Serious attitude change... : /

This is a long shot but . . . If the new fan is so much quieter than the old one, could she be hearing things she never heard before, at least while in the stall, and all the "new" noises bothering her? I run a box fan at home sometimes and once my ears get used to that "white noise", they have trouble adjusting, at least for a bit, when I turn it off.

That's a good idea, but I doubt that would be it... She's spent a lot of time in a stall with no fan at all (when we first moved to the new barn, for a while when she changed stalls, all winter), and she also would have to adjust the same way every time she leaves her stall and every time I turn it off to fly spay her.

Also, she can still hear all the other horses' fans...

Thanks for trying, though. I really appreciate it : )
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I'm thinking it's either medical, or that she's just being pissy and cranky. At the moment I'm having the same issue with my usually-a-snuggly-teddy-bear Loki. Half the time he refuses to be caught, he's irritated most of the time, and just generally on edge. Under saddle he's normally stubborn and ready-to-go, now he's slow and pissy. With him I think it's because;
A) He's protective of my mare, and Divo's new AND an ex-stud
B) The weather has been really funky

The weather has been either freakishly hot, or weirdly cool, in my area and a lot of horses have been acting weird. Normally calm horses are high strung, normally docile horses act aggressive, easy-to-catchers bolt the moment they see a halter. Cuddly addicts don't want to be touched, etc. It's like everyone's on a hair trigger just waiting to freak out. So far no tornado's (really, really, strange) but I think theres going to be a nasty, dangerous storm coming and they can just sense it.

I live in Missouri, over by Kansas. I'm going to sound like a quack, but the weather is not going to be pretty here pretty soon and the horses here know it. Theres literally nothing wrong with ANY of them (this isn't just my guy, but several horses) but everyones acting strange.

Maybe she justdoes not feel well and does not want any one to be around her.

Thanks guys : )

Let us know what the results of your appointment are. I am so interested in knowing what is found out.

I will : )

Well... the scoping was somewhat inconclusive. The vet DID see some mild ulcers, but she said that's usually not enough to cause an attitude change. She said that they're bad enough that she would believe it if they were the cause... she's just not sure that they are. So I'm going to treat those with GastroGard for the next 10 days and go from there. If she doesn't seem better by then, we're going to do this thing: Surgi-Care Center for Horses | 813-643-7177

... and see if there's some pain somewhere else (somewhere hard to detect) that's making her grumpy.




Meanwhile, I'm making a couple changes to stop the ulcers from coming back. I've switched her from grain (she was only getting about 2 handfuls) to straight oats to lower her starch intake. She's on a great multi-vitamin, so I'll just up that if she seems to need more V&M from the missing grain.

She's on knee-deep pasture around 14 hours a day (overnight), and the 10 hours she spends in the stall is broken up between me riding her/messing with her (about 4 hours) and her eating (about an hour). So that leaves about 5 hours of her standing in her stall with no hay. I have this toy (Amazing Grace) which I specifically got to put her hay cubes in so they would last throughout the day, but I wasn't using it that often. I'm going to use it every morning now, and hopefully that'll make her cubes last a little longer. I'm also going to give her her evening cubes in the morning (since she goes outside as soon as she finishes her evening cubes anyway).

Here are my thoughts FWIW, the ulcers would be at the top of my list and gastroguard is some amazing stuff. I think you're a wonderful owner for rushing right out and having her scoped and then treating, I know it isn't cheap so hopefully this sets her right. At any rate you know she needed to be treated so glad you're on the right track there at least.

The other thing I was thinking would be a tumor in the ovary, granulosa theca cell tumor. We pick up more of them this time of the year as mares start to transition. Not sure if it has anything to do with them growing but we do see more in the fall and spring and they cause the kind of behavior changes you're taking about. They're fairly uncommon, but not rare (actually the most common tumor type in horses) and are almost always benign. They are diagnosed with transrectal ultrasound or even on palpation if large enough and can usually be removed easily via flank laparotomy in a standing surgery.

Lyme disease can cause personality changes but it is very rare in horses and the most common presenting complaint is a non-specific shifting lameness. She doesn't fit the profile but you could always check her titers if things don't resolve after treating the ulcers.

Good luck with your girl, looking at the pics of you two, you really have an amazing connection. I know you'll get to the bottom of this and get back on track together!

Ps I have an amazing graze too. I love that thing and so does my horse! He nickers whenever I get anywhere near it, and can't wait for me to fill it up with cubes!

My girlfriends mare had some of the same mood changes you have discribed and they finally determined that she had a cyst on her ovary. Her hormones were whacked out.