old with bad teeth. Maybe try this while waiting on a dental exam.

[Argo]

Does his food sit to soak for many hours? Sometimes it turns bad with the flies and heat.

[trubandloki]

I would have his teeth looked at too.

Other than that, you might start simply removing things from his feed and see if there is something he does not like and it is causing him to not eat the other things that touch it.
(I have one of these that does this.)
Or really, do it the other way around.
Feed just the pelleted grain (after fully cleaning the feed tub so no chance of anything residual), nothing else, and see what happens. If he eats that with no left over mess, add one other thing and see how that goes.

If it is summer where you are, some of them are also fussy about any fermented yuck left over and will not eat the new feed that is sitting in the feed bucket with even the slightest left over stink.

My old horse that got a large serving of soaked alfalfa cubes multiple times per day was very fussy about even the slightest amount of fermented yuck. I had to have several feeding containers for him so I always had one (or two or three) drying from being washed with soap and water waiting to be used again.

[AllTheCarrots]

Things that have caused sudden issues in my barn:

1. Formerly tolerated supplement or other food is no longer tolerated. Did they change the formula? Did I get a bad batch somehow? Did it go “off,”, even though it’s supposed to be shelf-stable? Whatever the reason, I switched up to another brand and he was fine. Do an “elimination diet” and feed each piece separately to see what component is newly objectionable.

2. Heat = decrease in appetite and/or spoiled caked-on food bits. Make it soupier to be more refreshing, and make sure to scrub tub between every meal.

3. Tooth/jaw issues. Vet floated horse’s teeth without issue. A couple months later, he started quidding and dropping/leaving food. Vet came back and found a newly fractured molar. Eating fine again after extraction.

[jcc813]

Thanks, everyone!

It has been REALLY hot/humid and gross with lots of flies this summer, so that definitely could be a factor.

I’m also wondering if the wet alfalfa that’s added to his breakfast has been contributing to breaking down some of the grain and then with the heat, it all gets mucky and he doesn’t want to finish it…

I do like the suggestion of testing just feeding grain and slowly adding things back to see what he will/won’t tolerate. In fact I was planning to try this today as I’ll be at the barn between his AM and PM feedings so I can gauge before calling in a dental vet.

[ParadoxFarm]

Good luck!

[jcc813]

Got to the barn today before they fed dinner. There were some crumbs from breakfast but not huge amount. I also didn’t leave as much alfalfa for his bfast today.

Cleaned out bucket, they fed dinner and this was the result!

So appears to not be a dental issue (thank bejesus as I’ve had enough vet bills to deal with lately). Now to try to narrow down which supplement he’s turning his nose up at.

On a related note, anyone have good recommendations for how I can get him to eat 15 Methocarbamol + 6 gabapentin pills AM and PM?? Especially worried for when we’re gone for a week and he has to stay on it before a follow up appointment….

[Samondel]

How picky versus piggy is he? I’ve found (off brand) Nutrigrain bars make great multipill pockets… You can kind of open a pocket with a butter knife/half split them, drop in the pills, and squish them closed again. My VERY picky eater inhales his, with 12 cetirizine on board, twice a day.