Watch out buddy, your life is changing!
In a brief update on yesterday’s post, I just wanted to let you all know, Nay Nay is tentatively scheduled for at gastroscopy on Thursday morning. However, if someone cancels prior to Wednesday at 5pm for next Tuesday’s Gastroscopy Clinic at my vet office, we will take their spot and go on Tuesday instead. Basically, the 2 appointments are close enough that I’m OK holding out until Tuesday, but no longer. The price next Tuesday is $240 vs the $385 I’ll pay on Thursday so… But, he needs to be scoped ASAP so… We’re basically waiting on one client who may no longer need the scope hence the potential for Tuesday, but…
That said, Nay Nay’s life is changing and he is NOT happy about it.
We have pulled all grain from his diet (he does get a handful with his sucralfate 2x/day because he’ll eat it that way) effective immediately. He was NOT happy when he walked into his stall last night to discover he was on a forage only diet. His grain meals have been replaced with alfalfa pellets (he’s not crazy about them, but alfalfa = good so the vet advised me to offer them anyway), Purina Outlast (I can’t remember if I was to keep him on it or not so he’s on it until the scoping), and chopped hay. At Michele’s suggestion, I bought Triple Crown Safe Starch Forage and dumped a bucket of that in his feed bin. It’s fortified and grain free and he could live on that if needed (but $$$$). He was angry last night, but his feed bin was empty (he was gifted a corner feed tub last week because he liked to dump his bucket on the ground with his head… he was super pissed that he couldn’t do that with this).
Grazing, the BEST part of the day
As angry as he was, the bin was empty this morning of all forage and powders. He didn’t eat as much hay as I’d like, but… He’s been pigging out on grass for 6+hours/day so… My vet feels right now any weight loss associated with cutting grain would be made up but possibly eliminating his daily colics. So, we’ll see. Still, he is ANGRY.
Former home of our culvert if you remember that saga… Very green this spring. Still haven’t heard from TPTB…
This morning, he was less than impressed that his bucket contained the same crap as yesterday night. I’m sure he won’t eat much (and I left his stall door open so instead of eating, he’s looking outside). But, he was hunting for carrot pieces so maybe he’ll eat the some.
But, Nay Nay should enjoy life because Wednesday into Thursday is going to suck. He must be off of all food/meds 12 hours prior to the scope. So, I’ll bring them in for dinner at about 8 to give him 2 hours to eat and then pull everything from his stall but water. He can drink water until 6 am and then nothing. I need to figure out turnout but I’ll either keep them all in until I’m ready to take Nay Nay to the clinic or we’ll turn him out with a muzzle taped closed. This is going to suck and there is a chance I might die. LOL.
Three Chestnuts 
When mine had hindgut ulcers from colic surgery he got the timothy balance cubes and safe starch forage. It did the trick .https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/products/timothy-balance-cubes/ Good luck with your boy!
Thanks! I’ll add in the cubes if, at somepoint, we need something more. It’s been nice not feeding cubes, but I will if i need to. They are definitely something I could add oil to if he needed extra fat.
Ugh. Nothing worse than an angry horse. Interestingly, Carmen was an angry horse with ulcers too. I hope you get in sooner and figure out what to do.
He’s extra angry about the diet changes vs the ulcers.
Just have him talk to my three. They basically never get grain. They’re ready to throw down every night for their soaked alflafa cubes with rice bran and CA Trace+ though. So Nay, there IS life on the other side and it’s still delicious.
Jiminy doesn’t need grain, Batt never needed grain. Subi has been the hardest horse EVER to keep weight on. At one point he was getting: grain (let’s not even discuss the amounts), beet pulp, timothy-alfalfa cubes (because the plain alfalfa cubes were NOT acceptable), and added fat. He’s doing OK now with just omelene 200 (of all random grains this is allowing him to keep weight better than anything) and alfalfa. My horses have always had access to free choice hay. Some of these thoroughbred are just such hard keepers, especially when they don’t care about eating 24/7. Free choice hay is great, but when horses would rather hang out vs eat, it doesn’t help.
We’ll see where Nay Nay ends up being. I wish he had a touch of the quarter horse in him!
Jamp hated alfalfa pellets too. He ate the safe starch stuff after he foundered and liked it well enough. Poor Nay Nay, but hopefully it will all be worth it to get him figured out!
He’s eating the alfalfa pellets now. I’m pretty sure he’s desperate! But he’s decided the grass hay he’s served outside is beneath him and he will only eat his alfalfa/orchard mix… The other 2 don’t get this mix. Ahhh! And his scoping isn’t until next Thursday due to a miscommunication. Oh well.