Page 100 - Speedhorse March 2019

“Lack of appetite could be caused by something
that affects the horse’s ability to taste or smell, or decreases his ability to chew, or to digest food.”
might not be as many calories available. In cold weather, however, horses crave more roughage because fermentation of fiber in the hindgut helps keep them warm,” she says. If a horse goes off feed when he normally should want to eat a lot, this is definitely a sign of some kind of problem.
WHAT TO DO
If a horse isn’t eating well and you suspect
a physical problem or illness, consult your veterinarian and get help with diagnosis. Once your vet figures out what is wrong, a specific treatment may be needed. Then the next step is to try to encourage the horse to eat.
“Green grass is often the best feed to tempt him. Horses rarely refuse green grass unless they are sick. If the horse is refusing to eat the grass hay or any hay that he normally eats, you might try tempting him with some alfalfa hay or peanut hay because these are things that horses really like. You can also offer a different type (or better quality) of grass hay. If the horse has been eating stemmy timothy, try a soft orchardgrass or something finer and more pal- atable,” Crandell suggests. Fine, high-quality alfalfa is also relished by most horses.
“With grain, you could offer smaller meals instead of large meals, fed more frequently so the horse isn’t overwhelmed with so much food at once. He might clean it up better. Usually we recommend not making abrupt changes
in feed, but if the horse isn’t eating, you have to try something else. You might need to give
Pain can be an appetite suppressant. Dental issues, gum disease, tooth loss and mouth ulcers could all be a factor.
something different one day and something else the next, just to see if you can tempt them to eat.”
Feeding behavior may also need to be addressed. “If there are several horses in a group and the dominant one pushes a timid one away, sometimes that timid one will just give up and not even try to come to the feed. If this is the problem, you may have to remove that horse and feed him separately,” Crandell says. He may need to be moved temporarily into a different pen where he is still near his buddies so he doesn’t feel isolated, but he can safely eat without fear of being chased away.
“Being herd animals, the flip side is also a factor in horse’s eating behavior, and you can use their group mentality to advantage when trying to tempt a horse to eat. If one is eating, they all want to eat. If one is grazing, they all tend to start grazing,” says Crandell. They mimic herd mates because that’s the safe thing to do, as a herd. You can make sure the horse has company, with other horses around him providing an example by eating their meal. Horses are social eaters.
“If a horse is off feed, the old traditional bran mash is a good thing to try because this is something horses tend to enjoy eating. Soaking bran in hot water and letting it cool to a comfortable temperature is generally the best way to feed it. You can also add molas- ses, corn syrup, honey, chopped up carrots or apples, applesauce, or apple juice—whatever your horse might like. Sometimes, a little bit of apple cider vinegar added to the grain will stimulate appetite,” she says.
“Horses tend to like molasses, so sweet feeds might be eaten more readily than a pel- leted feed and might perk the appetite a little. Adding molasses to whatever they generally eat might also help,” says Crandell.
Staniar says one strategy to get the horse to eat is to improve the palatability of a certain feed. “You can add very small amounts of molasses or some other flavoring the horse likes. This doesn’t always work, however. If I am giving a horse five pounds of concentrate feed, I might add 1/2-1 cup of molasses at most. This is a small amount and won’t have an adverse effect on glycemic response,” he says. Some horses might prefer a couple scoops of applesauce mixed into the grain.
“Other flavors might encourage certain horses,
such as a very small amount of certain oils, like anise or peppermint oil. You only need a few drops to mix into the meal to give it a little bit of flavor or a pleasant odor. Some horses might like a certain flavoring while others will be completely turned off by it just because it’s something new. Try some of these things carefully, with experi- mentation. It might work for one horse and not another,” he says.
There are several things you could try. At some point you may just have to experiment with different feeds to see what the horse likes better. “We have situations where we really don’t know why a horse might prefer one type of feed over another. They do have some prefer- ences and we don’t always understand what drives them,” says Staniar.
Crandell says certain supplements may also stimulate appetite. “The B vitamins can help, especially thiamin, niacin and B12. A supplement containing B vitamin complex might be beneficial for the horse with a suppressed appetite. Brewer’s yeast is high in B vitamins and probiotics and prebiotics are another option, especially if the problem is hindgut imbalance,” she says.
“If the horse has ulcers or is prone to ulcers, medications like omeprazole may help or even an over-the-counter stomach buffer. If the prob- lem is in the hindgut, there are also some hind- gut buffers that might help. In some situations, your vet might prescribe an appetite-stimulating drug like benzodiazepine,” she says.
If the problem is overtraining/overwork, the solution would be to give the horse some time off from work and then gradually get him back into training again. It might be that the horse is overtired from one hard
day and is off his feed the next day and then bounces back, or it may be a cumulative thing after a season or training period of hard work—peaking at a high level of fitness and then going too far beyond it. The main thing is to pay attention to your horse and try to figure out why he is not eating.
If a horse is very fussy and only eats a little bit, you need to make sure that every bite he eats is nutritious. “You need to choose a feed that is highly nutritious, especially if the horse is only consuming 1% or less of his body weight per day. This would be a situa- tion where poor-quality forage won’t meet his needs,” says Staniar.
96 SPEEDHORSE, March 2019
EQUINE HEALTH