Keep horses safe during this hard winter

[Minimor]

Trust me -as long as the water isn't

Boiling, the hot will stay ice free longer than cold will. Goodness Knows I have hauled enough hot water out to know. Set a pail of cold and a pail of hot out side by side and in this weather the cold one will ice up almost immediately, the hot is good for an hour or so. My hot water tank is set on high so the water is scalding hot but obviously not boiling.

If the weather isn't too cold I leave water out and then scoop the ice out and add hot to warm it up. Last night I had to empty everything--it was about 26 below with a windchill of about 40 below--this morning I watered everyone (that wanted to drink) with warm water. I will take warm water out again tonight; those that didn't want any this morning will most likely drink tonight. Some of them never drink much, a few will drink almost the whole pail. It is very annoying when I haul out 20 pails and end up dumping half of it because no one was thirsty.

 

[lucky seven]

This is an update, the vet was out twice on Thursday to see Seven and to do exrays. His stifle is okay, but he is showing founder in one hind hoof and one front hoof. He is on stall rest and my vet has taken him off all grain. Since I do have a scale, I'm weighing his hay, he can have 7 pounds a day. It was pretty scary since Seven couldn't stand, he was down on Wed night when I checked on him before bed, I just thought he was resting but was still down in the morning. He did get up but was in bad shape. The exrays show that he foundered sometime before I purchased him as a 3 yo. I will know more when the blood tests get back in a few weeks. I think if I ever buy another horse, I will insist that my vet be allowed to do exrays of the feet.

 

[Little Wolf Ranch]

I haven't read all the posts but to keep him drinking you can give him a little bit of soaked beet pulp or alfalfa pellets with a teaspoon of table salt top dressed on it to encourage him to drink more.

 

[lucky seven]

Thanks I'm watching how much he is drinking, he was given an IV during the first visit because he was dehydrated.

 

[Renolizzie]

Your poor little horse.

 

[Marty]

I'm so very sorry to hear about your little guy. Darn that founder. Control the pain to get inflammation down is key to stabilize him. Lots of other things you can do too. Best wishes.

 

[amysue]

So sorry to hear about your baby. Founder sux. Always have a vet check done before you buy a horse. If founder isn't recent, many vets can spot it even without x rays. The x rays will better let you know how sound the horse is/can be. Sometimes I bring a shoer friend of mine to look at a horse, as if I am not sure about the horse, I do not want to schedule extra appts. With the seller or give false hope thatbim going to buy the horse. He can look at hooves and usually tell right away if they're foundered and I usually dont bother with x rays since I wont buy one with founder. Good luck.

 

[lucky seven]

Blood tests came back okay, he is still on bute but moving much better. He's even getting a bit testy with me sometimes which is getting more normal for him. So far he's not asking to go outside which is a good thing with the storms coming. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will both get over this small hurdle. We caught the problem early so he should be just fine.