The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT

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[HairOfTheDog]

Along with this is that she hasn't really eaten in two days either... she didn't touch her hay or grain yesterday or today... tonight I tried to slip her (all of them) some quiet pony powder and she didn't eat her grain.

We've looked for something physically in her stall on that wall and can't see anything... We don't have snakes up here like you can get down there.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I'm sorry, that doesn't sound good. Horses just don't eat unless something is wrong. Hope she is better soon.

Becky

[Duchess47]

I'm going to hate myself for asking I know. What's a dead resaca?

[CindyDawg]

I don't know what's best because there are dangers either way but here , people haul them out or leave the barn open and turn them loose.

[CindyDawg]

Could it be weather related? Okie was a little off his feed tonight too.

[Duchess47]

There is something very wrong with her stall - at least as far as she is concerned. Move her outside and feed her there. Just let her stay out before she worrys herself into colic.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Well, in my experience weather has never stopped any of mine from eating.

What's a little off?

Becky

[CindyDawg]

It's a canal or little finger river off the Rio Grande. They are all over the place here. This one is dry for some reason. It would make a nice hill:')

[Duchess47]

Okay :) - I was thinking like a dead racoon or something.

[CindyDawg]

He ate. But he's usually energetic and moves others over. He left his bucket almost full and went and ate grass and then came back and ate some of Sarah Lees and then a little more of his. He just didn't act real hungry which isn't like him. There was a blue tarp flapping on the barn too that he kept watching.

[CindyDawg]

Didn't she do this once before when you were having some electrical problems? Could something small be hot?

[AnAmericanMother]

Horses ARE very sensitive to weather changes, and it looks like y'all are going to get a big blow, so it may just be that. But I'd keep a close eye on her.

And if she doesn't eat tomorrow, after the wind dies down, I think I'd call the vet.

[CindyDawg]

My mare ate good today (I hope). We walked by a broom and she reached over and grabbed it and started eating before I could stop her. I hope I got all of the straw out of her mouth.

[HairOfTheDog]

She did it once before for one day, yes, and we speculated about electrical issues but never really knew what it was.

That time, she was merely snorty about coming through the door opening, and she hasn't been that way since.... till now.

[HairOfTheDog]

Just went out and checked on them, and she's better... she had eaten her grain (that had Quietex in it) and looked like she'd been moving her hay around... she's still sortof standing away from, and staring at the far wall, but she doesn't seem as stressed, not blowing. The other horses are ~not~ acting unusual at all, and Bay's usually willing to take any horse's word for it if there's a monster.

It's a puzzle. But I wonder if I haven't thought up a workable theory... The ground rods for the electric fence are outside her stall, and I wonder, since the ground outside is so saturated lately that the concrete is damp.... and combined with the fact that she pees in the spot I marked in yellow, might mean that she feels some charge back there when the fence is on (I unplugged it tonight) The floor mats are rubber, and wouldn't be conductive, but if she peed back there, and the concrete underneath the mats is wet both from her and because the ground outside is wet?

Drawing below...

She's been standing on the far side... well away from the part that might usually be wet.... In fact, last night she didn't mess the other side of the stall at all. The fence hasn't been on the last two nights, but if it got her all night a few days ago, she might fear it for awhile even though it's gone.

[CindyDawg]

How's your weather? Strange to think of you having tropical storm winds.

[HairOfTheDog]

We get a winter storm something like this about once a year... sometimes with all the hills around, we really don't feel much if we get lucky.

[Duchess47]

That could well be what it is. Is it possible to switch her and the pony to see if she's afraid of the pony's stall?

[HairOfTheDog]

We thought about doing just that...

[Duchess47]

If she is getting shocked there and that's possible, she might relax in a different stall. And the pony hasn't been shocked (or whatever) so that stall shouldn't bother her.