Help please ..How much is TOO much water?

[Whitewave]

our yearling colt is going through a 5galllon bucket in 3 hrs....is this too much? my other horses dont drink as much as he does...he is stalled from 6:30 pm til 8:30 am and then is out side ..He is feed Stragy plus hay and is feed sperate from the other horses . Plus he is peeing so much I have to strip his stall every morning thats a bag of shavings a day.. his pee smells really strong , it burns my eyes and nose....He does not appear to be bloated and his gums are nice and pink... I have watched to see if he is playing in his bucket or dumping it and that is not the case...He has toys in his stall to play with and they are usually in another horses stall come morning or in the barn isles...

Oh and he does have access to salt outside but I have removed it from his stall thinking it was too much salt that was making him drink so much .

Please if any one knows if anything or nothing should be done your advice is well needed..I much vaule any and all input .. Thanks

Jenn

 

[wwminis]

Jenn,

Your little guy may have a slight urinanary trac infection! Or maybe a kidney infection! Have you checked his temp? Also, there maybe something in his feed causing his excessive drinking! Is he licking a salt block a lot? Just some thought's!

Bill

 

[Alex]

Yea, thats alot!! My yearling colt doesnt drink that much in 12 hrs.

Id think something up with his liver. Hes been eating and everything right?

 

[bevann]

Time to call the vet. Maybe some blood work is in order.This is definitely not normal.The very strong urine smell is not normal either.good luck with your little guy.

 

[Lil' Horse Lover]

I would contact the vet if I were you if you haven't already. I had a colt who did the same thing, he was drinking TONS of water and peeing a lot. We also had a pony mare who had kidney failure and she drank a lot of water too and was peeing a lot like your mini. We lost both of them. If I were you I would contact the vet asap. Sending prayers and good thoughts! Hope everything turns out ok. keep us updated.

 

[Irish Hills Farm]

I agree with everyone else, call the vet now. There could be any number of things wrong here.

 

[Whitewave]

Bill ,

I have removed all salt blocks even the big one outside today , will see if he drinks as much water tonight will go out to check at 9:00 pm..

His temp is normal and he runs around and plays with the other horses , I have noticed he does not drink to much water outside perhaps he is to busy playing to get a drink? and waits til he's in the stall?

I have a call into my vet ..Thank -you all for the respondes..

Jenn

 

[Casnos Minis]

When I first got our big horse he wouldn't drink outside at all. He'd come in and drink 2-5 gal. pails, plus another 5 gal. pail through out the night. Finally I just put out his small buckets to drink from and when from there. Finally he started to drink outside out of the big bucket. He still drinks alot, but not as much as he did. I'll be interested to see what your vet says. I have 3 minis that don't drink that much in 12 hours either.

 

[Fred]

I would call the vet but I will tell you we have a gelding here that drove us nuts as a yearling. He decided that his belly wasn't full enough to suit him so every time he had access to water he would tank up [and I mean gallons]. We had every test known to man done on him and they all came back showing nothing wrong. I had to limit his water at shows because he would wait till he got in front of the judge and dam burst couldn't top him. He would hold up the class for several minutes till he was done much to my daughters dismay. He did out grow it thank goodness.

 

[muffntuf]

I don't know how old your boy is mine is almost 8 months old and he is drinking more water right now. Probably 5 gallons.

If he has a strong odor, I wonder about the Strategy - I think it is 14% protein, but if it is an amonia smell, might be too much for him? Is his pee red or reddish brown?

 

[Jill]

I had a yearling years ago who drank "too much", but not as much as your guy. His bloodwork revealed nothing noteworthy. We started adding electrolytes to his water and he gradually began to drink a normal amount. In the case of him, I wondered if it was the start of a "vice" kind of thing to releive bordom, of if because he didn't come from the best home, if he could have just been gorging on clean water as he'd not always had enough of it available.

Let us know what you find out as to why your boy's so thirsty.

 

[Whitewave]

Just had the vet out....

He drew some blood and said til the results come in to Keep him stalled and monitor his water intake, and give him free choice hay all day..gee he was going crazy so had to keep another horse in with him..the vet said he should know something by later today..he also said to take him off stragy and put him on 12 % sweet feed for a while..I told him he has been on stragy for a month now but he instited I take him off says it is too much protein for minis...Yikes. I only give my other horses about a cup and he says thats too much too?

Help those of you who feed stragy to your minis have you been told this?

I use to feed Nutrina complete but can no longer get it close to me...

I can get Farman Mini feed would that be better than stragy and sweet feed?

Jenn

 

[txminipinto]

I don't think it's the stragedy. I've fed stragedy before w/o problems. Currently, I feed a 14% protein and 6% fat (Nutrena SafeChoice) to my entire herd without any issues. There are a lot of causes for increased water intake: nutrition, electrolytes, kidney issues, boredom, etc. And obviously, if you increase your fluid input you should also increase your fluid output.

Ask you vet to not only run a CBC and Chem panel, but an electrolyte panel as well.

It could be nothing but I don't have a single horse that drinks that much in a 24 hour period. I did have a donkey that would drain a 500 gallon water trough every 48 hours out of boredom.

 

[nootka]

Hoping you find something out.

My horses are on 12% for adults, and 14% for the growing horses/pregnant mares (of which I have none currently). I've never had any problems with that amount. Sometimes the working/growing horses will get as many as two to three cups of the feed, depending on the label on the feed/horse's weight.

Be careful about following your vet's advice. Many vets I've found are concerned about getting your mini too obese, as it's easy to do, but if you feed according to your feed manufacturer's directions as well as by weight and keep an eye on his condition, you are probably going to be just fine.

I've been feeding my horses this way since ever I've HAD horses, which is now 20 years. Big horses and small, I have fed them the same way, by weight and condition as well as activity. They are just small horses, they are not necessarily such a different breed that the feed amount would be different. A cup does not sound like that much. Almost every horse in my barn gets one cup twice per day, with exception of my tremendous yearling, he gets 1.5 cups twice per day, based on his projected mature weight as well he's a tiny bit thin at this point going through a growth phase.

Sorry to write a book...just don't want you to get too worried that it's the feed until you know some specifics.

As Carin said, there can be so many reasons....

Good luck and keep us posted.

Liz

 

[Bonny]

I am feeding the farnam mini right now. I like it but if my mini is preggers I am switching to safechoice. I think it is strange that he is drinking that much, but more so that he is drinking that much and his urine smells strong. Usually the water will dilute it...

 

[albahurst]

Jenn- Been thinking about your yearling- any word or update from your vet?

Hugs to you --

Peggy

 

[Whitewave]

Peggy thanks so much for your concern.....results of blood work is as said by vet " everything seems to be normal " okay so what now?

He drank just as much when left in his stall with free choice hay and did not have a full flake gone by 12:00 he was feed at 8:15 am but he had No water ! I gave him 4 gallons (just to try and see how much he really is drinking) at 12:00 and by 3:00 he still had 1 1/2 gallon left and No hay. hhis belly was very full and hard. There were 3 piles of poo at noon and a hudge wet spot and at 3:00 there was only 1 pile of poo and a large wet spot ... .. At 6:00 when I went to night feed he had 3 piles of poo No water and a large Pee spot.. I did raise his water from the 1.1/2 to 2 gallons)..... For the night I gave him 4 gallons water feed 1 cup flake of hay ..I just came in from feeding8:15) and he still has almost 4 gallons of water and half flake hay left.

i really dont know what to do now any suggestions please and thank you all.

Jenn

 

[muffntuf]

Did your vet do an electrolyte analysis as Carin suggested, or just the norm panels? Also - did he do a thyroid test?