Does Your Horse Display Any of These Symptoms?
- Interested in feeding time, yet stops eating soon after he starts.
- Mouth open or lower lip hanging down.
- Drooling!
- Small piles of feed left uneaten.
- Mouth and/or lips sensitive to touch.
- Ulcers inside the mouth especially along the lower lip canal.
The Ripgut grass was the culprit in our situation. The photo’s and video’s you find in this hub are of the Ripgut grass.
When the hay being fed to your horse has an overabundance of undesirable grasses, your horse will develop red, open ulcers in his mouth. These open ulcers will have the culprit still embedded in them.
A horse cannot remove these undesirable grasses from their mouth. These grasses have spines on them pointing in one direction, in. When their feed has a lot of them, they build up in the lower lip, piercing the tender flesh, embedding themselves in their lip. Once one has penetrated the flesh it’s really easy for more to pile into the hole. One after another, as the horse picks up his hay with his lips, the undesirable grasses drop off their spiny arrows, that in turn, they embed themselves into his lips.
The horse will continue to eat until he is in so much discomfort he cannot pick up another mouthful of the hay. At this point It is too painful to hold his lips together and swallow his saliva. He will then stop eating, stand with his lips apart, drooling profusely. The drool will sometimes extend from his lip all the way to the ground.
Fox Tail 
Rip Gut
You can be a diligent horse (any grass eating animal) owner and pay attention to what is fed to him. These grasses start growing in the early spring. They are soft and supple at this time, but as the summer months dry out the grasses they become dangerous. If you know the dangerous grasses, you will be able to avoid or reduce your animals exposure to them.
When you notice your horse is exhibiting these symptoms you need to take action to relieve his pain. Some horses don’t mind having a person touch his mouth, others aren’t as easy. Patients is the key here. Even the most docile horse in the barn can become resistant when human fingers are probing his tender mouth full of stickers, it hurts!
Have someone help you it’s just easier that way. Put a halter on him so he can’t walk away before you’re done. Gently put your thumb into the corner of his lower lip and slide it down until you can lift the lip away from the teeth. His natural saliva will help with sliding your finger. Don’t put your finger between the teeth at or beyond the occlusion you may very well be accidentally bit.
Now that you have the lip pulled down, look closely at the ulcers. Are there little white or yellow things sticking out of them or lying in them? These are the undesirable grasses like foxtails, ripgut and cheatgrass, embedded into the ulcer. With tweezers or your bare fingers, pull them out. Keep picking them out until you can’t see any more.
Check the front of his mouth and the other side. If one side has an ulcer the other side probably does too. After you have picked it all out prepare a bottle of warm salt water and spray it gently into his mouth on the sores, this will help with the healing process.
I’ve used alfalfa cubes successfully. They provide all the nutrients of alfalfa, and some brands have added nutrients. Alfalfa cubes are especially helpful if you have to feed in a windy area. They won’t blow away as alfalfa flakes do. I will wet the cubes before feeding them to the horses and make sure the horses have plenty of water.
Horses are very resilient, especially with oral problems. Don’t be surprises if you check the next day and the sores are halfway healed or more! If you find they are not healing by weeks end then there may be a stubborn fox tail embedded or another issue that needs veterinarian attention.
