Electrolyte Question....horse loves them

[SuckerForHorses]

My mare tends not to drink much when she’s in a stall overnight (which is not very often, they normally are out 24/7 with run-in situation). Last night was cold and rainy so I put them in for the night so they could dry off.

She seems to like electrolyte water (a 5 gallon bucket of water with 1 scoop of electrolyte powder in it) so I offered her 1 bucket of electrolyte water, and 1 bucket of fresh clean water. Thinking that if she drank some of the electrolyte water she’d 1) get some water into her and 2) it might encourage her to drink more of the regular water overnight.

When I got to the barn this morning, she had drank the ENTIRE bucket of electrolyte water, and practically licked the bucket clean. It was literally ALL GONE.

She did drink some of the fresh water, but not much, maybe a few sips. The bucket was still basically full.

Is there any reason to be concerned that she is preferring that much electrolyte water over fresh water? She never drinks 5 gallons of fresh water overnight, ever.

Should I continue to offer her both types?

ETA: She is on a ration balancer - TC 30% - so she is receiving at least the minimum daily vit & mins from that

[EmilyM]

be thankful and keep doing it!

[SuckerForHorses]

@EmilyM

be thankful and keep doing it!

LOL! I was pleasantly surprised that she drank that much for sure! I was just wondering if there is any concern that they can over-consume electrolytes if left to their own devices?

[drafting_dots]

Is it the flavored kind? My horse loves them too and will eat the powder out of my hand like treats.

[SuckerForHorses]

@drafting_dots

Is it the flavored kind? My horse loves them too and will eat the powder out of my hand like treats.

Yes, it’s Apple-A-Day by FinishLine. I only put 1 scoop into a 5 gallon bucket and fill with water so its fairly diluted.

I was wondering if I should perhaps just add a 1/2 cup of apple juice to the water to eliminate my concern over the consumption of actual electrolytes. She isn’t sweating, its cold here. But perhaps her body is wanting/needing them?

[SuckerForHorses]

Do you think it would be okay for the very infrequent times she’s in a stall to just have 1 bucket of water with instead of electrolytes, add 1/2 cup of apple juice? Then it would be more like fresh water.

Having 2 buckets available - 1 with electrolytes and one fresh - is a pain in the winter because I have to use heated buckets. Having only 1 bucket would be nice, but I won’t just offer her electrolyte water because fresh should always be available (even though she doesn’t seem to want to drink the fresh…)

[luvmyhackney]

As long as she is drinking, I would put whatever she likes in it. Could you try 1/2 scoop and see if that works? Worse thing to happen is a bigger pee spot. Her kidneys filter any excess.

[Scribbler]

What’s in the electrolytes? Basically salt and sugar? Neither are going to harm her in this quantity. I would say keep offering her both until she gets tired of the electrolytes or the bucket starts freezing.

My mare has a high requirement for salt despite not being very sweaty and can power through a 7 lb Redmond block in 8 weeks while getting 2 ounces total a day in her mashes. That’s over a pound a week.

When maresy wasn’t drinking last winter and kept giving herself colic I experimented with all kinds of mixed drinks. She hated flavored electrolyte water but for a while would drain buckets of water flavored with molasses and salt. Then she got tired of them.

Absolutely you could flavor the water with what you want and try out different things. I always meant to try frozen Apple juice concentrate since maresy just loves juice from the bottle I’m drinking from.

[candyappy]

You could try to decrease the electrolytes down to a minimum but still keep it at a level she will drink. I have a horse who refuses to drink when stalled so i would be happy to have a way to encourage that .

[SuckerForHorses]

@Scribbler

What’s in the electrolytes? Basically salt and sugar? Neither are going to harm her in this quantity. I would say keep offering her both until she gets tired of the electrolytes or the bucket starts freezing.

My mare has a high requirement for salt despite not being very sweaty and can power through a 7 lb Redmond block in 8 weeks while getting 2 ounces total a day in her mashes. That’s over a pound a week.

When maresy wasn’t drinking last winter and kept giving herself colic I experimented with all kinds of mixed drinks. She hated flavored electrolyte water but for a while would drain buckets of water flavored with molasses and salt. Then she got tired of them.

Absolutely you could flavor the water with what you want and try out different things. I always meant to try frozen Apple juice concentrate since maresy just loves juice from the bottle I’m drinking from.

In the summer when its real hot, I will put out a 5 gallon bucket with a scoop of electrolytes and they would drink it, but not all of it (and in these instances, it was available to both horses as they are pastured together, so I wasn’t sure which one was drinking the half bucket). I guess I am surprised she drank THAT much overnight when its not even hot out. And in this case I know it was her as they were in individual stalls.

I’ll just keep offering it until its a pain in the butt to do.

ETA: she drinks a good amount when not in her stall, I think she prefers drinking out of a tub rather than a bucket. She’s sort of quirky…

[Scribbler]

@SuckerForHorses

In the summer when its real hot, I will put out a 5 gallon bucket with a scoop of electrolytes and they would drink it, but not all of it (and in these instances, it was available to both horses as they are pastured together, so I wasn’t sure which one was drinking the half bucket). I guess I am surprised she drank THAT much overnight when its not even hot out. And in this case I know it was her as they were in individual stalls.

I’ll just keep offering it until its a pain in the butt to do.

ETA: she drinks a good amount when not in her stall, I think she prefers drinking out of a tub rather than a bucket. She’s sort of quirky…

Gotta keep the mares happy!

Though thinking about it, my mare will drink more if she finds the hay at all dry ( it is never dusty) so perhaps if she’s stalled with hay she’s thirstier?

[Mathilda]

I wouldn’t be too concerned about her drinking up the electrolyte water, I’d be more concerned that her sucking it down might indicate she hasn’t been getting the electrolytes she needs and she’s trying to make up for a deficit. Even sweetened electrolytes, horses typically won’t intake more salt than their body needs. I’m sure there’s probably some horse’s whose sweet tooth can overcome that, but it’s generally the case. Does she have daily access to a salt block, and do you see her use it? I provide my horses with a mineral block, white salt block, and selenium salt block, and it’s been really interesting to monitor their usage-- some horses will use whatever, some horses only like one, some will use two but never the third. However the white salt block usually disappears first.

She may also just not like the taste of the stall water, especially if it’s not fresh every day, or the bucket isn’t cleaned often enough, or if there’s residue left from when it IS cleaned. You could add some apple juice to her water to see if this affects her consumption. If she drinks the apple juice water, I’d assume she’s drinking the electrolytes for taste reasons. If she still only drinks the electrolytes, I’d be concerned she might have a deficiency.

[SuckerForHorses]

@Mathilda

I wouldn’t be too concerned about her drinking up the electrolyte water, I’d be more concerned that her sucking it down might indicate she hasn’t been getting the electrolytes she needs and she’s trying to make up for a deficit. Even sweetened electrolytes, horses typically won’t intake more salt than their body needs. I’m sure there’s probably some horse’s whose sweet tooth can overcome that, but it’s generally the case. Does she have daily access to a salt block, and do you see her use it? I provide my horses with a mineral block, white salt block, and selenium salt block, and it’s been really interesting to monitor their usage-- some horses will use whatever, some horses only like one, some will use two but never the third. However the white salt block usually disappears first.

She may also just not like the taste of the stall water, especially if it’s not fresh every day, or the bucket isn’t cleaned often enough, or if there’s residue left from when it IS cleaned. You could add some apple juice to her water to see if this affects her consumption. If she drinks the apple juice water, I’d assume she’s drinking the electrolytes for taste reasons. If she still only drinks the electrolytes, I’d be concerned she might have a deficiency.

That’s what I was wondering…if she was consuming it because her body needed them, but I wasn’t sure if they only do it when that’s the case.

They have white blocks and mineral blocks and they quite literally NEVER lick them.

re: water in the stall buckets. They aren’t stalled often so the water is definitely fresh when they are inside. The buckets get filled for the night, and dumped and allowed to dry in the morning. I don’t believe that is the reason she drank the buckets w electrolytes but not the unflavored.

they are going to be in again tonight because we are supposed to get some hard rain and wind tonight. I’ll offer both again and see what she does.

[SuckerForHorses]

Last night…another 5 gallons of electrolyte water comsumed.

I’m just going to keep offering both to them even in turnout and see if the consumption tapers off after some days of availability.

[SuckerForHorses]

The vet was out today to give the horses their botulism boosters and I asked her about this.

Last night I kept the gelding in a stall, and my mare was essentially how they always are 24/7 (option to go in and out of the barn aisle…gotta keep maresey happy, she prefers this way over being locked in a stall…)

Anyhow, last night she was offered 2 buckets of electrolyte water, and free access to their regular water in the tub outside. When I got to the barn this morning, she had consumed 1.5 of the 2 buckets of the electrolyte water. Not sure how much regular water she drank because they share a tub with the heifers so wasn’t able to tell. Turned out the gelding so they were out to pasture as usual, mare returned and drank the remaining half of a bucket of electrolyte water.

So between last night when I left around 5 PM and this morning by 9 AM, mare had consumed 10 gallons of electrolyte water.

I asked the vet if there was any concern about this, and basically she said no, if the mare wants to drink it, let her drink it. But if what seems like an excessive amount continues, to maybe only offer it every other day, or only 1 bucket worth in a 24 hour period so she’s not sucking down so much of it.

IMO, 10 gallons of any water consumed in a just over 12 hour period for this mare is a lot. Normally if she’s offered only regular water, in an overnight period she might consume…3-4 gallons. She never drinks an entire 5 gallon bucket. So to drink 2 of them is quite a bit of consumption for her.

I am also pondering just adding the scoop of electrolytes to her feed to see if that encourages an increased drinking of regular water, and not offering the electrolyte water. I just don’t want her to drink only electrolyte water, have increased thirst, and drink MORE electrolyte water simply because she prefers the taste of it.

[theresak]

Try pulling the electrolytes and just adding a tablespoon or so of iodized table salt to her feed. See if that keeps her water intake a bit higher.

I asked about doing year-round electrolytes after my horse coliced, but my vet said it is known that electrolytes are hard on the stomach and can aggravate any sign of ulcers. So I only add electrolytes to the feed when we have big temperature swings. I do feed salt daily and have a pile of loose salt (about 1/4 cup replenished as needed) on the back lip of his feeder.

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

Keep offering one bucket of electrolytes and one of plain water. Great that electrolytes are being drunk.

[SuckerForHorses]

@theresak

Try pulling the electrolytes and just adding a tablespoon or so of iodized table salt to her feed. See if that keeps her water intake a bit higher.

I asked about doing year-round electrolytes after my horse coliced, but my vet said it is known that electrolytes are hard on the stomach and can aggravate any sign of ulcers. So I only add electrolytes to the feed when we have big temperature swings. I do feed salt daily and have a pile of loose salt (about 1/4 cup replenished as needed) on the back lip of his feeder.

This is exactly the reason I haven’t added them to her daily feed.

ah, opinionated, quirky Arab mares…can’t live with 'em, can’t live without 'em.

[Hawks_Nest]

I second (third?) the suggestion of trying a smaller amount of electrolyte if you are worried about that and continuing to offer the water. We have two horses that regularly drink 3-4 buckets of water in a 7hr period each (almost 20 gallons!).

If you are concerned about the electrolyte intake, we also have a horse on the farm who has been getting electrolytes daily for years and years due to a sweating issue and she has not had an issue (and we are lucky if she drinks 10 gallons of water in a 24hr period).

Just be glad that she is drinking!

[SonnysMom]

I make my own electrolytes. Morton Lite salt, table salt and tums. (Salt, potassium, calcium and the Tums acts as a buffer). I use peppermint Tums but you could use fruit flavored. I just run it all through the food processor. (1 container table salt, 2 containers Morton Lite and maybe 25-30 Tums). I put it in Finnegan’s feed.