Water intake and cold weather

[luvmyhackney]

I always add a couple flakes of alfalfa and give a snack of soaked feed if they will eat it. I did increase 1 tsp salt to 2tsp of salt to try and encourage water intake. My pony is loving his warm water though. So far no colic’s but my previous vet in NC had 3 colic’s called in last night.

If your horse isn’t used to eating alfalfa, it keeps things moving and soft.

I’m also bedding deeper since pee and poop are freezing. Nothing like laying in a frozen pee spot. I usually do 4-6", now I’ve got at least 10" of shavings plus banked on sides.

[Nestor]

Why all the fuss over having options for helping horses drink more? When my pony wasn’t drinking yesterday, you bet your butt I was racking my brain for what kind of soup to make her to get some water in her. So these ideas are much appreciated!!

She did start drinking again on her own, thankfully.

[candyappy]

I have never added anything to the water source. I have 2 kinds of salt out year round, plenty of hay and keep the water heated. I noticed they are drinking a bit more overnight now but that is because they have access to the dry pasture grass since we hit -0 temps.

Usually they are dry lotted overnight but I wanted them to be able to move around at will and lay down on the grass with it being so frigid. Their routine will resume once we get back to somewhat normal temps.

[goodhors]

@Lord Helpus

Buckets are freezing, outside tubs are freezing. I learned that Goober LOVES water with sweet tea in it, so he is getting that. And I will try it for the other horses to see if it helps them drink. I have also decided to give 4 smaller meals instead of 2 larger ones so I can drown the little bit of grain with 2 gallons of sweet tea water 4x/day We even have frozen pipes in the barn and are using a nearby hydrant to fill buckets and tubs several times a day.

So far, so good. Fingers crossed. It seems we have another week of this and are also expecting 4" of snow this week (in NC)

Tea is a dieretic (sp), which will make him pee more, using up his body water. I don’t think this is a great idea. The liquid water “is just visiting” as they say! This is not really helpful to him having sufficient water for his digestive system to move dry feed along. You don’t say how much tea is flavoring his water. Any real tea quantity is not helping him. Same with coffee drinking.

You would do better just sugaring his water for more intake, leave out the tea.

[Critter]

My old mare won’t drink in her stall…she only drinks from the outside tubs. So making sure they are de-iced in the morning…and lately I have to go out and break the ice again 1-2 times during the day for her.

We add hot water to grain…and the old girl gets soaked hay cubes twice a day (if the water tub is cold enough to freeze). I extra soak them, so they are a bit of cubes, and lots of warm water. She loves that…more than grain!! That has helped a lot.

[Libby2563]

My horses love it when I fill the buckets with plain old warm water. They will typically drink most of a bucket right off the bat. No additives necessary, lucky me!