You can lead a horse to water....

[Mulligans Run]

Dancer was at UGA two weeks ago and underwent colic surgery. She had three impactions, one at the end of the colon, one in the large intestine and one in the stomach. Surgery was a success and we brought her home last week.

Dancer was back at the vet this morning because she was running a low grade fever, was uncomfortable and wanted to roll. She was dehydrated....

This is probably how the whole colic impaction thing started with her to begin with. This horse doesn't like to drink...so all her food will be wet for awhile.

We have tried Equitea, Gatorade, just don't know what else to try.

Does anyone have any suggestions? She has always been like this and apparently will continue to be throughout her life. I'd sure like some suggestions here...

 

[solupe]

Does she have access to salt?

 

[Gini]

I had one colic for the same reason a few weeks back. The vet told me to use unsweetened

applejuice in her water bucket. Did this for a couple of days and she has been drinking fine ever since.

It worked for me

 

[Mulligans Run]

Yes, she has access to salt block, mineral block and the 12:12 Purina blocks when we get them. We also give electrolytes on their feed every morning by suggestion of our vet.

I'll try the apple juice - thanks!

 

[qtrmoonfarm]

O sorry to hear about her problem, glad she's home! Have you tired salting their feed? We've been adding a salt mineral mix to their grain as a top dressing year around to insure they get thirsty and drink TONS..so far with that and soupy beet pulp <knock on wood> no problems. GOOD LUCK!

 

[virginia]

I second the apple juice and have had apple vinegar work too. Good luck.

Ginny StP

 

[KanoasDestiny]

I read somewhere that you can also try jello mix in the water.

 

[Hosscrazy]

I had one horse who decided water was poison - she really wanted nothing to do with it. I ended up putting a little bit of molasses into her water bucket and sure enough, she ended up deciding water wasn't that bad after all! I did have to change/clean her bucket daily and after a few months, I added a little less molasses to the water each week, eventually going back to regular water - the cycle was broken, and that's all that mattered to me!

Liz R.

 

[Debby - LB]

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I highly agree with Sandi...use salt. Use loose salt free choice and if you have too then top dress the feed with it. Horses aren't lickers like cows, I have no use for the blocks and have found that if you want them to get their daily nutritional requirements you need to top dress their feed. In this case using salt (and it takes very little) to urge one to drink is neccesary and the apple juice is a good idea too.

 

[CAM]

We will use the apple flavored electrolytes and our vet also suggested using a tsp. of tablesalt as an option. We do also have out the free choice loose trace minerals and I find they don't use their salt blocks much because of that.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Horses aren't lickers like cows, I have no use for the blocks and have found that if you want them to get their daily nutritional requirements you need to top dress their feed.

Hehe, tell that to my horses who each go through a small salt and mineral block a week in the summer! :lol: They will spend twenty minutes at a time licking those things with this dopey look on their faces. I can tell how wide their tongues are by the groove in the blocks. It probably varies by area though, yours might not use them because they get enough minerals from the grass or something. ::shrug::

Anyway, that said, top-dressing salt in small amounts is probably a good idea in a case like this. This is to get her to drink for her own good, not to meet nutritional requirements. Silly mare! I would definitely try the apple juice in the water and maybe try changing the temperature of it? Maybe she has sensitive teeth or something and doesn't like cold water. Or hot water, or whatever she's been getting.

Horses.

:

Leia

 

[DebiM]

Heather, have you tried a sloppy mix of shredded beet pulp? Mine all love it and look forward to it. At first you can try a half cup mixed in with her feed soaked with water. You can add all her supplements to that. Add a bit more water next time until it's just a real sloppy mixture. You want it to be more liquid than a mushy consistency but not too wet so that it doesn't still taste good to her. Good Luck with her.

 

[minih]

We have a gelding that would colic quite often until we started adding beet pulp and water to his feed. I mix it all together for a really yucky looking mush but I make it real soupy and you can hear him slurping up the juice in the bottom. :bgrin Must be tasty. We have not had a colic problem with him in several years.

 

[midnight star stables]

I vote, as has been said, put a tsp. of tablesalt on her grain daily

:

 

[maryann]

Have you tried the apple flavored pediolyte in the squeeze bottle. Jean had us give this to Karat on

the way out to Tulsa in Sept. He would not drink enough water. We would just squeeze enougth in

mouth till he swallowed. Then a little more. Not enougth to fource it down his trachea . He took this as his personal time and loved it like it was a treat. Maybe she could get used to the apple taste this way and then you could add cyder or apple juice to her water bucket. Good luck with Dancer.