Boredom?

[MiniNHF]

I will be calling the vet later today to get her opinion but I wanted to see if any one had any thoughts around this or has experienced this before with their mini.

We have been noticing for a past few weeks that my boy has been drinking water like he has just taken a trip across the sahara; you put water infront of him and he will drink almost the whole thing in no time.

Now he has been attacking the mineral block like it is his job, and he had an epoisode about 2 weeks ago from eating shavings.

I dont know if this is boredom or an underlying problem. He was field boarded when I first got him for a year until my big horse passed on April 1st and probablly 3 days after I started stall boarding him. This isnt the first time he has been full boarded, he was stalled for at least a year before I got him so this isnt a new scenerio for him.

He gets regular exercise and is turned out in a small paddock vs being out in a big field. He was fine when he was field boarded and never hung around the water or anything of that nature. But he was very active in aggrivating my big horse and the two smaller gypsys out there with him.

He is not losing weight, not acting weird, and his work outs are not any different as in decrease of energy, sweating alot etc.

I was thinking about adding electrolytes to his water since he is on a consistant work out schedule for the show season and see if that would help and even maybe putting a ball in his stall to mess around with, if it is infact just boredom.

 

[targetsmom]

I would check with a vet as it does not sound like boredom to me - not the excessive drinking you describe. But if he is attacking the mineral block like you say, that will cause him to be thirsty. We had to take the mineral block away from one of ours and add salt to his feed because he was attacking it. Please let us know what the vet says and good luck! Hope it is not serious. Toys in the stall sounds like a plan. How much turnout does he get?

 

[MiniNHF]

I talked to the vet and she said she isnt highly concerned since as you said he most likely is drinking more because of the mineral block and there is not else abnormal going on. I was thinking about removing the mineral block and putting electrolytes in his water or feed as we use to do my big horse.

Was going to put a toy in his stall but I couldnt find anything small enough at my local tack stores as far as jolly balls or anything of that nature,so I will probably have to order it.

Turnout I would say a few hours a day plus getting exercised be it with other horses in a round pen or one on one with myself. He is a very curious and visual horse so I think he just needs to be stimulated 24/7 like he was out in field board, I mean he had 3 horses to pick on lol

 

[targetsmom]

We hang empty gallon (or 1/2 gallon) plastic milk jugs on stall dividers so the horses can play with them. They seem to like anything that makes noise, so sometimes we put small rocks in them. We know they use them because we can hear them over the baby monitor and then we will find one on the floor with the baling twine broken, Black rubber dishes (any size) are also popular.

 

[MiniNHF]

thats a good idea, he does like to fling his buckets off the hooks when they are empty. No matter what hooks etc we try to use he still gets them off someway.

His personality and what he does is exactly like his dad, its like watching a mirror image in the barn its to funny.

 

[disneyhorse]

My pony has been a "water cribber" his whole life. I ran two blood/urine tests to rule out medical conditions. He just likes to drink water until he feels super full. Per my vet, he has his water rationed. Been rationing his water for years and no colic. So it could be from boredom if he is predisposed to that sort of thing.

 

[MiniNHF]

Ive never had one do this before honestly, and all my horses were either eventers or show jumpers. I just never had a "bored" horse before lol, he just seems to get into everything and has to be doing something all the time.

 

[madmax]

If it were my horse, I would take away his salt block for a couple of days and see if he is still drinking that much water. It will not hurt him to not have his block available for 2 days. Then take a hammer and break off a chunk of the block, enough for his to lick and not bite, and give him that smaller piece and see what he does with it. During days of rain here, my blocks were being ruined and melting away, so I began giving the guys a fresh chunk each day instead of the whole thing, they were happy with that.

Is he reacting to the change of not having his big guy around anymore? Is your boy a gelding or intact?

 

[MiniNHF]

If it were my horse, I would take away his salt block for a couple of days and see if he is still drinking that much water. It will not hurt him to not have his block available for 2 days. Then take a hammer and break off a chunk of the block, enough for his to lick and not bite, and give him that smaller piece and see what he does with it. During days of rain here, my blocks were being ruined and melting away, so I began giving the guys a fresh chunk each day instead of the whole thing, they were happy with that.

Is he reacting to the change of not having his big guy around anymore? Is your boy a gelding or intact?

Yeah he is biting at it as soon as they put a new one in there which I thought was odd. I am going there tonight so I might suggest that to see if thats the case; if so we may resort to breaking it into chunks for him so he cant go buck wild with it.

I know he was very angry when we first put him inside, I think for the first week he was very cranky; I think the loss did effect him to a point, i would think they formed a bond being that they were together for a year and I always groomed them together and what not; they got along so well, i think my big horse thought it was his baby lol.

He is a stallion right now, future may be different.

 

[chandab]

My stallion is a busy boy. He loves his Jolly Apple, but not hanging, its on the ground and he rolls it around his pen off and on all day long. I got him a Nose-It treat ball and put some hay pellets in it every morning, he loves it. My APHA mare had a real oral fixation about things when she was younger, still somewhat to this day, but she's out to pasture so not as much of a problem; she loved her Pacifer toy, it's a rotating toy you attach to a stall wall or corner (might not work in a boarding situation, depending on the barn owner); http://www.bigdweb.com/PACIFIER-FOR-HORSES/productinfo/8565/ I'm sure they are available many places, but this was the first I saw when I googled.

 

[targetsmom]

I wonder if this can be related to ulcers? Sounds like he has been under stress. Our boy that went after his salt/mineral block had ulcers. Maybe a slow hay feeder would help? Digestive supplement?? Just tossing out ideas..

 

[Marty]

I would also remove his salt from his stall. Mine would do the same thing if I left it in there.

Just from what you wrote, I think he is telling you he wants to graze. I think he really misses the way things used to be. Grazing time is key.

 

[MiniNHF]

I talked to the barn owner last night when I went to check on him and work him out. She believes this is all out of character for him (since she is the breeder, she would know before I got him), she is leaning towards he might be grieving over Max and he is showing it by stress and not depression (when max lost his colt buddy, when he was let out into the field he would stand in the corner with his head down and not move all day other than to eat a little and drink). I do not treat him any differently then when I had Max but im sure he can sense a void there and like most animals they feed off their owners emotions etc. so maybe that troubles him on top of grieving since its really only been over a month or so since the loss.

He is eating everything that we put in front of him and he is bright and alert, which is good, but today she is going to start him on meds/supplements for ulcers to see if that improves his state. With the lost of his buddy and then getting moved back into a full board setting might have sent his nerves through the roof. I am sure he misses being out with the other horses he was with but even if he was still out with the two gypsy's they would be gone in a month for training so he would be on his own for a good long while.

But all good suggestions for keeping his attention on "toys" vs everything else constantly, I will definitely look into them all.

 

[MiniNHF]

Just to follow up on this topic. I finally got to see what my boy does in action and just to give you a back story before it happened.

I did about a 20 min round pen session with him, nothing to exerting, more or less bending etc and he wasnt even real sweaty and what not since it was a cooler day then normal (it was cooler in the barn then outside).

After I was done I spend about 1-2 hours grooming, shaving and cleaning him up and within this 3 hours his stall was done and a fresh bucket put in and so on.

Well I put him in his stall and walked to the tack room real quick to lay down some items and went back to his stall and when I got there, the bucket of water was bone dry and he was bloated from drinking the water so fast and the muscles in his legs were quivering.

Course I paniced a little bit and got him immediately out of his stall and outside to move him around. Well he was acting like nothing had happened and acting like his normal stallion self. I made him at least keep a walk around me and trotted if he wanted to and his stomach went slowly down and his shaking stopped by the time I walked him into the barn after 20 mins. I suspected the coldness of the water dropped his body temperature to make him cold since he just downed the entire bucket.

I let him graze for about 15 mins after he seemed to have calmed down and then make sure he had something to munch on in his stall and not to eat shavings. Also gave him something in case his stomach bothered him after I left. Never got a phone call after I left so thats a good thing.

We are thinking at this point the only thing we can do is limit his water to half of that a few times a day.

Has anyone else seen a horse do this?

The barn owners said they had a boarders filly do the same thing a time back and just had to limit how much and when she got water during the course of a day so she didnt do the same thing.

Im thinking he is still emotionally a little off but im not sure what to do with him to make him stop. Im just worried about him even though he is acting healthy and alert. He is eating everything they put infront of him and we put him on flaxseed and stomach ulcer medcine just to be safe a week before he did this episode when I was there.

 

[Pam Crise]

Years ago our Arab started drinking very excessive amounts of water. Long story short - after no answers from the vets we went to a nutritionist who asked if it had started with a change of hay. It had. She said to try changing his hay - that the new probably had too much calcium or potassium. A hay change solved the problem. It was the same type just from a different source.

 

[madmax]

after his workout and when you were grooming him, did you give him some water in that 2 hour time frame?

 

[Marty]

Look at the time line here:

I'm still going back to when this horse was happy, before all this water episode began. He was pastured. Now there is a change and a consequence. He is getting exercised and has a paddock. Not the same thing and also his friend is gone. Not saying I pasture my own horses 24-7 I do not. But they still are grazers and that is what they need to do at least part of the time. I think this is a great candidate for a horse that needs a run in situation or stall that opens up into a pasture where he can come in and out as he pleases and you can shut the door when you don't want him out. I'd relocate him to a situation more like that and I'll bet problem be solved.

 

[MiniNHF]

Years ago our Arab started drinking very excessive amounts of water. Long story short - after no answers from the vets we went to a nutritionist who asked if it had started with a change of hay. It had. She said to try changing his hay - that the new probably had too much calcium or potassium. A hay change solved the problem. It was the same type just from a different source.

Well his hay did change from a large round bale to what they have in the small bales. But his grain did change to going from I guess you can call it run of the mill grain that everyone gets outside to grain they are getting when they are training and showing with supplements.

after his workout and when you were grooming him, did you give him some water in that 2 hour time frame?

I offered him a little bit because I knew how he was with water and he did get kind of crabby when I had to pull his head out of the bucket and took it away from him.

Look at the time line here:

I'm still going back to when this horse was happy, before all this water episode began. He was pastured. Now there is a change and a consequence. He is getting exercised and has a paddock. Not the same thing and also his friend is gone. Not saying I pasture my own horses 24-7 I do not. But they still are grazers and that is what they need to do at least part of the time. I think this is a great candidate for a horse that needs a run in situation or stall that opens up into a pasture where he can come in and out as he pleases and you can shut the door when you don't want him out. I'd relocate him to a situation more like that and I'll bet problem be solved.

I know he is unhappy in his own way, he was in a small nit group of only 4 of them. There is a large group there that were only supposed to be temporary while the boarders barn was being built but since we had such bad weather up here in the north its taking 10xs longer. There is a large paddock he could be turned out in with a run it but it has young colts in there right now from that group. Once they leave and the gypsys leave for training everyone can be shifted around again, so until then we may just have to improvise. I cant really complain about his care, he gets round the clock care and attention from them; the owners job is the farm.

I was at the tack shop last night getting some things and I did talk to the girls there about it, course they never heard that before, but had a suggestion I might try and thats to put a floating ball in his bucket, kind of like you would do for a horse that rushes his feet by putting something in there for them to move around to get the feed. Might be a temp solution until he can get even more outside time.

I know everyone is different with their horses in turn outs ect. I always let them out either all day or all night depending on the season and then all stall boards came in for the day or night depending when my parents had their large farm.

 

[disneyhorse]

How did you monitor his water when he was out on pasture?

 

[MiniNHF]

He never did this went he was outside at all and they had an auto waterer out in that field; never bloated or acted funny. All started probably two weeks after we brought him in and started to stall board him again.

I know the barn last night did take away his mineral block so he isnt sitting there just chewing it and going to supplement it with something else. Right now they are monitoring his water intake and we are trying the ball in the bucket idea to see if that slows him down.