how to get horse to drink more

zinny

New Member
Mar 11, 2007
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Hi - I live in Italy and am having problems encouraging my horse to drink more (wish I had that problem myself, ho hum
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:rolleyes:
) - he had a slight case of impacted colic last Saturday which I am sure was due to not drinking enough - he is on a soaked sugar beet (unmolassed) and hay diet, gets vits/mins supplement specially designed for that kind of diet, happily drank a bucket of water with fruit juice in it this morning but trashed the second try this evening - am worried he will go into colic again, last time I was there and could deal with it, but am now worried it will happen in the night etc etc (switch on every horse-owners worst fear nightmare vid......). He doesn't seem too keen on mint/peppermint flavourings, I am at wits' end wondering how to make him take in more water....???? it's hot here, but cool at night, I reckon the jumps in temps are affecting him but still need to know... I put salt in his beet.... thanks for any suggestions!
 
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How wet do you make the sugar beet? My normal way of getting them to drink is a lot of water and small amount of sugar beet as it does flavour the water. You could try adding cider vinegar to see if he takes to that. Failing that, Equine America produce something called "drink more" see http://www.equine-america.co.uk/welcome.html Never tried it, but I saw it the other day, so it may be of some use to you :)
 
Try sprite in teh water. Or molasses. Just keep trying things til something works. How much salt is he taking in ? Free choice - loose- salt is better than a salt-lick. If hes dehydrated, he's also probably lacking salts. You can buy other stuff besides beet to carry water - how about forage cubes - soak them really well and make up a really yummly mushy feed ?
 
Thanks for this quick and helpful reply! I see we have very similar names!
I don't make the stuff too sloppy as he just won't eat it at all if I do that - I get it as close to totally expanded with no extra liquid as I can, otherwise I just have to chuck it out next morning/evening (this gelding is a princess in disguise I tell you....). I will investigate the link you sent, much appreciated, ciao
 
Kate I was replying to Zingy when you posted, thanks! don't want to go too far down the molasses road as the boy is one of the whizzy sparkly types! he ignores salt licks, trashed an expensive likkit one, I put one or two handfuls of normal table salt into his beet mix just now. am worried about using electrolytes as I've heard they can be dangerous if the horse doesn't really need them -he doesn't work over-hard, and I don't normally work him into a sweat in the arena (too hot, too many flies, too much dust); sometimes out on a hack he'll sweat up a bit uphill (Tuscany has lots of that) or trotting, but he dries off as soon as we go back to walk or on the level. Maybe I'm just being over-worried now he had that bout of colic last Saturday....? here in Italy we don't have much choice in terms of prepared hi-fibre feeds, he does however like hay cubes which I do add to the beet to help his interest. This works to a certain extent so I get the salt vits and mins down him.....
 
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Make sure his bucket is really clean. We have one horse, Cider, that doesn't drink much water. At least once a week I scrub the stock tank and buckets with some bleach and rinse them really well. After they are freshly cleaned he downs the water really well.
 
like smaggi says, make sure your buckets are super clean, inside & out. Empty and scrub them every morning, store them upsides down & don't refill till he's about to go back in his stable in the evening. Keep them out of the stable when you are mucking out and when the floor is drying as the air will have ammonia in it.

You could also try soaking his hay so he gets water that way, dampening his grazing will help too, no need for sprinklers here in scotland :rolleyes:

If he has always drank that amount, try not to worry, just ensure he has 24 hour access to clean water and he'll drink as much as he requires.
If this is a drop from normal, keep a careful eye on him and call the vet if your worried.

Fi x
 
Thanks to all for replies, much appreciated. my hossie is out 24/7 with access to his stable and I do clean his drinker out every day - I hate those automatic things but that's what we've got...I'm now re-training his habits with a lovely big bucket (scrubbed scrupulously clean yes, but bleach????? are you sure that's safe????) and am putting fruit juice in the water which he sometimes thinks is the best idea ever and other times just snorts in disgust.... sigh. spoiled brat! At the moment for some unfathomable reason unsweetened apple juice is impossible to find in the shops, and the other stuff has sugar in it..... and my boy is sparkly enough without too much extra sugar tvmuch...:)) I upped his salt ration a tad and maybe that is what has done the trick, I think he is drinking more now. Some very interesting info on dehydration on the web by the way - if you put "dehydration in horses" into google you come up with a whole slew of very useful stuff.
cheers
 
You could try putting some water in a wide shallow bowl & floating chopped carrot & apple in it. While he's trying to get them he'll also take some water & it may be that the water will taste nice after & he'll drink it.

This may sound silly but my youngster drinks very little water in the stable but will drain a whole bucket if I hold it for him :rolleyes:. He also likes to "steal" water from the yard trough that he walks past on the way to his stable ......
 
He's the first horse I've ever met who doesn't really care for mint! I LOVE the apple-carrot bobbing idea, thanks for that one! and yes, he drinks happily if I hold the bucket for him- and now he is learning that there is often something yummy in the water he is getting more interested, tho I am still hoping unsweetened apple juice will reappear on the market soon, all this sweetened fruit juice is not ideal...
But I think the situation is resolving itself principally because I upped the amount of salt in his daily overall ration - even tho he isn't actually visibly sweating, and I'm not pushing him when we are schooling or out hacking, this hot hot weather must mean he loses more water even just standing still, than one thinks.
cheers
 
sloppy feeds (i.e. soaking, adding very dilute sugarbeet, etc), adding a heaped spoonful or two of salt to the water bucket (with another one free of slat in case the horse refuses to drink it still).

:)

xx
 
a lovely big bucket (scrubbed scrupulously clean yes, but bleach????? are you sure that's safe????)

I use it heavily diluted and rinse it very thoroughly, but if you search on the web for "drinking water bleach" you'll find articles about how to use bleach to disinfect drinking water for humans.
 
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