I bet it also has more minerals in it. My horses seem to love to drink puddles on the driveway with the stone dust. So does my dog!
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My mare does this, and I’m convinced it’s simply because the trough is such a long way away (in her mind, anyway). She’s actually in a half acre paddock during the summer because our grass is so lush, and she is so, um, fluffy. But if she can drink out of a puddle that looks like liquid death instead of having to walk ALL THAT WAY to the trough, that’s exactly what she’ll do!
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I have an old mare that loves the rainwater. She doesn’t drink that much anyway. But, if there is a puddle…she is drinking that! Forget the bucket, that lovely water stewing in the mud is SO much better. (I hasten to add, only in the grass fields and usually only out of where an underground drain/stream briefly surfaces, she always has clean water, and I’ve never seen her drink truly bad water, but she will check it.)
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Glad to hear “our” Bo is doing better 
You are doing such an amazing job with him!
Add my horse to the dirty puddle water drinkers fan club! My gelding just looooves him some dirty puddle water! At our old barn, he would go straight to the dirty puddle water for a big long drink as soon as he was turned out. I just told myself he must like the minerals in the water 
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So glad you have him home where he’s happy. What is the plan on feeding? Curious about how long it takes to get him back to normal.
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“Normal” might be difficult to identify…OP has not had him that long and catching up with long neglected vet/dental care plus the setback after the vaccines kind of creates a moving target as far as determining “normal”.
IMO, he is looking like he’s well on the way to whatever his “ normal” is in those last pictures and OPs observations and description of his behavior.
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The plan is slow and steady, generally speaking. When he arrived home I was giving him about half a pound every 3-4 hours, and that was about all he could take in in that time. He’s up to about 1.5lb now and cleaning it up much faster. I never did get discharge instructions so I’m loosely extrapolating from the re-feeding protocol for starved horses + what I’ve read about re-feeding after colic. All the literature is geared towards horses that can eat hay, so I kind of have to go with my gut but the key point is to build back up somewhat slowly.
Not to throw a wrench in my own plans, but I stopped by a different feed store today to see if they carry a locally milled complete feed I’d heard of that is much more forage-based than the Purina Senior. Before his episode, I was hoping I’d eventually be able to transition him to another complete feed that is a little more in line with the way I like to feed, which is generally forage-based and low sugar/starch. Now seems like a good time to do that as any, so I grabbed a bag of this feed and to my great surprise, he really likes it. It’s also a much softer pellet than the PS and should be easier for him to chew. 
So, we will be transitioning to that and phasing out the PS once I run out. It’s higher in fiber and fat and significantly lower in sugar and starch. If he doesn’t bloom as well on it, we can always go back to the Purina.
@findeight behavior wise, he is definitely close to normal. Weight wise, this is probably setting him back a few weeks to a month on his timeline, but fingers crossed he packs the pounds on as well as he did the first time around and we don’t have any more hiccups.
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Just a thought here…IIWY? I’d plan on driving a little farther to the vet next time and just shift my business to the other clinic.
Not that the clinic you used did anything wrong, more a communication and maybe office organization issue, it is, after all, a service business and there is another well respected option. An option that might have communicated more about vaccine reaction, returning home and given you discharge instructions. You were an existing client and there for several days, there was time to help you.
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Which other clinic? The one that I took him to the first time around, that didn’t even do an exam? Or are you talking about Texas A&M? The clinic he was at is about 47 minutes from home, the university and the other clinic are about an hour so not really much difference, just a different direction (it takes 15-20 minutes just to get out of my ‘neighborhood’, nothing is close).
A&M, hopefully they will do a few things differently service wise.
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Ah.
I am not really too fussed over not getting the written instructions, it would’ve been nice but at this point I think most of it is probably irrelevant. I certainly could’ve followed up when I didn’t receive them, and it could be something as simple as they mis-typed my email address who knows. They are handling the manufacturer end of things, and they were able to get Bo through his major issues, so I am grateful for that.
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Today’s ‘well, would you look at that’ moment:
Yes, friends, those are clumps of wood shavings in his manure. I found a second pile that looked similar. Perhaps he just picked them up in the course of trying to eat the hay they gave him, or he was eating them on purpose because he was hungry and didn’t like their salty mashes, but either way: consuming indigestibles does not speed along digestion or encourage appetite. Whether it’s rocks or shavings.
Other than the giant pile of worms I once had come out of a new project horse after a deworming, this horse has had the most interesting poop I’ve ever poked through. 
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Oh dear. Poor guy. I’m glad he’s home.
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So glad he’s getting that out of his system. Poor guy …
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He probably feels better getting those out of his system!
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We had a horse at the rescue center who would not eat feed or hay. Then some dry leaves blew into his stall and he scarfed them right down. Seems he had adjusted his own diet to what was available in his previous life. Maybe Bo is like that about puddle water.
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Really, Bo? Really? We have established that rocks & dirt are not food. Neither are shavings. Do we need to bring in Bruce the shark?
Aside, what is that white something in the bottom left corner of his poop? About 7 o’clock. Looks like a snail or an earbud. I sure hope he didn’t eat that, too!
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At least it’s going through.
Might be assorted vitamin deficiencies going on or the instinct to chew forage. Both the result of long term malnutrition.
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