Salt , yay or neigh ?

henmother

henmother

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Hello, just looking for some advice about feeding salt. When I bring my boy in for his daily hello ,groom and check he always heads straight for his salt lick. He will have salt , them chomp his hay, then salt again. He tries to bite it too. I've read that people feed salt , in varying amounts. Not sure if I should start putting some in a feed ? Do you feed salt? If so how much? He is a 15.2 HW 5yo cob. He isn't being worked , not allowed to ride until November. Thank you.
 
Thanks Frankie :) do you feed anything other than the balancer? I wonder if I should start feeding it? He gets a scoop of garlic/seaweed and some carrots with linseed oil, will add the salt to that. Do I need sea salt / table salt ?
 
Garlic isnt a good idea! Its not good for tummies etc. Seaweed is even worse! Its got far too much iodine in it, which is not good for horses. Your better of feeding a decent balancer, I feed prohoof which is pretty economical. I add linseed, salt, brewers yeast, and mag chloride. Yours doesnt have compromised feetor sweet itch like mine, so a decent balancer, some linseed and a big dose of salt should suffice :) I'd add extra magnesium when the grass is flushing as well
 
I've read conflicting arguments for garlic, about is causing Heinz anaemia but the quantities it was fed in to cause the anaemia where huge. There seems to be more pro's than cons. The seaweed is for his hooves, he had his shoes took off , farrier says he has great hooves but I just wanted to give him something to help him through the transition. I think I'm going to get a sack of linseed when the linseed oil is finished. Thankyou FC , just want to make sure he has what he needs, although come November it's all going to change, I'm sure he thinks his job is to eat grass and find clarty puddles to roll in ;)

Will feed him good old fashioned what goes on my fish & chips salt, thanks spookypony.
 
The issue with garlic is the problems it can cause with their stomachs. Issues with digestion cause issues with their feet, anaemia issues aside. Seaweed will also not be good for his feet. In fact in most cases its detrimental. I doubt yours will have many problems transitioning, but it will be better all round to feed a no iron balancer with added magnesium when needed. Linseed oil is an expensive and not very effective way to feed it. Micronised linseed it cheaper and better :) Brewers yeast is at least as good as garlic at keeping flies away etc and has the added benefit of being good for them :)

Mine gets bog standard 15p a packet salt :)
 
Agree with the micronised linseed, done amazing things for my lads feet, for sweetitch try spirulina. Forageplus sell it.Salt, mine gets a good squirt in his feed, good ol fashioned 29p bottle of it :)
 
Garlic is a natural antibacterial, so has the potential to decimate the gut bacteria. If you must feed it (and so far as I know there is no good reason to) then at least feed a good probiotic to top up the enzymes.
Mine get 2 tbspns of salt, it is the necessary carrier to get water into cells, which is essential for proper function of those cells.
 
Someone remind me the point of feeding garlic again?

Yes I add salt. It may do some good but at the quantities we feed it can't do any harm.
 
mine won't eat salt in any form, won't touch her dinner with salt in, never touches a salt lick!
Should I be worried or does she not need it! I know they are pretty good at sourcing and eating things that they need.
She does have large roaming area to graze with different plants and trees.
 
Garlic, after reading my books on horse nutrition. ...
It is an anti bacterial herb that is rich in sulphur , b vitamins and trace minerals. It is a valuable broad spectrum herb for maintaining health and condition but it is especially useful when a horse us suffering from respiratory disorders, blood problems , laminitis, sweet itch and as a fly repellant in the summer.
The book was published in 97 , would the information now be out of date? I have another book , I'm old school and prefer to read up in books. I have another which as well as stating the above....

Again, this has not been scientifically proven but many owners are convinced that they have seen an improvement...

As with a lot of methods in the horse world, people have differing opinions and it's difficult to decide which is right sometimes. It seems even when you are trying to do right, you are doing wrong. I appreciate everyone's opinion. Thankyou.
 
I think if you want to feed garlic, maybe just add to feed once a week, def not everyday as recent studies show that too much can make horse anaemic as said in prev posts....
It is difficult to get the balance correct in horses diet..:)
 
henmother said:
Garlic, after reading my books on horse nutrition. ...
It is an anti bacterial herb that is rich in sulphur , b vitamins and trace minerals. It is a valuable broad spectrum herb for maintaining health and condition but it is especially useful when a horse us suffering from respiratory disorders, blood problems , laminitis, sweet itch and as a fly repellant in the summer.
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garlic has shown some stimulatory effect on human immune systems, it's never been properly tested in horses afaik. apart from anything else its an alium which are toxic to horses, dogs and cats and thats a good enough reason for me not to feed it. I've never seen any evidence of it as a fly repellant-I used to groom for an unfortunate horse who's nutso owner would feed a bulb a day (yes, you read that right-imagine mucking that out with a hangover :D and I love garlic!) and she suffered with flies the same as any other dark horse on the yard.

as for it being antibacterial, why are 'you' wanting to kill off bacteria? we need them-your horse certainly needs them (a large proportion of manure is actually bacteria, something like 50% of the dry weight!). You only want to kill off bad bacteria when your horse has an infection and there are plenty of clinically trialled, safe and efficacious antibiotics to achieve that.
 
Garlic is absolutely not recommended for sweet itch. I cant remember all the details now, but its something to do with making the immune system respond harder. When I get chance tomorrow I'l dig up the research, but you couldnt pay me to feed it to a horse :)
 
FrankieCob said:
Garlic is absolutely not recommended for sweet itch. I cant remember all the details now, but its something to do with making the immune system respond harder. When I get chance tomorrow I'l dig up the research, but you couldnt pay me to feed it to a horse :)
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given that Si is an overreaction by the immune system, it's not a leap to then not feed the horse something that might stimulate the immune system even more. I know two veterinary hisotpathologists who can tell by looking at samples of hooves and nails (dogs) that they've been fed garlic so there are effects sub clinically. so a degree of subclinical anaemia wouldn't be out of the question. Basically the possible negatives far outweigh the possible and somewhat dubious positives for me to think about feeding it.
 
Ah! So basically, give 'em garlic once a week with the now popular turmeric and pepper... Friday night curry!!!!
 
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