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Expert
Posts: 1226
  
| My gelding does this every summer. He does not drink well and therefore gets drawn up and he always drops weight. He was doing pretty good until last week when it was 115 for a few days. I give him electrolytes in supplements and he has a salt block. Along with table salt in supplements. Any othe suggestions or what have you had luck with? |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | heidiinaz - 2014-07-30 10:12 AM My gelding does this every summer. He does not drink well and therefore gets drawn up and he always drops weight. He was doing pretty good until last week when it was 115 for a few days. I give him electrolytes in supplements and he has a salt block. Along with table salt in supplements. Any othe suggestions or what have you had luck with?
Are you adding stuff to his water to make him not want to drink it? And are you keeping the water fresh and clean, if he was mine I would make sure his water was fresh every day. Good luck, just dont over do the electrolytes and salt.. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I had a vet suggest baking soda in feed, I add apple cider vinegar to the water, 3 of my 4 love it. Edited to add that during the drought we had a few years ago I started feeding soaked molasses free beet bulp for the moisture and fiber, I had one colic twice in a 2 month period from not drinking enough. I did not have any more problems after adding the beet pulp.
Edited by rodeomom3 2014-07-30 10:24 AM
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Bumping this up, looks like a double post,  |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
 
Location: Gainesville, TX | Gatorade. Electrolytes and they like the taste. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1631
Location: Somewhere around here | oija - 2014-07-30 12:54 PM
Gatorade. Electrolytes and they like the taste.
I agree with Gatorade or Powerade but you horse might like one taste (orange) but won't like another (like blue). So it could be a hit and miss sort of thing. |
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 Vodka for Lunch
Location: Lala Land | Ditto on the Apple Cider Vinegar - one of mine will try to drink it out of the bottle and will drink on the road with it added to water. I've read it's also good to put in your water tanks that it helps reduce algae & keeps flies and mosquitos from hanging out by it.
Edited by Lovin Life 2014-07-30 2:55 PM
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 Loves to compete
Posts: 5760
Location: Oakdale, CA | I would put a little salt in his grain morning and night. Make sure his water is nice and fresh.......heck you could test the water to and see whats in it?? |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| rodeomom3 - 2014-07-30 10:21 AM
I had a vet suggest baking soda in feed, I add apple cider vinegar to the water, 3 of my 4 love it. Edited to add that during the drought we had a few years ago I started feeding soaked molasses free beet bulp for the moisture and fiber, I had one colic twice in a 2 month period from not drinking enough. I did not have any more problems after adding the beet pulp.
^^This. I had the same experience. |
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Expert
Posts: 3147
| Do you have city or well water? If it's city water does it taste different to you in the summer? Horses don't like warm/hot water-prefer slightly cool water. Is your water trough in the sun or shade? What is the water trough made of? My horses prefer drinking from white polyvinyl barrels over the black ones. I also have a rubbermaid trough which tends to keep the water slightly cooler than metal troughs. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | Gatorade to flavor the water has worked well for me.
Have you tried different colored buckets? I have one that prefers blue and another one that prefers yellow. The others don't care, but those 2 have definite preferences. |
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 Owner of a ratting catting machine
Posts: 2258
| Have you had him checked for ulcers? Mine quits drinking so well when his tummy hurts. Get some Ulcergard into him, he drinks great. The drawn up look goes away also. Just a thought. |
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  Sweet Tea
Posts: 3496
Location: Home of the World Famous "Silver Bullet" | wet beet pulp and some water in his feed. i'm not so big on the salt in their feed. try grostrong free choice. |
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Expert
Posts: 1477
Location: In the land of peanuts and cotton | I add salt to my feed if one quits drinking. I will also give them gator aid. One horse likes blue other likes orange so you will have to play around with flavors. I'll either get the big bottles and pour it in a small bucket or the powder kind and mix it in there water bucket. If that doesn't work get molasis like you would put in deer feeders and pour some in his water. |
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I agree on being very careful about adding salt and electrolytes to their feed to make them drink. They can get severely dehydrated even quicker-- I have had that happen because they still don't drink and they are getting even more salt. I also have noticed they back off water when they have gastric or colon ulcers. I feed soaked alfalfa cubes and some beet pulp to keep some water in their gut anad also flax to keep things moving. |
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Expert
Posts: 1226
| Thanks for all the suggestions. I took him off salt and electrolytes and I am going to try some of the suggestions. Thanks for the help everyone |
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 "Hottie"
Posts: 1373
Location: Okemah,OK | Mine are all typically good drinkers (just like their dam) but I have one that's decided he doesn't want much of his stall water at night. He drinks out of the pond all day, drinks well on the road and drinks will when stalled overnight at a race. It's just the water in his stall at home at night. Now his little brother is new to his pasture and doesn't drink out of the pond all day and so he goes thru 2 buckets every night in his stall. I tell you all this just to suggest maybe different water sources, different times of day, etc? |
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