old horse refused to eat or drink

[Skip Ahlers]

a friend of mine was given 2 horses. one was about 3 or 4 years old and the other was around 28.

My friend had to give the horses back due to personnel reasons.

the owner of the horses took the younger horse and left the older one.
the older horses refused to eat or drink and died.

is this commom????

[Elana55]

No it is not common.

Allowing it to happen (you can tell if a horse is not drinking or eating) and not calling a vet is gross negilgence and whoever allowed it ought to be charged and convicted on animal cruelty charges.

[chieferzcowgirl]

If the horse was older than what the former owners told you, then this will happen. It happend to my horse, Sonnie, back in Feb. He was almost 40 yrs old, it had gotten too cold for him and he quit eating and drinking, then I put him in the stall and he fell. There was nothing we could do except stay with him for the last 2 minutes of his life.

[cutting_horse_maniac]

I am sad to say that this is not common. But I do know of a feed that, if you can get the horse to eat it, will take care of nutrition and hydration. It is called beet pulp. I is mainly fiber. It can replace hay and grain. We feed about 3 pounds of beetpulp per feeding. But make sure you wet it down!!!!!!!!! If not wet down it will soak up the stomache enzymes and can make a horse colic or choke. But put about 3 pounds of beet pulp into a bucket and put water in the bucket until the water is about one inch above the beet pulp and let it soak for about ten-twenty maybe thirty minutes and feed it. It is great stuff and I feed it to my 2 yr old cutting horse and my 10 yr old barrel/pole/cutting horse.

Also, what I would do is take this horse to the vet or equine dentist and have his teeth checked out. Horses teeth get bad as they get older and need to have their teeth floated at least 1 once a year.

Keep Grin'n
cutting horse maniac