Bedding/Mucking Out advice for very wet mare

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PopStrop

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My little filly seems to wee for England
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Being a mini, you'd think she'd produce less wee then a big horse, but it would appear that's not the case.
She's on rubber matting & shavings (Bedmax - which I'm not fond of but is provided by yard) and has a "normal size bed" which is probably 2/3 ins thick. She gets mucked out by YO in the morning whilst turned out, comes in about half 3 (and promptly wees - I think she saves it up for the stable
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), then I go up about half 5 and do another full muck out, and again when she's put back in her stable the first thing she does is wee. She's using 2 new bales a week sometimes.
Yesterday she stayed in due to weather, was mucked out am, droppings removed pm and then when I went up at half 5 her bed was sopping and we ended up removing most of it and putting another bale & half in.

Has anyone got any suggestions on the best way of managing a really wet horse?
I'm looking into wood pellets to either mix with shavings or put a layer underneath the shavings, are they as good as they sound?
Do you find it easier to deep litter, semi-DL or full muck out wet horses, and do they stay dryer/cleaner on a deep bed or fairly thin bed?

Any advice much appreciated
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P.S She doesn't drink excessively, just seems to soak her bed with urine. She also has very wet, obvious, dirty seasons, I think she's just a filthy filly
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Only bedding that copes with Farra, our clydie mare is megazorb. She is on rubber mats and the back half of the stable was started with 4 bags to give a decent thickness and we use between 1 - 1/2 bags a week.

In fairness to megazorb, you should not need that much on mats, but Farra being a large girl can pee gallons daily.

We just skip poo off the top during the week and every second week pick out the worst of the wet. Top up with half a bag every two - three days.

On shavings she had to have the whole bed taken out daily and we used 2 bales of shavings a week.

Megazorb really does soak up the wet and saves me a lot of time and backache.

I used it when I had Chancer as a yearling - he was horrible, again only thing that worked was megazorb. Luckily now he pees in one place and poos at the back of the stable so can stay on shavings.
 
My filly has been on box rest for 10 months so I'm very well practiced at mucking out! so far the best thing I have found is Nedz bed (chopped rape straw) for soaking up the pee (mine too pees for britain!)

I mix it with some aubiose / hemcore / eazibed to give it a bit of weight as it is quite light and disturbs easily otherwise... try it, I think you'l be pleasantly suprised. generally I remove pee daily, although if it isn't showing near the surface I will leave it til the next day...
 
oh and I go through a bag of each a week (filly in 24/7 pretty much) but have a feeling I'll be able to go through much less once a bed is properly established... (only been trying this a couple of weeks)
 
i dont know for sure, but i would say semi deep litter, take out the droppings and the very wet and then mix it up and the damp stuff dries if on top, or on top of banks!
and give it a good muck out and put clean in at weekends?
xxx
 
The BedMax is a large flake shavings.

The reason I was looking at wood pellets is a lot are advertised as 4 X more absorbent than shavings, so was thinking I could make a base out of wood pellets with shavings on top/banks and semi-deep litter. Was looking specifically at Woody Pet - http://www.woodypet.co.uk/bedding.htm.

I can't find megazorb locally and don't want to order 100+ bales (the only way I can get it delivered) in case that doesn't work either!
Will look up NedzBedz as well.
I don't know how YO is about buying in other beddings, only been there 3 months & when I looked around was told "shavings £much and straw £much." Storage isn't a problem, I can do that at home and take a couple of bales a day in the car, just don't know if YO is likely to be p*ssed off about it?!

Have just spoken to local saddlery who stock shavings and hemcore - is this any more absorbent than shavings does anyone know?
 
I've got a very wet connie on bedmax and rubber mats.

I use a layer of shredded paper under the bedmax where he pees.
This is very absorbant and the mats dry rapidly once its lifted (every day).

But you do have to be careful how you handle the paper - one gust of wind and the whole yard could be covered!
 
Ive just bought a pallet load of Nature's Pet wood pellets for a very wet mare with foal at foot. Started with 12 bags in a big stable with rubber mats. It's been down a week, is better than the previous bedding but still very wet and still taking lots out !

I'm giving up and gonna keep rabbits instead !!!
 
I have trained both our horses (one a mare and the other a gelding) who are on rubber mats to wee into a bucket. One wees to a whistle and the other to a long drawn out "gooood girl". It works 90% of the time and makes such a difference to the amount of bedding you need to use. Yr mare would seem to be an ideal candidate to try this with as she sounds like she wees at specific times. I started by simply waiting and catching the wee quietly in a bucket tipped slightly so it doesn't splash or make too much noise and make the appropriate whistle. Repeat this until they wee when you do the whistle. A bit like pavlov's dog!! It might sound daft but I have saved loads of time mucking out and on bedding by doing this. All our horses have come round to this way except one who I had to give up on as he got nervous retention when he saw me with my bucket in hand. Good luck with your mare.
 
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I have trained both our horses (one a mare and the other a gelding) who are on rubber mats to wee into a bucket.... Yr mare would seem to be an ideal candidate to try this with as she sounds like she wees at specific times.

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If BB2 hadn't said this I was going to. Your mare is doing you a favour with her regular habits! Don't be too proud to dash under with a bucket as soon as she spreads her back legs ... it saves so much bedding, and bedding is £££!

I have my mare on deep litter Aubiose and the bed is currently at least 6 inches, more around the edges and towards the back. All the wet gets locked at the bottom. You have to resist the urge to dig and just leave it undisturbed. Just take out the poo each day. The top stays dry and it doesn't small. It's great. You need to put it down deep enough at the start. It also saves my back and is really quick to do every day.

I just chuck another bale on top every 7-10 days.
 
Wow - that is such a good idea BB2! Will definately give it a go.

I think Hemcore is basically the same as Aubiose, so am going to speak to YO and see if she's ok with me semi deep littering & buying in own bedding.
Sounds like the way forward.

Thankyou all for your advice
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hemcore and Aubiose are the same thing just different manufacturers - and in my opinion are far better than shavings. It takes a while to work out what works best for your horse but I find semi deep litter works well for me. If I leave the wet in too long it just turns the bed into a smelly mess. I go through the same number of bags whether I deep litter or not.

If you can get hold of nedz bed. try it!!
 
I like Auboise but not the price i used it once at a Trainers yard for a few weeks & it was fab stuff.

At home i use Shavings with Nature's best underneith then mats. My disgusting TB seems to be much better on this combination. But if i put him on just one of the 2 i end up having to strip the bed out every other day it gets that wet.

I normally put one or the other on every other week. So it is working out cheeper for me than it was.

I also make sure the bed is kept deep.
 
I just started using this bedding too - i love it though! only take out the REALLY wet stuff and mix the rest in with the dry - it dries out!! I think its fab, my new horse is a proper clat and shavings just aren't an option
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My gelding pees for England and I have him on shavings using one bale a week. I never mover the banks and all the edges are deep littered, I just take out the middle as and when I need to. I also try and catch his wees if I can, luckily he now wees the the field when i go and catch him so this helps a fair bit.

I have a mare on woody pet and tried him on it, woody pet is only economical if you leave the wet in and he was too wet for me to do this so I switched him back to shavings.

He is on rubber matting and shavings and his bed is at least 6 inches deep if not more at the back (his stable is huge).
 
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