Not drinking in cold weather.....

[bertie666]

My two are starting to worry me a bit, impaction colic at the back of my mind - anyone elses refusing water?!

I took tepid down this morning from home, had to lift it over 2 5 bar gates as the padlock froze , and they wouldnt go near it

Level hasnt dropped at all when I went back tonight and the trough is frozen so solid me jumping in it did nothing so I know they havnt had any from there.

Obviously theyre getting hay, is -8 here and there is snow on the ground but iv not seen them ingesting that either grr.

[KoLaTo]

I have the same problem with my smallest pony, I have to resort to warm mollassed water, it is the only way to get fluid down him in this weather and trust me i tried everything else before resorting to this.

He actually got quite badly dehydrated 2 yrs ago when we had minus temperatures for 3 wks solid, tried everything but he wouldn't drink until i tried the mollasses.......

[bertie666]

Someone suggested putting a carton of apple juice in the water - will try them tomorrow

How long does a bottle of molasses keep? Ive had one for a couple of years now lol - still ok to use?!

[KoLaTo]

I tried apple juice, didn't work, my molasses bottle is over 3 yrs old now and i've just got it out tonight ready for the morning, goes totally against the grain for me as they don't have sugar in their diets but needs must in emergencies.

The only other thing i did at the time but haven't got any this yr is really sloppy Fibrebeet or Speedibeet for his dinner, that got a it more fluid down him but the molasses water was superb, he waits for you to fill his bucket bouncing from foot to foot and will drink the whole lot down in one go - LOL!

Proper sugar hit!

[bertie666]

haha does he then bounce round the field by any chance??

I know what you mean against the grain - I'm being so strict over hay rations etc trying to get weight off the fatty I bought in summer - to give them sugar water is like AAARRRGGHH but needs must when the devil drives

[taklishim]

I'm using warm molassed water for some and it's such a small quantity of molasses it hardly matters. The others are getting warm water with bicarb of soda in it.

[KoLaTo]

He doesn't need any encouragement to bounce.........he is the original Tigger pony - LOL!

Banned from carrots for life he is and anything else that resembles sugar in any form or has too many E's in it.

And i feel your pain re rationing hay, i absolutely cannot ad-lib mine so their hay is double fine netted to eek it out as long as possible at the moment until it defrosts a bit as i do actually have some grass left under the snow but considering the amount due over the weekend, i can't see it defrosting any time soon...........

Heyho, rather hay them than grass any day of the year to be honest, at least i know how much they are eating - paranoid me? Not much...................

[BJMM]

I worried last year that mine weren't drinking enough, so warmed some water and put molasses in. Blaze gulped down a bucketful. Jas got hold of the bucket rim........... and tipped the entire contents over her head!! The molasses I used was quite old. I think it goes 'granular' when it's past it's best.
This year they seem to be drinking a lot more.

[bertie666]

I howled at the image of Jas tipping it over her head - thats the sort of thing Whin does, then glares at me as if to say how dare you do that to me!

Bi carb of soda - what does that do? Brain blank, long day, sorry!

[ba]

You could give them very wet feeds, do they drink if stabled overnight? Mine isn't drinking in the day but is drinking out of his stable water bucket a bit. He also gets a very sloppy breakfast and dinner.

[Hannah]

Very sloppy sugar beet?

[maislow]

I would make them a soupy warm feed twice a day & also put apple juice in the water

[Pony-Nutt]

When mine did that few years ago I took a clean shovel up and shovelled loads of clean snow onto the haylage so that they took some in with every mouthful.
We have no snow at all

[taklishim]

Jan 16, 2013 22:06:54 GMT 1 bertie666 said:

I

Bi carb of soda - what does that do? Brain blank, long day, sorry!

bicarb is sodium hydrogen carbonate. I started feeding it to one of my barefoot horses last spring and it made him exceptionally sound. I started feeding it to see if it dealt with acidity and was amazed at the difference in soundness.

I then found Tom Boywer one of the DAEP's was doing the same with his clients except I was giving it in a feed and he was dissolving it to allow them to self medicate.

I thought I would try the others on a bucket not expecting them to want it but out of 9 eight were killing for it every night. They preferred it to molasses or anything else. Strangely the one wanting it the most was a feral hill pony mare who had just come to live with us. She had lived on the common all her life.

I backed off when the summer ended but continued with one who drinks it everyday. When the cold weather started some of the others decided they wanted that instead of molassed water.

There were long discussions on the phoenix group as to why they drank it and it may be that it is simply a different form of salt.
Anyway I reckoned it was better for any that would drink it than molasses.
bit of a long explanation I'm afraid.

ps around 90p on the baking counter at Tesco and it is sodium bicarb not baking powder. I buy it in large quanties which is a lot cheaper.
I feed a good 15ml scoop to around a third/half a 3 gall. bucket of warm water. They love it or don't want to know.

[bertie666]

Cheers Taklishim I shall pick some up and try!

Apple juice was sniffed at and ignored, bucket kicked over in Whins case GRRR, so tried molasses - armana straight in and drank the entire trug, whin I had to coat the sides of the bucket in it before she got the idea then she only drank a 3rd, try again tonight.