The eating thing could be that the thyroid glands are as big as softballs and the vet doesn't want to remove them. The whole eating behavior is getting worse it takes him longer to eat his pellets 42 minutes. He also drips urine while trying to eat I noticed that this PM.. I soak the pellets and he still picks and snorts and paws. He has no problem eating his hay. Go figure.
Here's something that occurred to me about the pellets. Maybe because of the swelling, he has an easier time eating hay because it's on the ground, but the pellets might be in an elevated bucket, where he doesn't lower his head to eat? Maybe the swellings interfere more when his neck isn't stretched out to the ground? Try feeding the pellets in a pan on the ground and see if that makes it easier for him to eat them. Also, maybe he just doesn't like the pellets, but he likes hay. Try soaking them less? Some horses just don't like wet feed. --
