I moved to a lovely barn and great setup in September. My mare had been at the previous bar for 7 years, since the age of 4. Even though the new setup was so much better for her, turnout time, larger stall, 5 acre pasture with only 2 other horses and many other things, it was still different to her. It took her 5 months to really relax and settle in. It is really hard or horses who are not used to moving around to feel secure in a new environment. You are doing everything you can, she just needs time.

 

Like your Vet, I think it's just going to take time for her to settle in. She's a senior that is set in her ways, so adjustment and adapting are going to take longer. It's great she has a relaxed companion. Just give her time!

 

I think she’ll be just fine. I moved my mare here from her former home of 17 years. For a few days she called back and forth with the neighborhood horses but eventually ignored them. I think they’ll love being exclusively cared for by their owners!

 

Your mare needs a adjustment period to settle in, yes I too agree with your vet.
Everything, just everything is different to her.
Although you say hay, feed and water are the same sources, it is in a different location with new smells, new animals to meet, greet and learn the scent of.......
It will take her time to settle to her new home.
She will eat as she is hungry and needs to....
I know when I had mares they were much more sensitive to being moved even to a different stall or paddock at a barn they lived at...they just needed time.

With that though, being her age is what it is...
I would make sure with a vet check or dental consult she not have a bad tooth happening or something in the oral cavity is wrong.
Speak to the vet about if she could benefit from a shot to increase her appetite and boost her health if you have such concerns for her...
I think it is vitamin B12 that my first horse got as a kid since he was run-down and not in the best condition...that shot from the vet did the trick and he perked up, gained weight and was a wonderful tolerant tutor to my ignorance.
Use your vet to guide you as he/she knows your horses already and best.
🐴...

 

Thank you so much for the replies! I really appreciate them. I've been crying for 2 days now so It's good to know others can relate. The only thing we are doing a little different is the timing of her ulcergard. My vet said for now to give a dose in the am and in the pm and my have to do that for a couple of weeks. We are giving it before she eats. But at the other barn the BO was giving after she ate (when she was walking to turn out or taking her out to clean her stall in the afternoons). I may try that. Maybe it leaves a weird taste or something in her mouth. She's been on it for several years. I've made arrangements to work from home for several weeks so I can continue to go check her every couple of hours.

 

She did have her teeth floated in February and that's when the vet decided we needed to wet her feed and start giving her senior feed. I'm really concerned with the food issue and her dropping more weight......

 

What was she eating prior? How much & how often?

Now she is eating Senior, but what brand and which style cause there are many and that too could make a difference in her wanting to eat...

Since the horses just came home, when she was at the other barn had she been on the same feed as now?
Senior?
Did she clean up her meals given or do what she is doing now, but you are now seeing and aware of it since you took on her care exclusively?
🐴...

 

yes she was eating fine prior at the other barn. She was already on her mix of healthy edge and equine senior (both purina) and having it wet. She gets a full scoop of heathy edge and "big half" scoop of equine senior twice a day. She's been on that mix for about a month. Before it was just healthy edge for years. Same feed, hay and water company as the other barn. She would eat all of her feed at both servings except for the days that were her turn out days. In the mornings on those days she would leave about a handfull because she was ready to go out.

 

So if this is what she has customary, the the uncustomary of change of location would be more my thought.
When you think about it, she is in a stall that had housed another animal and left their scent behind...
She smells that too, on the wood and just everywhere, a bit unsettling.
{Ever walk in a room and swear you smell perfume/cologne of someone you know is deceased??? Unsettling and you do peek around looking...same for her.}

If she had the same feed before, same amounts, just let her be...
Maybe since you can be around more instead of such large meals, make her amount she would eat in a day in portions of thirds... she would then finish her food hopefully and if you offer her more mid-day might be more interested in chowing down.
Many meals fed in smaller portions also allows the digestive tract to slow down and absorb better the nutrients.
EDIT TO ADD: ... make sure you are dumping any leftover food and rinsing her feed bucket with each new feeding. Wet food spoils and goes rancid and she will not eat rancid food...

Have you tested her for sand in her gut recently, or treated her for it?
A accumulation of sand in the gut can also reduce absorption of nutrients too...

Testing Your Horse for sand in its stomach

Eating of sand can cause weight loss, depression, decreased performance, diarrhea and colic.

www.drgarfinkel.com

Costs nothing to check and then once known easy to remedy.. Do a monthly check especially if sandy soil whether paddock or pasture is advised as all horses ingest some.
🐴...

 

thanks vet suggested just decreasing her food to see if she was interested. she is interested in the evenings since the other horses in the barn are being fed at that time. However in the morning the other horses are only turned out since they are fed only once a day. My 2 have always been fed twice a day and go out to pasture every other day. We just came back from checking on them and she's ok, not as anxious as yesterday. we took them out and walked them around and she drank several times and ate some grass and clover (i stopped her after a few minutes on clover). she finally pooped in her stall when I put her back. We'll go back again in 2 hours. I pulled the feed from this morning and am waiting on the vet to call to see if I should give her banamine as a precaution in case she is having some slight issues with the ulcers. That's what we normally have to give her. Even this barn owner said she seems a lot more calm than yesterday. She was standing in the corner of her stall with her back foot cocked when we left. That was her spot at the other barn too - back corner..

 

It could be getting used to the new place,the time change, that the ucler meds used to be given after she ate, and now you are giving them prior to her eating. Is there a treat she really gets piggy about? If so, I would add some to er feed. I have some horses that just pigs about carrots, one its for bananas and one it is apples. lol

 

hi everyone, just an update. my mare is doing fine - seems to be adjusting. doing a little better with feed. Had to bring my gelding (her baby) into the vet this morning - he has a gassy colic episode. He at fine and was alert at 6:15am. When the property owner went to turn her horses out she noticed he was laying in his stall - unusual for him so she called me. I gave him banamine at 8:20 am and at 8:35am he was grazing in regular grass. So the banamine helped. He's been doing fine since being brought to the new barn. They went ahead and tubed him to be on the safe side. My worry has started all over again. He had an episode last year and the year before at this same time of year. Had to do the same thing. He's on smartpak smart gi ultra supplements as well. didn't have to get tubed last year, but did the year before. Vet said put him back in his stall for today and only give water. He gave him mineral oil and electrolytes and water. I have to go walk him every 2 - 4 hours for about 10 - 15 minutes. I have to call him back in the morning if there is no poop in his stall. He did poop on the way to the vet (about an 1hr away) in the trailer. Just really worried now.... 😟

 

Hoping things turn out ok. I have one that colics seasonally. We've learned how to manage her and she has done much better but we had a really bad scare one year.

 

HI Everyone, I was wondering if any of you have barn cameras that are not on wi-fi. I'm looking to purchase a couple so I can check on Sugar & Lil Bit when they are in their stalls and I'm at work (35 minutes away). The barn doesn't have wi-fi and they would have to be wireless as well. I know I'd have to get a cellular data package probably with another carrier other than my cell phone and that's ok. Just need some recommendations...