Horses
I wanted to follow up Dr. Karen Davison's post on water and electrolytes with something I saw in the field lately. In the pictures above, there are two water buckets. These buckets were side by side in a very nice, well kept barn. The top water bucket was offered with electrolytes in the water daily, and the other was "clean" water but had recent bird excrement that had fallen into it.
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Horses
More on water...
I wanted to follow up Dr. Karen Davison's post on water and electrolytes with something I saw in the field lately. In the pictures above, there are two water buckets. These buckets were side by side in a very nice, well kept barn. The top water bucket was offered with electrolytes in the water daily, and the other was "clean" water but had recent bird excrement that had fallen into it.
Which bucket would you rather drink from?
According to one of the barn managers, the horse was not a good drinker and did not like to drink the electrolyte water. Which leaves us the water with the bird poop- that can be a potential health risk to the horse drinking it.
Therefore, in this situation, I would recommend two things. 1) Clean, scrub/disinfect and refill any water buckets with bird excrement in them and try to keep birds out of the barn 2) remove electrolytes from the bucket the horse will not drink out of, and feed electrolyes as outlined in Dr. Davison's article below- as needed and either with feed or syringed to the horse individually.
Keeping horses hydrated during hot weather is very important. Make sure you are not getting in your horse's way and provide fresh, clean water at all times.
- Beating The Heat During The Dog Days Of Summer: Ideas For Decreasing Heat Stress In Horses
As summer drags on the heat can become a serious problem for many horses. The primary way in which horses cool themselves is through sweating. While the exact mechanisms for inducing sweat production in horses are not yet fully understood,...
- Hydration Hay Is Now Available And We Can Finally Talk About It!
Hydration Hay Package, Block and Fully Soaked When I show customers the Hydration Hay for the first time, I joke that this product is worth 7 years of my life. When I joined Purina in 2005, they were already working on a similar project that involved...
- Winterize Your Horse!
As winter approaches and temperatures drop, horse owners need to consider how to winterize their horses. During the cold season, horse owners must make sure that their animals receive proper feed, water and shelter to stay healthy and comfortable. Feeding...
- Trailering Long Distances…what I Learned From Personal Experience.
The photo above is of my mare, Tia Maria, as viewed via a wireless video camera as she trailered from Florida to New York. This was the first time I had trailered horses more than 6 hours at a time myself, and I fretted about the best way to do it....
- Another Friday Funny...
We have had a crazy busy week (and spring for that matter) here at the farm. I found it amusing this morning when the first thing I found pulling into the farm was a lot of water in place where there should be none! Happy Friday morning! Looks like we...